The Great Fight

More Than Meets the Eye: History of Maryland Through Prints, 1750-1900
Room 1: Immigrants in Maryland

Maryland Historical Society
Library of Maryland History
201 W. Monument Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
Phone: 410-685-3750
Fax: 410-385-2105
E-mail: library @mdhs.org

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Maryland History In Prints: 1752-1900
by Laura Rice

The Great Fight, between Tom Hyer & Yankee Sullivan, for $10,000

Ingall's Studio
New York, 1849

Lithograph, printed in colors

Boxing was a hugely popular sport during the nineteenth century, particularly among recent immigrants and members of the working class. Matches were usually arranged by tavern owners, frequently based on pre-existing ethnic or neighborhood rivalries. The close association with drinking and gambling and its blue-collar origins made the sport a target for reform-minded citizens. Fights such as the one depicted here were illegal in most states but by no means uncommon. Boxers wore no gloves or protective gear of any kind, and were often at serious risk for disfigurement or death.

On February 7, 1849, one of the most famous prizefights of the century took place in the backwoods of Maryland. New York-born Tom "Young American" Hyer challenged reigning United States champion James "Yankee" Sullivan at Still Pond, about eight miles from Chestertown. The match was to have taken place on Poole's Island, but police and militia from Baltimore chased away the four boats carrying spectators, reporters, and participants. At Still Pond, organizers of the fight located an appropriate spot and, finding the owner of the property absent, constructed a makeshift ring on the front lawn.

Sullivan, an Irish immigrant frequently in trouble with the law, had waited two years for this match; a punishing fighter, he had difficulty finding opponents. The match with Hyer, for an unheard-of $10,000 winner's purse, was arranged in part by boxing fans with nativist sentiments who wanted to replace Sullivan with an American-born champion. After sixteen half-minute rounds, Sullivan, shorter and lighter in weight than Hyer, suffered the first defeat of his career.

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Room 1: Immigrants in Maryland
Room 2: Evangelical Religion and Reform
Room 3: Rowdies and Riots
Room 4: Changes in the Land
Exhibit Home Page
CONTENTS for Room 1
1. Baltimore Schuetzen-Park
2. The Great Fight, between Tom Hyer & Yankee Sullivan, for $10,000
3. Asking if I would ever dare to be 'sassy' to the Sisters again
4. Isaac McKim's Free School
5. [Little Joker Smoking Tobacco]
6. The Oddfellow's March
7. Masquerade Ball of Harmony Circle
8. Church of St. John the Evangelist