During the colonial era and well into the 1800s, cockfighting was enormously popular in the Carolinas. The sport's popularity in England meant that settlers brought it across the Atlantic where it rapidly gained prominence. The second most popular sport in the Carolinas, cockfighting had a legion of fans, but some Carolinians called the sport cruel and condemned the behaviors around it. After the Civil War, the sport declined and ultimately was outlawed in North and South Carolina