Every Day Life in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

by George Francis Dow

The Indians indulged in similar sports and played "hubbub," a game resembling dice, with much shouting of "hub, hub, hub," accompanied by slapping of breasts and thighs.

The innocent games of childhood may be taken for granted and their English origins may be studied in Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the People of England. It was gambling, and tavern amusements that the magistrates endeavored to control.

In 1646 complaints having been made to the General Court of disorders occasioned "by the use of Games of Shuffle-board and Bowling, in and about Houses of Common entertainment, whereby much precious time is spent unprofitably, and much waste of Wine and Beer occasioned"; the Court prohibited shuffle-board and bowling, "or any other Play or Game, in or about any such House" under penalty of twenty shillings for the Keeper of the house and five shillings for every person who "played at the said Game." As we now read this ancient law the waste of precious time and the undue amount of wine and beer consumed would seem to be the principal occasion for the anxiety of the Court, for the game of bowls is excellent exercise and innocent enough; shuffle-board, however, may well be looked upon with sour eyes. It required a highly polished board, or table, sometimes a floor thirty feet in length, marked with transverse lines, on which a coin or weight was driven by a blow with the hand. It bore some resemblance to tenpins, the object being to score points attained by sliding the coin to rest on or over a line at the farther end of the board. The game induced wagers and thereby a waste of substance and even in Old England was unlawful at various times, but difficult to suppress.

Massachusetts magistrates also enacted a law at the 1640 session, prohibiting any play or game for money or anything of value and forbade dancing in taverns upon any occasion, under penalty of five shillings for each offence. The observance of Christmas or any like day, "either by forbearing labor, feasting, or any other way" was also prohibited under penalty of five shillings for each person so offending. This action was occasioned by "disorders arising in several places within this jurisdiction by reason of some still observing such Festivals, as were superstitiously kept in other Countries, to the great dishonour of God and offence of others."

Strange as it may now seem, the non-observance of Christmas existed in orthodox communities, especially in the country towns, until well up to the time of the Civil War.

The magistrates having learned that it was a "custome too frequent in many places, to expend time in unlawful Games, as Cards, Dice, &c." at the same court decreed a fine of five shillings imposed on all so offending. Twenty-four years later the penalty was mightily increased to five pounds, one half to go to the Treasurer of the Colony and the other half to the informer. This was because of the increase of "the great sin of Gaming within this Jurisdiction, to the great dishonour of God, the corrupting of youth, and expending of much precious time and estate."[40]

All this legislation seems to have been directed against indulgence in gaiety and human weakness in and about a public tavern. What took place within the home was another matter although the orthodox Puritan continued to frown upon card playing and dancing until very recently. But cards and gambling were common at all times among the merchants and governing class as well as among the laborers and this was especially true in the seaport towns where sailors congregated and where there was more or less contact with the Southern colonies and with foreign lands. In 1720 playing cards cost a shilling a pack at James Lyndell's shop in Boston and a few years later David Gardiner was advertising Bibles, Prayer Books, account books, playing cards, and a great variety of other goods. Card tables appeared in inventories of estates, and were offered for sale by the cabinet makers.

At an early date horses became a prime article of trade with the West Indies, where they were used in the sugar cane crushing mills, and wherever horses are bred, questions of speed must naturally arise and therefore trials of speed and racing in the public eye.

This was a corrupting influence in the opinion of the Magistrates—"that variety of Horse racing, for money, or moneys worth, thereby occasing much misspence of precious time, and the drawing of many persons from the duty of their particular Callings, with the hazard of their Limbs and Lives." It therefore became unlawful "to practice in that Kind, within four miles of any Town, or in any Highway, the offenders, if caught, to pay twenty shillings each, the informer to receive one half."

But public opinion at a later date changed somewhat and here are a few items gleaned from Boston newspapers that demonstrate the fact that human nature two centuries ago was much the same as at the present time.