1/26/2011 Two Hundred Year-old Law Sought to Li…

This Day in History

By Laura Peters 5:00am

OPINION, THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES

Two Hundred Year-old Law Sought to Limit Duels

What comes to mind when you think of dueling? A law passed this date in 1810 sought to restrict the social battles
When you think of dueling, you probably
remember scenes from a William Shakespeare
play or something funny in a movie. But dueling is
a form of social battle, mostly fought between two
gentlemen of high social standing defending their
honor. The practice began in the 11th century. In
between the 11th and 20th centuries it was illegal
in most countries, although still performed. Some
duels ended in death, but many were just a small
blip in the legislative process, and many
performing them weren’t convicted of the illegal
practice
PHOTOS (2)
On Jan. 26, 1810, the Virginia General Assembly
passed laws dealing with dueling. They were
trying to suppress the honor battles and make
them appear a barbaric act in the public eye.

T he law stated any death caused in a duel would

mean capital punishment for the man responsible, and allowed judges to prevent dueling.

T he legislation also aimed at eliminating this custom from the lives of elected officials by requiring them to take oaths of their abstinence of the act of
dueling in order to hold office. Even so, people still continued to duel.

Loudoun County even had its own dose of duels. One of the most infamous was between from residents, Gen. Armistead T. Mason and John M. McCarty,
outside of Loudoun County in Raspberry Plain, Md. according to Mary Fishback, the library assistant at Thomas Balch Library and a genealogist.

“It wasn’t a nice way to do things; you usually died a horrible death,” she said. “It’s for honor— if somebody insulted your family, your wife, or your kids.
Dueling was done sometimes by just a slap in the face with their glove; it’s a way of settling grievances. In some cases, people were maimed and mutilated.
If they happened to die right out, it was probably for the best.”

Dueling declined by the late 1800s. In 1884 a man wrote a letter to a Richmond newspaper stating his decline of challenge. Most marked him as a coward,
but up until then, dueling was booming in the 19th century.

T oday dueling may seem barbaric or even silly, but we even have our own forms of social battle…have you heard of Facebook and Twitter? Just think
about over 200 years ago on this day, Virginia was trying to move forward, and maybe we’ve gotten far, but we still have a long way to go.

Interested in a follow-up to this article?

About this colum n: A look at today's date in Leesburg's history

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