Editing Duel (section)

====United States====
[[File:Hickock Tutt Duel 1867 Harpers Monthly Magazine.jpg|upright=1.4|thumb|[[Wild Bill Hickok]]'s duel with Davis Tutt became the quintessential quick draw duel in US history.]]
[[File:1728 Massachusetts Bay Dueling Act.jpg|thumb|''An Act for the punishing and preventing of Duelling'' (1728), Massachusetts Bay Colony]]

European styles of dueling established themselves in the colonies of European states in North America. Duels were to challenge someone over a woman or to defend one's honor. In the US, dueling tended to arise over political differences.

As early as 1728, some US states began to restrict or prohibit the practice.  The penalty established upon conviction of killing another person in a duel in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in its 1728 law to punish and prevent dueling stated "In Case any Person shall slay or kill any other in Duel or Fight, as aforesaid and upon Conviction thereof suffer the Pains of Death, as is by Law provided for wilful Murder, the Body of such Person, shall not be allowed Christian Burial, but be buried without a Coffin, with a Stake driven Through the Body, at or near the Place of Execution, as aforesaid."<ref>''Chap. V. An Act for Repealing an Act, Intitled, An Act for the punishing and Preventing of Duelling, and for making other Provision instead thereof.''  ACTS and LAWS Of His Majesty's PROVINCE of the MASSACHUSETTS-BAY in NEW ENGLAND. Boston in NEW ENGLAND: Printed by S. KNEELAND, by Order of His Excellency the GOVERNOR, Council and House of Representavies. MDCCLIX. (1759) pp. 253-254</ref>

Dueling was the subject of an unsuccessful federal amendment to the United States Constitution in 1838.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://catalog.archives.gov/id/25466015 |title=H.R. 8, Proposing an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to Prohibit any Person who was Involved in a Duel from Holding Public Federal Office |last=Morgan |first=William |series=File Unit: Bills and Resolutions Originating in the House during the 25th Congress, 1837 - 1839 |year=1838 |publisher=National Archives of the United States of America |access-date=July 28, 2016 |archive-date=October 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006130706/https://catalog.archives.gov/id/25466015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It was fairly common for politicians at that time in the United States to end disputes through duels, such as the [[Burr–Hamilton duel]] and the [[Charles Dickinson (historical figure)#Death|Jackson–Dickinson duel]]. While dueling had become outdated in the North since the early 19th century, this was not true of other regions of the nation.

Physician [[J. Marion Sims]] described the dueling culture in 1830s South Carolina:<ref>{{cite book |first=J. Marion |last=Sims |title=The Story of My Life |year=1885 |pages=88–99 |publisher=[[D. Appleton & Company]] | url=https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=kaYNAAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PP7 |access-date=October 20, 2018}}</ref>

{{blockquote|
In the South, teenage duels were not uncommon, particularly in [[South Carolina]] and [[New Orleans]]&nbsp;... three ironies emerged from the dueling custom. First, though confined to a segment of the upper classes, dueling served essentially the same purpose as the lowest eye-gouging battle among [[Tennessee]] hog drivers. Second, because of this congruence between upper and lower concepts of honor, dueling was not at all undemocratic. It enabled lesser men to enter, however imperfectly, the ranks of leaders, and allowed followers to manipulate leaders to their taste. Third, the promise of esteem and status that beckoned men to the field of honor did not always match the expectation, but often enough dueling served as a form of [[scapegoating]] for unresolved personal problems.<ref>Wyatt-Brown, Bertram (1982). ''Southern honor: ethics and behavior in the old South''. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 167, 350–351.</ref>}}

However, as the 19th century progressed, the American definition of 'dueling' had clearly degenerated from an inherited European social custom using seconds and set rules of conduct. Instead, the term was increasingly used to describe ''any'' violent fight or melee between two or more contestants using mixed weapons – clubs, bottles, [[Bowie knife|Bowie knives]], or firearms of any type or description.<ref name="CAS"/> Newspapers of the day freely used the term ''duel'' to include fights between combatants of any class or social order.

By 1859, 18 states had outlawed dueling outright, and with few exceptions, traditional dueling using seconds and formal rules of conduct had largely died out in the US by the 1870s.<ref>{{cite web |title=Politics And Pistols: Dueling in America|url=https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/politics-and-pistols-dueling-in-america/ |work=[[History Detectives]] | publisher=[[PBS]] | access-date=2012-07-22}}</ref> In 1891, Kentucky passed a law that anyone sworn into any statewide or county office or judgeship in [[Kentucky]] must declare under oath that he or she has not participated in, acted as a second or otherwise assisted in a duel, a law which is still in effect.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124616129 |title=Kentucky Duels Over Oath Of Office |work=NPR |date=12 March 2010 |access-date=3 January 2015}}</ref>

Crude so-called 'quick-draw' duels, though in reality very rare, were also fought to uphold personal honor in the western [[American frontier]], partly influenced by the [[Code duello#Western code duello|code duello]] brought by Southern emigrants.<ref>DeArment, Robert K. ''Deadly Dozen: Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West, Volume 3''. University of Oklahoma Press; First edition (March 15, 2010). p. 82. {{ISBN|978-0806140766}}</ref><ref name="Willy">{{cite web |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/wild-bill-hickok-fights-first-western-showdown |title=Wild Bill Hickok fights first western showdown |publisher=History.com |date=July 21, 2014 |access-date=October 4, 2014}}</ref> The [[Fast draw|quick draw]] duel is a common trope in a [[gunfighter]] story in most [[Western (genre)|Western stories]], although some of the few real life Wild West duels that did occur included the [[Wild Bill Hickok – Davis Tutt shootout]] and [[Luke Short – Jim Courtright duel]]. Gunfighters [[Jim Levy (gunfighter)|Jim Levy]] and [[Daly Gang#Tom Carberry|Tom Carberry]] became infamous for participating in at least two quick draw duels in their lifetimes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-jimlevy/ |title=Jim Levy – The Jewish Gunfighter |website=Legends of America}}</ref><ref>McGrath, Roger D. ''Gunfighters, Highwaymen & Vigilantes: Violence on the Frontier''. University of California Press (March 23, 1987). pp. 99–100. {{ISBN|978-0520060265}}.</ref> Besides quick draw duels, more formal European duels were also fought in the Old West such as those participated by former [[cowboy]]s [[Hugh Anderson (cowboy)|Hugh Anderson]] and [[Burton C. Mossman]].<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yuoCAAAAMBAJ&q=hugh+anderson+cowboy&pg=PA73 |title=The General Massacre |last=Prowse |first=Brad |magazine=American Cowboy |date=1 August 1998 |publisher=Active Interest Media |via=Google Books}}</ref> Settlements such as [[Tombstone, Arizona|Tombstone]] and [[Dodge City, Kansas|Dodge City]] attempted to prevent these so-called duels by prohibiting civilians from carrying firearms by local ordinance, with little success.<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert R. |last=Dykstra |title=The Cattle Towns |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t15L9AfXlPcC&pg=PA131 |year=1983 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-6561-5 |pages=116–135}}</ref> Instead, conflicts were increasingly resolved by the formation of organized law enforcement and the institution of judicial process.