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.


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