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Transcription
In this podcast, Will and the speaker discuss sports and games in the Revolutionary Era. They highlight the importance of physical activity and sports in early America, both as a form of entertainment and as a preparation mechanism for war. They mention gambling on horses as a popular activity, as well as the indigenous peoples' participation in sports like lacrosse and wicket. They also talk about hunting and fishing as physical activities that built skills applicable to the battlefield. Overall, they emphasize how sports and games played a significant role in the lives of both colonists and indigenous peoples during this time. Welcome to the podcast and today Will and I will be talking about sports and games in the Revolutionary Era and touch on key points and key people that participated in youth events during this time. Our main purpose in putting together this podcast is to bring to light the importance of physical activity and sports in early America as a source of entertainment, as well as a preparation mechanism for the wars that would be fought. Physical activity was vital to the everyday lives of those ranging from leaders of our country to those farming in the countryside. When you think about the Revolutionary Era, you think of our young and hungry country and all these events that led to them, but what is always missed, like Will said, is the preparation of the war and how soldiers stayed in shape and had fun during these trying times. Before the Revolution and even after, America was not a country of wealth, it was a land that showed much promise but it did not encapsulate a lot for soldiers and young men and women to do. So we asked ourselves what would a population do with little resources at a time of war and revolution to keep themselves entertained. I found an article written by Tony Collins about how in the late 1700s a capitalist society was being built by gambling. Gambling on horses was a huge thing to do even before our country was born and having this competitive nature just made everybody want to be above everyone else, or I guess you could say richer than everyone else. For a country that did not have very much money, this directed or started a trend of wanting to build up a portfolio of money. If capitalist progression of America is interesting to look at, I wanted to find history of those who were here before the colonists arrived. One thing I found was a book called Sports in American History from Colonialization to Globalization. It does a great job of showcasing how the indigenous peoples of North America were participating in sports and games in the time of colonization. It was surprising to read of the many cultural pastimes that they did. One example would be lacrosse, which was by far their preferred sport, so much as to say it was a religious experience for many of them. One point about lacrosse is very interesting because you definitely wouldn't expect something like that to be played this many years ago. Before we did this research, I didn't even know that was a thing for them and definitely adding religion to it makes it even better. Yeah, they would use it as a training for war and sometimes take their sticks to their graves as a form of respect for their success on the field. Even grab the attention of colonists as well as European travelers where they would watch the native people play. They would sometimes shout things at them in bad taste. After a while, they learned to respect the game more. That's really cool. Another sport that was played a lot was wicket, but what is a wicket? It is three smaller wooden poles with one on top to keep them all together. The goal of a thrower is to throw the ball and hit the wicket to get the batter out. Essentially, this is cricket. They are both the same game. It is just depending on where you were at the time. It was either called cricket or wicket. I know that wicket ended up being a popular game for the colonists. Do you know if wicket was also a competition for the colonists as lacrosse was for the indigenous people or if it was played casually for fun? It was actually really competitive. The game was played a lot in early America and was beloved by a lot of important figures that we remember today. In a quote by George Ewing, he said that Washington, quote, did us the honor to play wicket with us, end quote. So, we played it a lot. Also, London and New York, I want to mention, it was very competitive. It was almost like a sporting event that you can see today. Bringing back to the native people, different tribes would have unique games such as shinny, which was another field hockey game. Double ball, a game that was similar to lacrosse but included two balls. It is funny to see the sports that we are mentioning aren't the most popular sports that are around today, but they very much aren't dead. These sports are still played today and with the native influence, we can only thank them for it. Some of their pastimes, we are a little bit more familiar with such as running, swimming, archery, horseback riding, and handball. We also can't forget their prowess in hunting and fishing. For another piece of research, I found that Iroquois runners could cover 240 miles over a three-day period and attempted to network with different tribes. Now, 240 miles in that span of time is almost unheard of. 80 miles a day is kind of absurd. If that is gone now, people could do that type of running. In times where technology, nutrition are not what they are now. I've heard of people doing ultra-marathons nowadays, but the access that humans have to equipment and food that can give them an edge is not comparable. On that same notion, they would hunt with a stick and string and be able to bring animals home to eat. People carry out this traditional way of hunting even today. And this seems like a great way to segue into our next topic right after this short break. Do you ever wish you could run for 240 miles like the indigenous people of North America that inhabited this land? Well, now you can with this fitness program. In just two weeks, you can lose 20 pounds. And with the Revolutionary Lifestyle program, you could run forever and ever. Never worry about getting tired. Check out our website, www.revolutionarylifestyle.com to claim your first three months free. Welcome back, folks. As Drew said before, this is a great lead into our topic of sports and physical activity that the colonists at the time would consume. Much like the many did before them as indigenous people, they would hunt fish for a source of food. Unlike the technology that allows hunting to be easier than it ever has been today, using a musket to take out small game all the way up to big game is no easy task. The patience to walk for miles with no guarantee of return in itself is daunting. I also want to make the point that walking miles through the woods off-trail is an entirely different game than walking on a trail. As someone who enjoys hunting, you can feel like a quarter mile through the thick woods is over two miles, especially when carrying gear. Not to mention, if you kill something, you have to still dress it and pack it back out. Animals such as the white-tailed deer would be very burdensome to carry out of the woods. My main point on this rant is to convey that hunting is no easy task and the skills required to take an animal can translate to this strategy on the battlefield. An example of this is George Washington's knack for fox hunting. Through research, we found a drawing that displayed fox hunting with dogs at this time period. It really seemed like something that would take a lot of thought and training to make sure the dogs were ready to rumble. Those are really good points about hunting. Also with hunting and fishing, football was a big sport, and no, I'm not talking about American football. Football was played, but it was played in somewhat of a different way. If you look at it today, there is a lot more strategy and passing involved when played by people like Nathan Hale back in the day. He was a patriot and an American spy. It was more just running and kicking the ball, which was still good physical activity. Yeah, Nathan Hale, he was a true patriot. He was one hell of a guy. We kind of touched on it earlier, but I want to reiterate that the impacts that these sports had on war was more than we think. The strategy, the physical aspects, all can help it translate to fighting, especially when fighting with no big machine guns. Instead, using muskets and more close and personal fighting make the physical aspects more important with protecting yourself or attacking. Yeah, I definitely agree with that. In a time when there were not weapons accurate at a very far range, sports and games introduced the importance of close quarters movement and built a foundation of strategy in the minds of those who may soon be on the wrong side of the bayonet. Yeah, that's a good point, and we have to remember that it was not like it is nowadays. There weren't organized sources of entertainment, especially for soldiers. They would have to find ways to amuse themselves at a time with few resources. Yeah, a lot of people didn't have the time to play games before the camps and the military. In a journal article called Sports and Games of the American Revolution, I found they would wrestle, play cricket, handball, and other games they could muster up the supplies they had at hand. Wrestling is a cool point because wrestling is a form of combat and could be used in war if weapons are dropped or out of ammo. Wrestling was actually frowned upon in camps, and Bonnie Ledbetter wrote an article that, quote, though all wrestling in camp was strictly forbidden by orders given the previous June, end quote. For some context, this was about a wrestling event going on between, at the time, two of the top wrestlers. Yeah, wrestling was prohibited in some camps, but according to the orders from George Washington at Morristown in May 1777, Washington encouraged games. He says, quote, Improve all the leisure time your brigade may have from other duties in maneuvering and teaching the men the use of their legs, which is infinitely more important than using or than learning the manual exercise. Cause the officers to attend regularly and to perform their partisan duties with the men. Games as an exercise for amusement may not only be permitted but encouraged. This shows how important sport was in keeping soldiers ready for battle. And while team-based games are important at the time, individual physical fitness was also very important. Benjamin Franklin was a prominent figure at the time, as we found in his autobiography, that he enjoyed swimming as a pastime. He even shared this passion with some of his colleagues. Also, in a diary we found of George Washington, it shows a more casual aspect of physical activity in which work is done around the house and doing chores. It normally was done by the slaves, but for ordinary people it also could have been done by themselves. Doing tasks on the run that would take the majority of the day, being outside in the heat or cold, working, and doing yard work was another good way of staying in shape. Yeah, Washington's diary showed it is definitely something done by everybody. Also, there were many times when soldiers had to go from camp to camp and build a whole new home by themselves or with other soldiers. Getting acclimated to a new place by making it suitable for them to live was not an easy job. Yeah, that is pretty taxing on the body and takes a lot, but I bet it was pretty rewarding when they would actually finish a house and could live in it. I definitely agree. But it looks like our time is almost up, and to wrap things up, I do want to reiterate our claim that sports and physical activity are overlooked aspects of life around the Revolution, and we do think that all of these games, sports, events, were very important in building a good man and soldier and gave them the rights to be a beast. Sure, and talking about these topics is very interesting, and we thank you, Dr. N, for listening today, and we hope you enjoyed it.
