When it comes to Frontier Combat, be it called rough
’n’ tumble, scufflin’, boombattle, or any of the myriad gorgeous regional terms
for the “all-in” unarmed and armed combat of the early Americas, I am often
asked for recommended texts, or a reading list of the “Top Ten Rough n
Tumble Works.”
Well, the answer is either very unsatisfying or far
richer than one could imagine.
In the early Americas there was no Codex
Wallerstein, no Comprehension of Destreza by de la Vega, no tome on
12-Angles, no Spanish Circle theoretics, no set in stone [or ink on typeset] dispensation
from on high.
The American Experiment [and Experience] was like no
other in an unsettled land.
A dispersal of Continental sources across a broad land
that asked new integrated skill sets of intrepid peoples.
There were no specialists—no weavers in this village
and a cooper for our barrel and storage needs, no mercers, no tailors, no this
or that tradesman/craftsman to go to.
The New Land asked for and demanded Jacks and Jills of
All Trades who could adapt, who could clear forests, hew logs, build homes, concoct
clever hasps and latches from wood, indulge in primitive ironmongery, animal husbandry
with new environments and new problems, obtain
and preserve food, manufacture one's own clothes, tools, entertainment and the hundreds
of other details of the daily we can’t even imagine.
These Jacks and Jills of All Trades may not be masters
of any single craft but their more than adequate understanding of copious other
crafts led to innovation [marginal revolutions] across fields/domains that led
to surprising discoveries that specialists could not imagine.
The cross-pollination of skills and disciplines began
with letting go of abstractions, disdaining single source expertise, and a distrust
of “From on High” declarations.
The distance from the “Sources of Wisdom” [Great
Britain and Continental Europe] and the actuality of living in the “Red in
tooth and claw” reality of a vast Mother Nature forged new people with an
entirely different way of thinking.
Filigree, ruffles, and the ornamental were not needed.
Be it in clothes, theology, or combat.
What was needed was stripped down, functional, utilitarian
thought, tools, action, skills needed in the raw here and now.
Theory and abstraction comes with comfort.
Pontificating comes after “Rough men used to rough
ways” have cleared the forests of beasties and allow we softer ones to
creep in once it is safe so we can abstract from our comfy chairs to our hearts’
content.
This is all a long-winded way to say, there is no
single source as single sourcing was the old way—the way left behind.
The new way was dispersed integration of multiple
strands of knowledge.
A cloth weaved of threads from many sources.
Therefore, The Rough n Tumble Text, like the
society, the environment, the demands of that environment is one of deep and
wide sourcing.
One must look to farming manuals, lumber newsletters,
settler’s journals, a cavalry wife’s reminiscences, a Texas Circuit ridin’ preacher’s
diary to find the surprising rough n tumble threads that make up the
whole-cloth.
This stripped-down learning and “lose the ornamental”
is seen everywhere, even in early American theology.
Where European clerics were mired in “How many angels
can dance on the head of a pin” piffles, here, the cleric wanted simple
brief calls to action.
Here is an extract from the early-American clergyman
Thomas Hooker’s Survey of the Summe of Church-Discipline [1648]
“That the discourse comes forth in such a homely
dresse and course habit, the Reader must be desired to consider, It comes out
of the wildernesse, where curiosity is not studied. Planters if they can
provide cloth to go warm, they leave the cutts and lace to those that study to
go fine…plainesse and perpicuity, both for matter and manner of expression, are
the things, that I have conscientiously indeavored in the whole debate: for I
have ever thought writings that come abroad, they are not to dazle, but direct
the apprehension of the meanest, and I have accounted it the chiefest part of
ludicrous learning, to make a hard point easy and familiar in explication.”
The sermons were plain and virile.
As were the people.
As was the combat.
So, what are the recommended texts?
Anything and everything written by a plain and virile
people.
Resources for Livin’ the Warrior Life, Not Just
Readin’ About It
The Indigenous Ability Blog
The Rough ‘n’ Tumble Raconteur Podcast
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