“C” is for Cockfighting

“C” is for Cockfighting.  Cockfighting is a blood sport that has existed in South Carolina from colonial times into the twenty-first century, despite the fact that it was banned by the General Assembly in 1887 and carries a felony charge for participants and less severe penalties for spectators. Until 2023, the oldest continuously published magazine for cockers (as cockfighters signed styled themselves) was Grit and Steel, emanating from Gaffney. The University of South Carolina uses the gamecock as its mascot. In antebellum South Carolina cockfighting cut across a broad swath of society and cockfighting reached the height of its popularity before the Civil War.  In 2023 there were numerous arrests in Chesterfield County as local law enforcement broke up two different cockfights. Twenty-first-century cockfights are, for the most part, more clandestine affairs that occur in rural areas of the state.