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A Look Back at Lawmaking on the Southern Frontier

The frontiersmen in what are now the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi, borrowed from the laws of gambling that came from the settled area from where they originated.

Thus, lawmaking on the southern frontier did not involve a unique process of creating new laws to fit new conditions. At least one prominent Tennessean welcomed the decriminalization of horse racing.

Andrew Jackson, ironically the man whose name would one day be attached to a strong anti-gambling position, was a lover of horse race that almost led to his premature demise.

Jackson matched a prize horse against a horse owned by Colonel Robert Love in a race that drew spectators from miles around.

When Jackson's horse lost, the impetuous young lawyer challenged Love to a duel. Jackson's friends intervened and removed the hot-tempered loser from what might have been a fatal encounter.

In 1811 there was an attempt to legislate against a wholesale gambling, to punish those who encouraged gaming and to provide for the forfeiture of liquor license of tavern owners who encouraged gaming.

Most states in the western South followed the Tennessee-Virginia pattern, and by 1829 Florida and Kentucky had passed the Statute of Anne and prohibited the operations of gaming tables.

In Arkansas, similar ends were served by the 1829 statute, although by 1855, Arkansas moved to criminalize all forms of betting.

In Mississippi, gaming was a much more visible evil than it was in other states. Natchez was a veritable Las Vegas on the Mississippi in the 2830s and 1840s.

Jackson and Vicksburg were also infested with gamblers during the period. In 1835, Vicksburg citizens rose up i revolt and told the gamblers they had six hours to leave town.

When the gamblers refused the 'friendly invitation', 400 men gathered to drive them from their lairs.

Two gamblers objected to the seizure of their property and killed one of the leaders of the mob, a prominent physician. The mob was satisfied only when the two gamblers were lynched without benefit of clergy or counsel.

By 1860, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama were being settled, and they repeated the pattern of the older states. Gaming was allowed, but any gambling that could cause a public nuisance was prohibited; nonetheless, all of the states gave their blessing to betting on horse racing.

In 1837, Georgia penalized Whites who gambled with free or slave Negroes with a one-to-five year jail term.

Alabama enacted a similar law in 1852, although the penalties were higher. These punishments were designed to discourage contacts with Whites that might give Blacks troublesome ideas about equality.

Ironically, slaves could not be prosecuted for their violations of gambling laws.

The Florida Supreme Court held, for example, that as a matter of law, a slave was not a 'person' (but property) and therefore, since he owned no property, could not be convicted under the state's gambling laws.