Code+Duello

The Code Duello establishes the rules for dueling, and I ain’t talkin about banjos neither. Dueling is a particular part of the broader rules for “gentlemanly” conduct among southerners, referred to generally as “The Code.” As you can see from even a cursory reading of the Code Duello, The Code betrays an unwieldy, confusing, and often contrary set of assumptions. For now, just provides some web-links or bibliographic citations to information about the Code Duello. Of course you can comment as well but the goal here is to provide each other with access to information that might help us understand Tom Sawyer and his motivations.

This website provides the 26 commandments of the duelhttp://www.io.com/gibbonsb/pob/code.duello.html//

The code duello,// the origins of which range back to 1770s Ireland, was adapted by John Lyde Wilson, a former governor of South Carolina, and published in the United States under the name “The Code of Honor; or Rules for the Government of Principals and Seconds in Dueling” (1). The Code encouraged men to uphold their honor by responding to insults with violence—among the poor, this meant hand-to-hand combat to the point where one's opponent was permanently disfigured (2). It is even argued that the Civil War was a result of the “insult” of Lincoln's election.

Orderly dueling as laid out in the Code was seen as preferable to unsupervised and uncivilized violence (3). Many of the principles laid out in Wilson's version provide for secrecy and help readers avoid prosecution (1).

The Irish code of duello was adopted in the South in the 18th century. The code laid down extensive rules for dueling honorably as well as the various degrees of insult, with one of the worst being—oddly enough—the pinching of another’s nose. Southern honor also has ties to the sanction of slavery (4). The rules of the Code Duello were followed rather strictly in Ireland and for the most part in England, but in America there were occasionally some drastic alterations. This site includes 25 rules of dueling (5).

The dueling code of the US was based upon that of Ireland's Code Duello of 1777. This contained 26 rules for dueling and also ways to avoid dueling by offering a proper apology. The Code Duello stated, "The aggressor must either beg pardon in expressed terms... or fire on until a severe hit is received by one party or the other." In the US, less strict variations of the code allowed for the duel to end without death or injury, though the one who ended it would usually endure public mockery (6).

1 - http://tripatlas.com/Code_duello#Southern%20U.S.%20Code%20of%20Honor 2 - [] 3 - http://www.sos.ky.gov/land/journal/articles/bryant/article2.htm 4 - [] 5 - [|http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/duel/sfeature/rulesofdueling.html] 6 - http://law.jrank.org/pages/6317/Dueling.html