HUB History - Our Favorite Stories from Boston History

A little more than three years ago, cohost emerita Nikki and I were on our way to see the Hamilton musical for the first time. In our excitement, we decided to record an episode about an 1806 political duel in Boston that had a lot of parallels with the Hamilton-Burr duel. We dug into the history of dueling in Boston, how dueling laws evolved in response to the duels that were fought here, and why a young Boston Democratic-Republican and a young Boston Federalist decided they had to fight each other to the death in Rhode Island. Unfortunately, we also peppered samples from the Hamilton soundtrack throughout the episode in our excitement, stomping all over Lin Manuel’s intellectual property. The unlicensed music even got the episode pulled from at least one podcast app. This week, I went back to our original recording and re-edited it to clean it up and remove all the Hamiltunes. So get ready to meet Charles Sumner’s dad and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s dad, sail on the USS Constitution, and Alexander Hamilton himself will even put in a brief appearance. Plus, we’ll learn why fighting a duel in Massachusetts could get you buried at a crossroads with a stake driven through your heart.

Please check out the full show notes at: http://HUBhistory.com/216/

And support the show on Patreon. Demanding Satisfaction The Austin/Elliot Duel

• A book about the duel written by Austin’s descendant Walter Austin. Includes a portrait of William Austin on the title page.
• A biography of William Austin, also by Walter Austin.
• This edition of Peter Rugg includes an introduction by Rev Thomas Wentworth Higginson, with biographical information on Austin.
• Peter Rugg was the centerpiece of our recent Halloween episode.
• William Austin served on the USS Constitution
• Democratic-Republican Captain Joseph Loring’s response to perceived affronts by Federalist Major General Simon Elliot, former commander of the Corps of Cadets.
• Simon Elliot sues the owners of mills on the Mother Brook, as we heard in Episode 59.
• The location of the duel in 1803 and today.

• An article about the killing of Democratic-Republican Charles Austin by Federalist Thomas Selfridge on State Street in Boston.
• The trial record of Thomas Selfridge, resulting in a verdict of justifiable homicide.
• William Emerson’s eulogy for Austin (William was Ralph Waldo’s father).
• The relationship between the Emersons and the Austins.

• Witness statements.
• An 1874 account of the duel.
• The wanted poster for Henry Phillips, who escaped with help from his friend Peter Faneuil.
• Woodbridge’s headstone at the Granary.

• 1719: enacts a 100 pound fine, 6 months in prison, and corporal punishment for issuing or accepting a challenge.
• 1730: A challenge or non-fatal duel is punishable by an hour on the gallows and a year in prison. Anyone who is killed in a duel or executed in a duel will be given an unchristian burial at a gallows or crossroads, with a stake driven through their body. (An interesting article about the history of staked burial)
• 1784: Adds 39 lashes for a non-fatal duel, bans anyone who issues a challenge from holding public office, and increases the fine for a challenge to 300 pounds. Adds dissection for those killed in a duel or executed for dueling.
• 1805: Non-fatal duels will be prosecuted as felonious assault and the offender will be barred from holding public office. Staked burial is no longer a punishment for fatal duels, but dissection still is. Any challenge issued or accepeted, even if no duel is fought, is punishable by a year in prison.
• Current Massachusetts law allows anyone who fights a duel in another state to be prosecuted for murder in Massachusetts. Anyone who is a second in a fatal duel is an accessory before the fact. Most of the rest of our dueling laws were repealed in 1962.