New Englander Confronts Impious Sunday Ball-playing in Virginia

From Protoball
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Articles
Writer.png

Articles by Digger

Articles by Category
Essays
Find Stories
Interviews
SABR Origins Newsletter
The Next Destin'd Post, 2012 - 2013
19CBB Digest
Search Tips
Site Tips
John Thorn's "Our Game" Blog Posts On Origins
LISTSERV
LISTSERV Resources
New England Roots

Protoball Search Aid

Add an Article
Add an Article with a Version Number
Article Sort Values
Add an Article Category

"Great numbers of people of all ages, ranks, and colors"

by Tom Altherr, March 2013

Property "Version" (as page type) with input value "{{{Version}}}" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process.


Comments

<comments voting="Plus" />

Ruth Henshaw, a Massachusetts native, moved to southeast Virginia in 1801. The next spring, while traveling around the Norfolk area, twice she mentioned witnessing ball playing.

In her April 25th diary entry, she wrote that on that Sunday she "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,&c." These activities offended her sabbatarian sensibilities, and she vowed she would not ride out on anymore Sundays.

But a couple of weeks later, traveling around Norfolk again on a Sabbath, she noted on May 9th "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." Despite her disdain, Henshaw left valuable evidence of the seemingly commonplace status ball play had in her day in the South. Moreover, albeit the ambiguity of the first diary entry, African Americans may have been playing ball,perhaps even with whites.

Source: [Ruth Henshaw Bascom], A New England Woman's Perspective on Norfolk, Virginia, 1801-1802:Excerpts from the Diary of Ruth Henshaw Bascom, A.G. Roeber, ed. (Worcester, Massachusetts: AmericanAntiquarian Society, 1979), pp. 308-309 and 311.

--From the March issue of the Next Destin'd Post