Boxers (1818), an early lithograph by Théodore Gericault and held at the Met, is generally acknowledged to be inspired by the 1810 fight between Tom Molineaux and Tom Cribb. Brian Phillips tells the story of how Molineaux, a black American who may have been a freed slave, came to England to challenge Cribb, the champion of the national pastime, boxing. It’s a sad, but great story:
Jan 28, 2012It was the greatest fight of its era. But its significance went beyond that. Even at the time, it seemed to be about more than boxing, more than sport itself. More than anything, the contest between a white English champion and a black American upstart seemed to be about an urgent question of identity: whether character could be determined in the boxing ring, whether sport could confirm a set of virtues by which a nation defined itself.
The fight cemented a set of stock characters — the fast-talking, ultra-talented, self-destructive black athlete; the Great White Hope; the canny coach who’s half devoted to his pupil and half exploiting him — that have echoed down the centuries. In fact, so much about the fight feels familiar today, from the role of race to the role of the media, that if you had to name a date, you could make a good case that December 10, 1810, was the moment sport as we know it began.
