bare-knuckle britons and fighting irish

Reviewed by Emily Ruth Rutter, Ball State University

10 august 2018 archive

In his detailed account of bare-knuckle prizefighting, historian Adam Chill attends to both the British nationalist and subversive agendas within a sport that included fighters of Anglo, Irish, Jewish, and African descent. In each of the book's eight chapters, Chill skillfully links historical periods of British crises, both at home and abroad, with developments within prizefighting, showing that the bare-knuckle boxing arena was a sociocultural site upon which hegemonic and countervailing forces sparred over much more than the match at hand. Along the way, Chill showcases a pantheon of pugilists who rose to prominence during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many of whom were legends in their day but have become obscure in ours. Drawing on newspapers for its primary sources, this well-researched study thus offers a social history of bare-knuckle prizefighting with glimpses of the figures and developments in the sport which remain stitched into contemporary boxing culture.

In chapter 1, Chill points out that bare-knuckle fighting developed alongside English nationalism, which became increasingly linked to aggressive masculinity. Alongside an early history of the venues for and growing interest in the sport among the English gentry, Chill notes that prizefighting became an arena not only for fortifying conceptions of English superiority but also for challenging them with an influx of Jewish and Irish competitors entering the ring.

Chapter 2 outlines the connection between English gentlemen's commitment to prizefighting and a pervasive anxiety about British fortitude, catalyzed by the loss of the American colonies, as well as strife in both Ireland and England itself. Within this context, Chill argues, male aristocrats became increasingly attracted to the displays of masculinity in the prizefighting arena, where Irish and Jewish fighters, especially the pioneering pugilist Daniel Mendoza, and their fans were simultaneously using the ring to contest denigrating discourses circulating about their inferiority.

With the French Revolution as its backdrop, chapter 3 outlines the shoring up of the relationship between prizefighting and British identity. Chill demonstrates that the early sporting press, led by newspaper publishers John Bell and John Wheble, played a key role in promoting the sport as a bulwark against the rebellion underway in neighboring France, which was attributed to a pervasive "effeminacy" among the aristocrats as opposed to the purported manliness of the British gentry. Thus, when Daniel Mendoza was defeated by "Gentleman" John Jackson, the sporting press heralded him as an embodiment of British manhood, suggesting the links between commercial promotion, the media, and ethnic identity developed during late-eighteenth-century British prizefighting that remain embedded in the culture of boxing today.

In chapter 4, Chill develops this argument further in his discussion of the connection between the British conflict with Napoleonic France (1803-1812) and prizefighters, who were cast by the sporting press and fans as surrogates for either heroic British soldiers or, if they were black, Jewish, or Irish, the nation's foes. British spectators and the press were often hostile to minority pugilists, while "Dutch Sam" Elias, Jack O'Donnell, Bill Ryan, Dan Dougherty, Bill Richmond, and others resisted their degradation by trying to best their WASP opponents. For example, born a slave on Staten Island, New York, and later emancipated in England, Richmond became the first prominent black boxer, later training and promoting the legendary Tom Molineaux, whose unfortunate loss to Tom Cribb was interpreted by much of the British public as affirmation of "the superiority of British manhood" (97).

In chapter 5, which focuses on the postwar years of 1812-1823, Chill outlines the ways in which the rise of professional writers and boxers shifted the prizefighting landscape from one largely funded and managed by the British aristocracy to one fueled by popular, commercial interests. In some respects, minority pugilists benefitted from this shift because they now had more agency to both challenge ethnic caricatures and/or underscore their shared British values. Prizefighting, in other words, was now part of the popular culture of the United Kingdom with periodicals like Boxiana and Pancratia promulgating the supposed link between the sport and "a mythical and timeless manly British character" (103), while implying at least the possibility that black, Irish, and Jewish fighters could also embody these values. For example, Irish fighter Jack Randall became a prominent figure during the 1920s, paving the way for Dan Donnelly and others. As this chapter likewise shows, promotional rhetoric about whose ethnic identity reigned supreme was a crucial way for the sport to maintain its commercial appeal.

Chapter 6 then offers a case study of the Irish Catholic Jack Langan, who gained wealth and prominence by fighting (and in fact losing to) English Champion Tom Spring in two highly publicized bouts. Set against the backdrop of the Catholic Emancipation campaign led by Daniel O'Connell, this chapter serves to both recuperate Langan, who Chill notes has received scant sociohistorical attention especially as compared to Tom Molineaux and Daniel Mendoza, and to demonstrate the continued interlacing of ethnic identity and prizefighting in order to maintain popular interest in the sport.

In chapter 7, Chill suggests that the economic crises of the late 1820s created an environment which was increasingly hostile to minority pugilists, as well as to bare-knuckle prizefighting more generally. This was also the age of social reform, with amplified pressures on the British gentry to discontinue their support for what many viewed as a barbarous sport. In this context, the Pugilistic Club and the Fair Play Club dissolved, and minority fighters were portrayed by the press as embodiments of the savagery of Britain's "others." At the same time, this period ushered in innovations in transportation and communication that increased national interest in matches, and a more theatrical style was developed by minority fighters to increase revenue.

Chill's eighth chapter surveys the British prizefighting landscape during the Victorian period, when the sport enjoyed a brief expansion not only throughout England but also in Australia and America. While the sporting press was often derisive of black, Jewish, and Irish fighters, Chill recuperates their development of the sport during the middle-to-late nineteenth century, especially showcasing the ways in which the promotional tactics of early minority fighters like Mendoza and Molineaux were exploited by their successors, such as the Moroccan-born James Wharton, the African American immigrant Thomas Sutton, the Jewish Israel Lazarus, and the Irish William Gill (although he associated himself with Coventry, not Ireland).

By the end of the nineteenth century, Chill concludes, bare-knuckle prizefighting had fallen into cultural obscurity, but many of its elements were adapted into Queensberry Rules boxing. Whereas the national mythology then (and perhaps now) effaced the significant role minority pugilists played in shaping British prizefighting, Chill's book offers an important corrective. In particular, he chronicles the ways in which prizefighters used their bodies (especially their bare hands) to put the lie to the racist and xenophobic beliefs that underpinned British national identity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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