Thomas "Tom" Molineaux

Tom Molineaux was born a slave and began his career by fighting other slaves; These bouts were organized by plantation owners; Eventually, Molineaux was given his freedom; He took his money and migrated to England where he boxed professionally, trained by Bill Richmond, another freed American slave and prizefighter

His most famous matches were against the British Champion, Tom Cribb, in 1810 and 1811; Tom became a national hero in Europe.

Molineaux's boxing career ended in 1815. After a stint in a debtors' prison he became increasingly dependent on alcohol.

He died penniless in the bandroom of the 77th Regiment in Galway, Ireland, on 4 August 1818.[1] He was 34 years old.

His great great nephew was boxer John Henry Lewis, whose great nephew is hip hop artist LL Cool J

from http://grantland.com/features/brian-phillips-boxing-career-freed-am...

So little is known about Tom Molineaux’s early life that he looks almost as mysterious to us as he must have appeared to those incredulous English fight fans. He was born, probably in 1784, probably in the South — Virginia is the most commonly cited state, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. He seems to have made it to New York City by around 1804, where he probably took part in the illegal dockside fights at Catherine Market, which may be where he learned about English boxing and heard the name Tom Cribb. Beyond that, the historical record is blank, and biography shades from speculation into fiction. Early versions of Molineaux’s life (including, most likely, Molineaux’s own) were full of embellishments and inventions. Later writers picked these up, sometimes without realizing they were fictions, and then added their own fictions.4 The result is that today, if you look Molineaux up in the encyclopedia, what you’ll find is likely less an authoritative account of the facts than two centuries’ worth of distilled legend.5

The legend goes like this. Tom Molineaux was born into a family of fighting slaves. His father and brothers were all boxers; his father may have been the first prizefighter in America. As a young man, Tom was entered into slave fights, brawls pitting black slaves against one another for the entertainment of their white masters. Before one particularly important fight, Molineaux’s master hired an English sailor to improve his boxing technique, then had him whipped when he didn’t want to learn. Molineaux won the fight. His master won $100,000 betting on him, then granted Molineaux $500, and his freedom, as a reward.

Now fighting for himself, Molineaux headed north. Prizefighting was practically unheard of in America, but he thrashed enough men in New York to make something of a name for himself: This may be where the “champion of America” title came from. The bouts were chaotic, amateur affairs, not much at all like the prize fights in England. A member of the Fancy would have said they were all gluttony and no science. When the sailors on the docks told him about the money and fame someone like Tom Cribb could earn fighting in England, Molineaux started looking for a ship. Then, as Pierce Egan wrote, he “left his native soil in quest of glory and renown.”6

The most important person in Tom Molineaux’s life, apart from Cribb himself, was an older fighter named Bill Richmond, whom he met shortly after his swaggering arrival in London. Richmond, whose fighting sobriquet was “the Black Terror,” was one of the most colorful characters of the entire nineteenth century. Like Molineaux, he had been born a slave in America. As a boy during the Revolutionary War, he came to the attention of Hugh Percy, an English officer and the future Duke of Northumberland, who saw him fighting a group of redcoats who were tormenting him in a stableyard. Percy took him on as a servant. At 13, Richmond was reportedly given the task of securing the noose around Nathan Hale’s neck.7 When Percy resigned from the army in 1777, he brought Richmond with him to England. There, the young man educated himself, adopted English manners, and — partly to defend himself against racial insults8 — took an interest in boxing.

From http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/blog/?p=8186#more-8186

By spring of 1811, in anticipation of the rematch, Molineaux had become a major celebrity in England. He toured and sparred. There was steak and ale and nice clothes and women. Even if he were a free Black in America he could never know such extravagance. Molineaux, as was common, fought these exhibition bouts wearing boxing gloves. Sporting Magazine (April, 1811): “(Molineaux), the sturdy Black, followed his successful adversary (Cribb), in soliciting the aid of the amateurs of boxing, by calling a benefit at the Fives-Court, St. Martin’s-Street, the beginning of the month, which was crowded in a manner never before witnessed, eight hundred persons at least, consisting of nobles, gentry, and commoners, having attended. The exhibitions kept pace with the patronage of the occasion. (Molineaux) set-to alternately with Pitton, Young Belcher, and Burns, and none of those professors (the two of which are first rate) were able to make any Impression on him. He has so far improved as to become formidable with the gloves…. Shortly after the above sparring benefit, (Molineaux), accompanied by his friend (Richmond), went by special invitation to Birmingham, a town where pugilism is held in high estimation, and whilst there, the crowd assembled to see a man of colour, who had become so formidable amongst our native professors, was excessive.” The tour continued to Nottingham with further gloved bouts. Sporting Magazine: “(Molineaux), at the request of a gentleman amateur, offered to contend with the countryman with the gloves.” The Englishman was named, String, though the bout did not take place. Another Nottingham boxer fought Molineaux with gloves instead. Sporting Magazine: “(Molineaux) found himself engaged in actual battle with a man six feet in height, of proportionate strength and make, a very sharp conflict ensued, and the exchange of hits was awful, even with the gloves. After about ten rounds, in which the Black had a decided advantage in what (Cribb) had over him, science, the Nottinghamshire champion gave in, having been hit down in almost every round.”

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• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Molineaux
• http://www.vahistorical.org/collections-and-resources/virginia-hist...
• http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-27632884
• Page 10 of The First Black Boxing Champions.
  • Tom Molineaux was born a slave on March 23, 1784 in Richmond, Virginia, on the Molineaux Plantation. .....