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Boxing and its predecessor, prizefighting, is a form of precarious labour and forms part of a broader field of work that young itinerant black men could participate in during the nineteenth century. Practised in an era of institutionalised racism, it was characterised by exploitative working arrangements and a high degree of precarity. These forces, encountered in North America, the British Empire and Europe, fundamentally shaped the careers of these fighters. This article traces the career of one such boxer, Josef ‘Young Pluto’ or ‘Joe Pluto’ Brown, a South African of mixed-race and the first to fight for an officially recognised World Boxing Champion Title. More significantly, though, his life serves as a means to cast a light on and help to inform a broader understanding of race, labour, sport, precarity and international migration in the nineteenth- and early twentieth century.

sport in history

‘Scientific exponent of the art’ or ‘punching bag in chocolate’?: colonialism, race and precarity in the prizefighting and boxing career of Joe ‘Young Pluto’ Brown, c. 1872–1931