Andrew Jackson and cockfighting

White scratch-through lines on black background of two fighting roosters with their bodies in roughly a figure-8 composition
Fighting Cocks by unidentified artist (c. 1962)

U.S. President Andrew Jackson was considered a sportsman because of his lifelong interest in both horse racing and cockfighting. Around his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee it was said "He had fine horses an he run 'em, he had fine cocks an he fit 'em."[1] These activities were a hobby, a business interest, and socially significant, and they were enjoyed by many men of his era and station. "Andrew Jackson had made friends through cockfighting and racing early in the nineteenth century, maintained an active racing stable through his presidency, and used his image as an active sportsman to appeal to voters."[2][3] Betting on horses and cocks "helped build economic and political networks of men, both within and between" social and racial classes.[4] These were considered masculine activities, and the "masculine status invested in gambling only grew between 1790 and 1850, as the new republic's rhetoric of economic opportunity rendered successful risk-taking a key trait of the idealized, upwardly mobile, American 'self-made man'."[5]

Background

Cocking was a typical competitive sport of pioneer settlers, along with fighting (generally), foot races, horse races, shooting, throwing things (tomahawks, hatchets, knives, long bullets), lifting things (shoulder stones), dogfighting, and ganderpulling.[6] However, in the words of historian Thomas D. Clark, "the story of cockfighting on the frontier is not a written one," so there are comparatively few primary sources on 18th- and 19th-century American chicken fighting.[7] Cockfighting had relatively low barriers to entry and was "practiced freely on the frontier," but as a blood sport that killed or maimed the bird contestants, alectoromachy "was never brought out into the open because of a fear of criticism."[7] Caged chickens were transported by flatboat or packhorse, and brought out to fight "under blaze of torches" in a cockpit set up in some secluded spot.[8] Cockfighting generally results in the death of the losing bird, but "is not as visibly gory as many suppose...The puncture wounds made by artificial spurs do not bleed much externally, and the cock's feathers tend to conceal bleeding."[9] Gambling on the birds was expected.[9] Cockfighting, and gambling generally, had wide appeal and social significance in the antebellum South. As articulated by historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown in 1982, "...the union of the individual with the instrument of his prowess—the horse, cocker, cards, marksman's gun, or dice—took on a sacred character."[10]

History

The earliest-dated document in the collected papers of Andrew Jackson (albeit not written in his handwriting) was created March 29, 1779, two weeks after Jackson's 12th birthday. It is a training diet for a fighting cock. The directions are to give the battle rooster smoke-dried Indian corn, finely chopped "Pickle Beaf" three times a day, "lighte wheat Bread Soked in sweet Milk", and "feed him as Much as he Can Eat for Eaight Days."[11] One North Carolinian supposedly remembered 1780s Jackson as "the most roaring, rollicking, game cocking, cardplaying, mischievous fellow that ever lived in Salisbury."[12] Attractions of Jackson's slave-trading stand on Bayou Pierre in what is now Claiborne County, Mississippi included a racetrack and cockfighting pit.[13] William P. Anderson, United States attorney for Tennessee and adjutant of Tennessee militia, came to Jackson's attention as one who supplied "such goodies as game cocks from Virginia and hot tips on land investments."[14] In June 1809, Andrew Jackson, William B. Vinson, Thomas Claiborne (either Thomas Claiborne or Thomas A. Claiborne), William P. Anderson, John Gray Blount (kin to William Blount and Willie Blount), William T. Lewis, and Samuel Hogg formally organized a "cocking ring" event to be held at McNairy's Spring.[15] Anderson's brother Patton Anderson and Jackson apparently jointly organized a series of cockfights for Fourth of July week in 1809, which were heavily patronized and during which "large sums of money and several horses were exchanged."[16]

Nearing the Issue at the Cockpit by Horace Bonham (1879)

Cockfighting was one of the amusements at the Jackson-favored Major Lewis Tavern in Nashville. According to one local newspaper, "After his return from the battle of New Orleans,' says Col. A. W. Johnson, who was here at that period, 'Jackson frequently spent weeks at the Inn always surrounded by a coterie of his friends. It was nothing to see a crowd gather in the vacant lot and witness a cock fight, or even a set-to between some of the lookers-on.'"[17] Jackson brought his "fighting cocks and horses" to John Connally's Green Bottom Inn at Huntsville, Alabama, for the fall 1819 sporting season.[18] Jackson lost $500 in a brick-built Gallatin stable to Edward Ward, president of Nashville's Clover Bottom Jockey Club and 1821 candidate for governor, in a bet on a fight between gaffed cocks.[19] The bet was for gold, and Jackson apparently tried to avoid the payout by working the refs.[19] Jackson is said to have once bet a 640-acre property on the outcome of a cockfight, and won the bet.[20][21] One account, recorded 1881 supposedly via "old Jerry, one of the General's colored attendants," had it that "He always held his own cocks," announcing "'Gentlemen, are you ready?' he would say to de men stanin' roun'. 'Yes,' they would say. 'Then drop your bird,' says de gennel, and de feller ahold de other bird would kinder quail and drop his chicken. Then Massa Jackson, he'd toss his bird in de air and it ud always get in de furs lick. Massa Jackson's bird could always be counted on to get in de furs lick.'"[22]

John Spencer Bassett, a Jackson biographer and the first editor of Jackson's collected papers, asserted, "Cock-fighting was not esteemed so highly as racing, by the gentlemen of the day...It was common among the seacoast colonists of the middle class. In his early life, when he had not entirely cast off the habits of the back-country people, Jackson participated freely in this form of amusement. He even gave himself to it with fervor, as was his nature in all he did. But as his position became established as a member of the highest class he dropped cock-fighting."[23] Bassett to the contrary, and paucity of written records notwithstanding, there are a number of secondhand accounts that suggest Jackson did not give up the game in maturity, but brought his game fowl to Washington with him during his presidency,[24][25][26] and even hosted cockfights at the White House.[27][28] One report says he kept his gamecocks in the White House stables; their feeder-trainer was one Jack Freer.[29] According to a 1938 study of cockfighting in America, Jackson was a "peak of the American legalized gamecock, his administration having seen public pits flourishing in the District of Columbia as well as those famous fights in the committee rooms."[30] Another account says there was a cockfighting pit in the basement of the U.S. Capitol.[31] Frank G. Carpenter, writing in The New York World in 1890, claimed Jackson bet on "cocking mains, which used to be held, during his presidency, on the grounds about the spot where Justice Harlan now lives."[32] In one case Jackson supposedly had his Tennessee gamecocks delivered by stagecoach for a cockfight in Bladensburg, Maryland, but the birds were much worse for wear after the long journey and did not fight.[33] (Cockfighting was "strictly regulated" in the District, but Bladensburg was a separate jurisdiction.)[34] Another story tells that Jackson's cocks fought several mains (a type of cockfighting tournament, compare cockfighting derby) "at the Holmead manor, against the Eslins, who were among the most celebrated breeders of game cocks in America."[35] In an 1898 telling, Jackson ("who was much of a gambler") and his political nemesis Henry Clay apparently both "fought cocks outside of Washington."[36]

"Sunday Amusements in New Orleans – The Cockpit" by Alfred R. Waud (1866)

At least one New York editor criticized presidential candidate Jackson in 1828 for exploiting slave labor to benefit his "sporting" hobbies: "The whip of the overseer quickens the servile labor whereby he—one of those privileged beings, born to consume the fruits of the earth, is sustained—and men, immortal as himself, are daily 'driven a field', like oxen; and their strength taxed to the utter-most, perhaps, that he, their master, may add another race-horse to his stud, or stake an additional bet upon a favorite game cock."[37] Cockfighting was not, however, just a rich White sport. As told in an 1885 reminiscence about cockfighting in Nashville: "It was never so open as it was, and is yet, in New Orleans, but the betting and the sport were as heavy. Jordan McGowan, a negro musician and barber, raised many birds of note; also the well-remembered Frank Parish, the colored barber in the old Nashville Inn. A good bird would often last the entire season. Often enough he met his death in two minutes. There were fashionable strains of chickens with long pedigrees. The Claibornes, the Irish Grays, and the Riddlebergers were the most popular. Everybody went to the mains then. Every Saturday night the 'Hole' was open, while Billy Pybus kept open every night. Old Steve, Capt. Pilcher's 'nigger,' and Mark Young's 'niggers' were famous as breeders and keepers of good chickens. In fact the negroes were the authorities on game cocks, and they furnished most of the chickens."[1]

Two of Jackson's memorable cocks reportedly had the romantic feminine names Bernadotte, and Dominique or Dominica.[38][21] Jackson is said to have "bred and fought" a variety of black-feathered gamecocks called Tormentors.[39] Another account has it that Jackson is "credited with having originated an excellent strain called the 'Jackson cocks'. They were said to be the best blind fighters on record, being, as some said, more dangerous without eyes than with them."[40]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 n.a. (February 15, 1885). "The Underworld: When Nashville Was One of the Sporting Centers of the Country". The Daily American. Vol. X, no. 3131. Nashville, Tennessee. p. 7. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  2. ↑ Remini (1977), p. 13.
  3. ↑ Cohen (2011), p. 633.
  4. ↑ Cohen (2011), p. 601.
  5. ↑ Cohen (2011), p. 630.
  6. ↑ Clark (1939), pp. 36–37.
  7. 1 2 Clark (1939), p. 236.
  8. ↑ Clark (1939), pp. 236–237.
  9. 1 2 Herzog, Harold; Cheek, Pauline B. (Fall 1979). "Grit and Steel: Anatomy of Cockfighting". Southern Exposure. Vol. 7, no. 3. Durham, North Carolina: Institute for Southern Studies. pp. 36–41. ISSN 0146-809X. LCCN 75640880. OCLC 1798545. Retrieved 2026-07-25 – via facingsouth.org.
  10. ↑ Wyatt-Brown (2007), 1559–1618.
  11. ↑ Correspondence, Vol. 1 (1926), p. 2.
  12. ↑ Roberts (1965), p. 311.
  13. ↑ Sparks (1870), pp. 149–150.
  14. ↑ Johnson (1973), p. 172.
  15. ↑ Jackson, Andrew (1984). Moser, Harold; Macpherson, Sharon (eds.). The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume II, 1804–1813. University of Tennessee Press. pp. 217–218. doi:10.7290/utp3038. ISBN 978-0-87049-441-3.
  16. ↑ Brady, Cyrus Townsend (1906). The true Andrew Jackson. The Library of Congress. Philadelphia, London, J.B. Lippincott Company. pp. 61–62.
  17. ↑ "Incidents in Early History". Nashville Banner. November 2, 1912. p. 27. Retrieved 2026-07-09.
  18. ↑ Rohr (2010), p. 40.
  19. 1 2 Hall (2010), pp. 53–54.
  20. ↑ "Andrew Jackson Sporty". The Courier-Journal. Louisville, Kentucky. January 17, 1909. p. 24. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  21. 1 2 "Cockfighting: The Sport as Conducted in New Orleans". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. July 6, 1881. p. 3. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  22. ↑ "Old Hickory". Nashville Banner. Vol. VI, no. 21. May 11, 1881. p. 2. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  23. ↑ Correspondence, Vol. 1 (1926), p. viii.
  24. ↑ "The Sport of Cockfighting". Yorkville Enquirer. No. 27. Yorkville, South Carolina. April 2, 1907. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  25. ↑ "Still Favor Cockfights – Sport Is Thousands of Years Old and Is Popular in South". The Pittsburgh Press. Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. March 29, 1907. p. 19. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  26. ↑ "Presidential Fads". The Nebraska Journal-Leader. July 8, 1897. p. 8. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  27. ↑ Henry, Neil (March 5, 1983). "Cockfighting". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  28. ↑ Kennedy, Deborah (January 22, 2012). "Why cockfighting persists". Salon.com. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  29. ↑ Flaherty, Francis X. (April 9, 1944). "Feathered Lightning: Washington's Most Secret Sport Draws Big Names". Times Herald. Vol. VI, no. 69. Washington, D.C. p. D-3. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  30. ↑ Pridgen (1938), pp. 90–91.
  31. ↑ "Game Cocks of the Sunny South". The Inter Ocean. Chicago, Illinois. April 21, 1901. p. 48. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  32. ↑ "Presidential Amusements". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. January 10, 1890. p. 4. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  33. ↑ Dickey, J. D. (2014). Empire of Mud: The Secret History of Washington, DC. Simon and Schuster. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-4930-1393-7.
  34. ↑ Pagan, Margaret D. (August 1, 1986). "One of the blue hen's chickens". The Evening Sun. Vol. 153, no. 74. Baltimore, Maryland. p. A15. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  35. ↑ "Villa Devoted to Cockfights". The Washington Herald. April 19, 1914. p. 26. Retrieved 2026-07-15.
  36. ↑ n.a. (Chicago Times-Herald) (October 13, 1898). "A Noted Cock-Fighter". Delaware Gazette and State Journal. Vol. XIX, no. 15. Wilmington, Delaware: Every Evening Publishing Co. p. 4. ISSN 2574-6871. LCCN sn88053046. OCLC 18278621.
  37. ↑ n.a. (N.Y. American) (July 24, 1828). Jacobs, Cyrus S. (ed.). "The Farmer of Tennessee". Lancaster Reporter. Vol. I, no. 43. Lancaster, Pennsylvania. p. 3. LCCN sn86081644. OCLC 13066615. Retrieved 2025-01-05 – via Newspapers.com. Free access icon
  38. ↑ Watson, Thomas Edward (1912). The Life and Times of Andrew Jackson. Press of the Jeffersonian Publishing Company. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-7950-2373-6. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  39. ↑ United States Congress. "Raising and Exporting Fighting Gamecocks – Extension of remarks of Hon. Richard L. Neuberger of Oregon in the Senate of the United States – Monday, February 27, 1956". Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. A1773.
  40. ↑ McIntyre, R. A. (1906). The Game Fowl: Its Origin and History, with Sketches of Great Strains and Their Breeders of Former and Present Times, Together with a Complete Treatise on Breeding and Management of Fowls at Home and at the Pit, Their Diseases and Remedies, and Rules of the Cockpit. Presses of Grit and Steel. p. 23.

Sources

Further reading

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