Reddit reviews Self-Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies: A Nineteenth-Century Treatise on Boxing, Kicking, Grappling, and Fencing with the Cane and Quarterstaff

If you want to be historical both Col. Monstery and Allanson-Winn both recommend the whole fist with a slightly different type of jab where the fist is upside down and comes up slightly at an angle.
Both of these men had many fights behind them and had proven that their technique didn't end up with busted hands and also did account for grappling.
Col. Monstery Book
In the book he talks about his boxing system, conditioning your knuckles, and addresses different threats faced back then. He also has an biographical section and advice on weapons.

I vaguely recall references to an unusual smallsword manual in connection with the Colonial Williamsburg historical society.

Seconding the recommendation of Col. Monstery's self defense manual, which has recently been republished - http://www.amazon.com/Self-Defense-Gentlemen-Ladies-Nineteenth-Century-Quarterstaff/dp/1583948686.

Here is a very reasonably priced book on the subject:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1583948686/

And here is a lengthy online article about the history of cane defense, with an overview of, and links to, period sources:

https://martialartsnewyork.org/2016/08/16/a-history-of-cane-self-defense-in-america-1798-1930/

I hope this helps!

I picked up this book for a friend. Self-Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies: A Nineteenth-Century Treatise on Boxing, Kicking, Grappling, and Fencing with the Cane and Quarterstaff. It was neat to read. Have you seen it? Any thoughts?

GRAPPLING and the SWORD. During the 19th century, Colonel Thomas Monstery was known to use seizures and disarms in both actual duels and contests with the sword. His rival, Regis Senac, once complained that during a private bout with Monstery in the 1870s, the latter had resorted to seizures and disarms when they came into close distance. On a similar note, an account of Monstery's duel with the Mexican General Bragamonte describes such techniques:

"At length Bragamonte tried his last secret trick, which would have puzzled any merely school fencer. Monstery made a light cut at his arm, outside, and Bragamonte threw up his own sword to bind his enemy’s blade there, quick as a flash threw forward his left foot and clutched for Monstery’s sword-wrist with his left hand. It was the end of the duel. Quicker than even the Spaniard, the American threw forward his own left foot, drawing back his sword out of danger, and in an instant had reversed the trick. Bragamonte’s sword-wrist was in his grasp, and he plunged his own blade deep into the Spaniard’s vitals, so that the point came out behind Bragamonte’s back, and the hilt struck his breast."

At another time, during a fencing bout with Monstery at the latter's academy, student Francis Wilson recounted how he momentarily caught the Colonel off guard, and succeeded in disarming him.

Wilson described what happened next:

"When I tried to follow up the advantage, he deftly disarmed me with his bare hand and turned the point of my sword against me."

• Self Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies