Colonial Games in Rhode Island

Many colonial American games were traditional English folk games.

While life in the early American colonies was difficult, people still found time for sports and games. Children had toys and played a variety of games, while men played village games based on old English folk sports, the predecessors of today's baseball and football. Board games, wooden toys, running games like tag and blindman's buff, and horseshoes were also popular.

Nine Man Morris

The most played board game of the colonial period was Nine Man's Morris, a strategy game which dates to the days of the Roman Empire and was favaored in medieval England. You play it on a board with 24 spaces, and each player has nine pieces or men. When a player manages to line up 3 of his pieces in a row, he eliminates one of the opposing player's pieces. Play continues until one player has fewer than three pieces or no legal moves.

Blindman's Buff

A number of tag games were popular among colonial children, and one of the most widespread was Blindman's Buff. Blindman's Buff is played in an open, outdoor space or large, empty room. One child is blindfolded and then must grope around to find the others without being able to see them. The other players attempt to avoid being touched and often will taunt or tease the blindfolded player to confuse or misdirect him. When a player is tagged, she then must put on the blindfold and chase the others.

Wooden Toys

Colonial children also played with several different types of simple, wooden, toys. Both boys and girls played with hoops, which they would either push along with a stick while running alongside or toss in the air. Also popular were cup and ball toys in which the child attempts to toss and catch a ball in a cup on the end of a stick. Colonial children also often played with spinning tops.

Quoits

A game which dates back to the ancient Greeks and that had been popular in England for hundreds of years prior to colonial times, quoits is a game in which players toss a rope or metal rings a set distance to land on or closest to a spike. Similar to horseshoes, it is possible the game originally made use of horseshoes for rings, but colonial children would have used pieces of rope. Participants play by a number of variations and rules originating in different parts of England, but ring toss games of some form were popular throughout the colonies.

The Boston Game and the New England Game

Two early versions of contemporary football and baseball were also popular throughout New England, including Rhode Island. Both the Boston game, contemporary football, and the New England game, contemporary baseball, originated in areas of southeast England as matches between villages or parishes. Both games become more regulated and organized in the new world, and their popularity is evidenced by the names. The New England game was played throughout the region and eventually, with the Revolution, would spread to New York and New Jersey. Ball games were not popular in the southern colonies.

References

• "Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America"; David Hackett Fischer;1989
• "A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony"; John Demos; 1970