Kangaroo, Vicksburg

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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]

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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

On 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

References

  1. 1 2 Dickson, Harris (January 12, 1907). "The Way of the Reformer". Saturday Evening Post . G. Graham. pp. 7–8.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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. Lock-green.svg
  5. Ballard, Michael B. (2005). Vicksburg: The Campaign That Opened the Mississippi. Univ of North Carolina Press. p. 3. ISBN   978-0-8078-7621-3.
  6. 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.
  7. "From the Vicksburg Register". Nashville Republican. July 25, 1835. p. 2. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
  8. "The affair at Vicksburg". Georgia Journal and Messenger. July 30, 1835. p. 2. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
  9. "Summary Justice". Litchfield Enquirer. July 30, 1835. p. 3. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
  10. "Vicksburg". The United States Gazette. August 1, 1835. p. 4. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
  11. "Vicksburg Was Center for Famous Lawyers". The Vicksburg Post. July 1, 1963. p. 122. Retrieved March 2, 2025.