Rough and Tumble Fighting

  A form of fighting in the United States during eighteenth century was known as rough and tumble. It was often characterized by the objective of gouging out an opponent's eye but also included other brutally disfiguring techniques, including biting, and typically took place in order to settle disputes. 

Gouging was common in southern colonies by the 1730s. Participants would sometimes schedule their fights (as one could schedule a duel), and victors were treated as local heroes.  

When a dispute arose, fighters could either agree to fight "fair", meaning according to Broughton's rules, or "rough and tumble". Ears, noses, lips, fingers and genitals could be disfigured in these fights. 

The emphasis on maximum disfigurement, on severing bodily parts, made this fighting style unique. Amid the general mayhem, however, gouging out an opponent's eye became the sine qua non of rough-and-tumble fighting. The best gougers, of course, were adept at other fighting skills. Some allegedly filed their teeth to bite off an enemy's appendages more efficiently. Still, liberating an eyeball quickly became a fighter's surest route to victory and his most prestigious accomplishment.

As this style of fighting evolved, its geographical distribution changed. Leadership quickly passed from the southern seaboard to upcountry counties and the western frontier ... the settlers of western Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee, as well as upland Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, became especially known for their pugnacity.

An act passed by the Virginia Assembly in 1752 begins by remarking that "many mischievous and ill disposed persons have of late, in a malicious and barbarous manner, maimed, wounded, and defaced, many of his majesty's subjects", then very specifically makes it a felony to "put out an eye, slit the nose, bite or cut off a nose, or lip", among other offenses.  The Assembly went on to amend the act in 1772 to make it clear that this included "gouging, plucking or putting out an eye."  

Though legend sometimes amplifies the brutality of these fights, the historical reality of these is not disputed.  Researcher L.A. Jennings notes that within rough and tumble fights, one could could kick a down opponent, deliver knee to the groin, bite, and even scratch each other with fingernails sharpened just for the purpose. While eye-gouging may have been the preferred coup de gras, but there were numerous ways to maim an opponent and earn the approbation of the crowd. Biting off ears, lips, fingers, and the nose were popular moves, as was head-butting and, of course, testicle tearing.

Researcher Elliott Gorn (I believe his research supplied Wikopedia) notes that “Although ‘gougers’ may have traditionally been ‘lower-class’ men, sometimes men from the upper classes engaged in rough-and-tumble, although not always by choice. A physician was a distinguished position in the 18th century in the American South, but that did not preclude a “low fellow who pretends to gentility” to insult the doctor. The doctor challenged the ‘low’ man to a duel, but before the words left his mouth, the man attacked the doctor and with some dexterity, plucked the doctor’s eye from its socket. The man was not finished however, because as the eye bounced against the doctor’s flabbergasted cheek, the man tugged at it, attempting to tear it from the physician’s eye socket, and take it as his prize”.

Accounts concerning gouging sometimes from British travelers who visited Virginia and the Carolinas to write about their misadventures. Many of these accounts are clearly exploitative, presenting to British readers that Americans were barbaric and that the former colonies were in ruin. American democracy gave autonomy to those who did not deserve it, like the savages in the deep South, and gouging was merely a sign that independence was not meant for all.

While the rough-and-tumble is typically classified as a Southern tradition, the fighting style passed to the western frontier, most famously legendary American folk hero and Tennessee native, Davy Crockett, who once related a tale of his own ‘gouging’ experience: "I kept my thumb in his eye, and was just going to give it a twist and bring the peeper out, like taking a gooseberry in a spoon." 

Many thought the willingness to fight rough-and-tumble, rather than in a ‘fair fight,’ revealed, to their community the true grit of a man.

Sources:
Wikipedia
Elliott Gorn
L.A. Jennings