Colonial Chidren's Games - Guest Post by 12-Year-Old Yorktown Victory Center Volunteer

Playing Shut the Box at Yorktown Victory Center

Guest Post by 12-year-old Yorktown Victory Center Volunteer

Colonial Games

In the summer of 2013, I  began playing certain colonial games because I went through training at Yorktown Victory Center boot camp for volunteers. The training is where volunteers come in for three days and on the third day there are two shifts, one at 10:00 and one at 11:30.  Now I will describe the games that I might play as a volunteer to entertain visitors.

Fox and Geese: The game of Fox and Geese was a very popular colonial board game with marbles in which the geese would try to trap the fox and the fox tried to eat all the geese. Goal of the game, which is a two player game, is either to trap the fox (red or brown marble) or eat all the geese (white marbles.)  To trap the fox you have to corner it by penning it in with geese. Or you can surround it with the geese.  Here is a link to a Wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_games

Shut the Box (Clark now owns a nice version of this game, purchased from the museum store-see picture above): Originally “Shut the Box” was a Norman game played by sailors. We were taught this game, also, which colonial children enjoyed and it is a game for all ages.  The game has two dice which are rolled, there is a box frame with 9 wooden pieces that flip on a dowel. The point of the game is to have the least points or numbers because that means the closer you are to shutting the box.  Here is a link to a Wiki page about the game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shut_the_Box

Please note there are different versions of the game.

Mancala is another popular game.

Mancala game

Outdoor games

Rolling the hoop: You have a stick and a hoop and you try to hit the hoop as many times as you can to move the hoop. The object is to make it roll. And making it roll fast is helpful because it makes the hoop go straighter, faster, and easier to control. 

9 Pins colonial game

Nine pins: You try to knock down all the pins but the middle pin.  The ball is fairly small, made of wood, and you roll it from as far back as you think necessary.  It is possibly a co-ed sport but more likely a boy sport.

Here’s a nice link to more Colonial Children’s Games http://www.pencaderheritage.org/main/teachtool/games.pdf

Bio: Our guest is a middle school student who loves history. He just obtained his second perfect 600 score in History on this SOL exams at school!  This is his first guest post on CQ!  He lives in the historic triangle of Virginia and his mother thinks he is totally awesome. He is a youth volunteer at the Yorktown Victory Center which is under major construction to become the AMERICAN REVOLUTION MUSEUM AT YORKTOWN.