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Continued from The Stockade part 3: Sir Richard Irving died in 1780 leaving his considerable fortune and his Caribbean plantations to his three sons. After his death his family continued to prosper until at the end of the 20th century his descendants were worth many 100s of millions of dollars as well as owning several Caribbean islands. One of these islands was owned and run as a sports and fitness resort for the rich and wealthy by another Richard Irving - a 10th generation descendant of Sir Richard. The modern Richard Irving was researching the history of his illustrious namesake when he came across a set of his ancestor's diaries which had been locked away in a vault since Sir Richard's death. Reading the diaries he was surprised to discover that Sir Richard had organised and sponsored a boxing club on the island called "The Stockade". Initially the club had arranged fights solely between males - mainly slaves, but also some free men from who came to the island to seek their fortune. Soon female slaves were added to the fight roster and then in 1757 a white free woman made an appearance in the fights which drew large crowds to the events. From that time Sir Richard promoted interracial fights that pitted black slave women against free white women. With Sir Richard's death the boxing club had ceased to exist and all records of it seemed to have been expunged from the history of the Caribbean. Richard decided that he would try to recreate the boxing club on his island based on the same ideas that had been developed by Sir Richard over 200 years before. He would recruit and train local women to be the "black slaves" and would offer the opportunity to fight them to the more athletic and sporting women staying his resorts. |
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