Kangaroo, Mississippi was a "red-light district" and/or shantytown located just north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States, in a swampy spot where the Glass Bayou entered the Mississippi River.[1] The settlement took its name from its most famous brothel, but no one living knows how that house of ill repute got its name.[2]
Prior to the American Civil War, Kangaroo was notorious for its gambling halls and occasional instances of public disorder resulting from disputes between the players and/or local law enforcement.[3] According to a study of colonial and antebellum Warren County, "The Kangaroo was a constant source of embarrassment and fear for Vicksburg's established residents."[4]
Kangaroo was leveled by a fire in 1834, and "A hundred or so gathered to mourn the death, as one local wit put it, of their 'friend,' the 'celebrated KANGAROO."[4]
Besides the gamblers, other denizens of Kangaroo included "prostitutes, and drunken brawlers."[5]
1835: Vicksburg versus the gamblers
editOn July 5, 1835, the gamblers of Kangaroo shot and killed Rev. Dr. Hugh Bodley, a Presbyterian minister.[1] Another account says Bodley died "trying to blast the gamblers out of a coffee shop."[4] Consequent to this, the people of Vicksburg hanged a number of gamblers and affiliates, an instance of vigilante violence emblematic of the age of Jackson.[6] This mass lynching is cited as an example of the tradition of "quasi-respectable violence in America. Vigilantes conceived of their violence as a supplement to, rather than a rebellion against the law."[6] Southern authorities (compared to the North) showed a marked and measurable indifference to the repression of white mobs.[6] The lynched gamblers were tavern keeper Alfred North and his barkeeper Dutch Bill, Samuel Smith, Hullams (or Cullum or Holms or Helm), and McCall.[7][8][9][10] Bodley was the brother of a lawyer named William S. Bodley, who had moved from Kentucky to Vicksburg in 1830, and was law partners with John Templeton. William Bodley "acquired and developed considerable real estate."[11]
See also
edit- DeSoto Island – Vicksburg's dueling grounds
- Natchez-Under-the-Hill
- Narrative of Henry Watson, A Fugitive Slave – describes gambling in Vicksburg
References
edit- 1 2 Dickson, Harris (January 12, 1907). "The Way of the Reformer". Saturday Evening Post. G. Graham. pp. 7–8.
- ↑ Buchanan, Thomas C. (2006). Black Life on the Mississippi: Slaves, Free Blacks, and the Western Steamboat World. University of North Carolina Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-8078-7656-5.
- ↑ Bunn, Mike; Williams, Clay (2023). Old Southwest to Old South: Mississippi, 1798–1840. Heritage of Mississippi Series, Vol. IX. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi for the Mississippi Historical Society and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. p. 164. ISBN 978-1-4968-4380-7. LCCN 2022042580. OCLC 1348393702. Project MUSE book 109599.
- 1 2 3 Morris, Christopher C. (1991). Town and Country in the Old South: Vicksburg and Warren County, Mississippi, 1770–1860 (Thesis). University of Florida Digital Collections. pp. 310, 324. OCLC 46939976.
- ↑ Ballard, Michael B. (2005). Vicksburg: The Campaign That Opened the Mississippi. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-8078-7621-3.
- 1 2 3 Howe, Daniel Walker (2007). What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. Oxford History of the United States. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 435. ISBN 978-0-19-507894-7. LCCN 2007012370. OCLC 122701433.
- ↑ "From the Vicksburg Register". Nashville Republican. July 25, 1835. p. 2. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
- ↑ "The affair at Vicksburg". Georgia Journal and Messenger. July 30, 1835. p. 2. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
- ↑ "Summary Justice". Litchfield Enquirer. July 30, 1835. p. 3. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
- ↑ "Vicksburg". The United States Gazette. August 1, 1835. p. 4. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
- ↑ "Vicksburg Was Center for Famous Lawyers". The Vicksburg Post. July 1, 1963. p. 122. Retrieved March 2, 2025.
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