Puritans at Play
The Sporting Life in 17th and 18th
Century New England
I. English Sporting Precedents
• Medieval Sports
dominated by military
considerations
• Hunting and Fishing
• Medieval “Ball”
games
• Medieval Football
• Blood or “Butcherly”
Sports
II. Sports, Puritan Thought and
New England Practice
• Opposition to ball and
blood sports
• Reasons for Puritan
opposition to sport
• Sports as a political and
religious issue
--The Book of Sports
(1618, King James I)
• Public contempt for Sports
II. New England Practice (cont.)
• The “Howling
Wilderness”
• Sports and Militia Days
• Most popular pastime:
Fishing
--Shad and Salmon Club,
Hartford, CT
• Hunting in Colonial New
England
III. 18th Century Development in
Sport
• Emergence of modern
sport in England
--James Figg
• This aggressive spirit did
not spread to New
England
• Horse racing—the only
organized spectator sport
in 18th Century New
England
III. 18th Century Development in
Sport (cont.)
• Organized horse
racing began in Rhode
Island
• Horseracing in
Massachusetts
• Nine-pin Bowling
• Sports during the
American Revolution
III. 18th Century Development in
Sport (cont.)
• Swimming, a “sport of
opportunity”
• Sports and New
England women
• Emergence of spas for
the wealthy in the
1760’s
• Mineral springs were
first colonial “resorts”
IV. Games and Gambling: Puritan
Thought and New England Practice
• Puritan view of gambling
• Colonial gaming laws
• Origins of card playing
--Charles VI of France
(1392), first set of cards
• Puritan views of card
playing
• Positive benefits of card
playing
• Especially popular among
lower classes
IV. Games and Gambling (cont.)
• Whist
• Quadrille, all fours,
cribbage, piquet
• Popular Tavern games
• Backgammon
• Dice Games
• Mixed View of Lotteries
• Lotteries during the
Revolution and the Early
Republic period
“A Sport Only For Gentlemen”
Horseracing in Colonial
Virginia
I. Early Virginia Horseracing
• Origins of Spontaneous
racing
• 17th Century racing
practices
• Quarter Horses
• Importance of Arabian
Blood
• Important colonial
horseowners
--John Tayloe II
--William Byrd III
II. Changes in 18th Century
Racing
• Circular, mile-long
tracks
• Subscription Races
• First Intercolonial race
• Nature of colonial
horseracing
• Horseracing was an
economic asset to
colonial Virginia