1802.3

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New England Woman Sees Ballplaying in Virginia, Perhaps by "All Colors"

Salience Noteworthy
Tags African Americans
City/State/Country: Norfolk, VA, US
Age of Players Juvenile, Youth, Adult
Text

[A (April 25, 1802)]  "Saw great numbers of people of all ages, ranks, and colours, sporting away the day -- some playing ball, some riding the wooden horses . . . . , others drinking, smoaking, etc." 

[B (May 9, 1802)] "the inhabitants employed as they usually are on Sundays,  some taking the air in coaches, some playing at ball, at nine pins, marbles, and every kind of game, even horseracing."

Diarist Ruth Henshaw Bascom had moved from New England to the Norfolk area in 1801.

 

Sources

[A] A. G. Roeber, ed.,  A New England Woman's Perspective on Norfolk, Virginia, 1801-102: Excerpts from the Diary of Ruth Henshaw Bascom, (Worcester MA, American Antiquarian Society, 1979), pp. 308-309.

[B] A. G. Roeber, ed.,  A New England Woman's Perspective on Norfolk, Virginia, 1801-102: Excerpts from the Diary of Ruth Henshaw Bascom, (Worcester MA, American Antiquarian Society, 1979), pp. 311.

 

Comment

 

Tom Altherr comments that while Mrs. Bascom disdained such activities on Sundays, she had "left valuable evidence of the seemingly commonplace status ball play had in her day in the South.  Moreover, despite the ambiguity of her [May 9] diary entry, African Americans may have been playing ball, perhaps even with whites."  

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Submitted by Tom Altherr
Submission Note Uploaded to the Protoball site, April 2013



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