Antebellum Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Guy A. Cardwell

Critical Essay by Guy A. Cardwell

SOURCE: Cardwell, Guy A. “The Duel in the Old South: Crux of a Concept.” South Atlantic Quarterly 66 (1967): 50-69.

In the following essay, Cardwell presents the subject of dueling as an important element in the “aristocratic” culture of the Old South, one frequently treated by writers of the period.

I

The idea of the gentleman assumes the existence of class distinctions and often assumes as well that gentlemen, men superior in courtesy and courage, are privileged to engage in extralegal mutual slaughter according to a code. Dueling seems never to have gone unchallenged, however. In America, where street affrays and Western shoot-outs were the only kinds of “duel” to survive the Civil War in a more than sporadic way, the custom enjoyed a brief life. It was generally fashionable only during the Revolutionary and immediate post-Revolutionary periods. In the South, where it lasted longer, it was widely practiced and relatively...
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