"dudo", 1840, meaning ???

[George Thompson]

     *Mayhem*. -- On Friday evening three black wenches residing at 40
Wooster st. . . . , got into a wrangle about some *dudo* claimed as the
common property of the trio.    ***
     Morning Courier & New-York Enquirer, June 8, 1840, p. 2, col. 3

My notes don't make it explicit that the "dudo" (which was italicized) was a
person, specifically a man, but presumably so.
Can this be connected with the word "dude", not recorded until about 40
years later?

GAT

--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ.
Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

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