Dueling to protect one's credit or honor was partly a response to the underdeveloped credit markets of this region and time period.
However, the concept of “defending one’s honor” was not quite as abstract and idealistic as often imagined – losing “ honor” often had pecuniary disadvantages that made defending one's honor a somewhat rational decision, even at risk of being physically harmed or even killed. Contrary to the perception that the act of dueling occurred at the “drop of a hat,” there were real economic forces that drove one to challenge another or accept a duel. For example, to pinch someone's nose was an insult grave enough to challenge to a duel for it symbolized the unmasking of a liar. history and seen as unnecessarily violent and instigated by trivial matters. The act of dueling was often condemned by public figures throughout early U.S. Although many duels were fought to settle disputes over tangible items such as land, unpaid debts, money, or women, more were over intangible ones. Thus, duels presented what seemed like a quicker way of settling disputes outside of the courts. The markets and governance of the South were not as institutionalized during the nineteenth century compared to the North. Although the duel largely disappeared in the early nineteenth century in the North, it remained a common practice in the South (as well as the West) until the battlefield experience of the American Civil War changed public opinion and resulted in an irreversible decline for dueling.
South from the seventeenth century until the end of the American Civil War in 1865. Dueling was a common practice in the U.S.
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