African Americans

Last Updated December 1, 2008

African Americans and Early Ballplay

A Chronology

Note: This list was derived from version 10 of the full Protoball Chronology, which was uploaded in December 2008. (Search terms: Negro, black, colored, slaves) Additional relevant entries may have been added to any later versions of the full Chronology; not all entries on this subchronology are necessarily identical to those on the most recently updated full Chronology.. Readers are encouraged to suggest or perform updates. Please send notes about omissions, mistakes, typos, etc, to lmccray@mit.edu.

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1797.3 – Fayetteville NC Bans Sunday Ballplaying by African-Americans

Gilbert, Tom, Baseball and the Color Line, [Franklin Watts, NY, 1995], p.38. Per Millen, note # 15.

1797.5 –In NC, Negroes Face 15 Lashes for Ballplaying

A punishment of 15 lashes was specified for “negroes, that shall make a noise or assemble in a riotous manner in any of the streets [of Fayetteville NC] on the Sabbath day; or that may be seen playing ball on that day.” North-Carolina Minerva (March 11, 1797), excerpted in G. Johnson, Ante-Bellum North Carolina: A Social History (Chapel Hill NC, 1937), page 551; as cited in Thomas L. Altherr, “Chucking the Old Apple: Recent Discoveries of Pre-1840 North American Ball Games,” Base Ball, Volume 2, number 1 (Spring 2008), page 29

1805.6 –In SC, Some Slaves Use Sundays for Ballplaying

“The negroes when not hurried have this day [Sunday] for amusement & great numbers are seen about, some playing ball, some with things for sale & some dressed up going to meeting.” Edward Hooker, Diaries, 1805-1830: MS 72876 and 72877, Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford CT; per Thomas L. Altherr, “Chucking the Old Apple: Recent Discoveries of Pre-1840 North American Ball Games,” Base Ball, Volume 2, number 1 (Spring 2008), pages 29-30. Tom [ibid, page 29] describes Hooker as a recent Yale graduate who in 1805 was a newly-arrived tutor in Columbia, SC. Tom says “this may be the first recorded evidence of slaves [p29/30] playing ball.

1810s -- Blacks and Whites Play at Ball Together in Harvard Yard

"During my employment at Cambridge the College yard continued without gates. The Stage passed through it; and though I was very attentive to the hour, I could not always avoid injury from the Stage horn. Blacks and Whites occasionally played together at ball in the College yard; but the screaming of the two fruit boys, who took their stand on the Southern side of Holden was regular and permanent. Their piercing shrieks usually compelled me to withdraw sooner or later."

William Croswell, letter drafted to the Harvard Corporation, December 1827. Croswell, a 1780 graduate of the College, was recalling events the occurred while he worked as a cataloguer in the College Library from 1812 to1821. Submitted by Kyle DeCicco-Carey, August 8, 2007. Croswell’s papers are found at HUG 1306.5.

1840s.32 – Ballplaying by Slaves is Part of a Normal Plantation Sunday in GA

“The slaves had finished the tasks that had been assigned to them in the morning and were now enjoying holiday recreations. Some were trundling the hoop, some were playing ball, some were dancing at the sound of the fiddle . . . In this manner the Sabbath is usually spent on a Southern plantation.” Emily Burke, Pleasure and Pain: Reminiscences of Georgia in the 1840s (Beehive Press, Savannah, GA, 1991), pages 40-41. Originally published in Ohio in 1850. Text unavailable 11/08 on Google Books.

Per Thomas L. Altherr, “Chucking the Old Apple: Recent Discoveries of Pre-1840 North American Ball Games,” Base Ball, Volume 2, number 1 (Spring 2008), page 30. Tom [ibid] describes Burke as a northern schoolteacher.

1850s.1 – Accounts of Ballplaying by Slaves

Wiggins, Kenneth, “Sport and Popular Pastimes in the Plantation Community: The Slave Experience,” Thesis, University of Maryland, 1979. Per Millen, notes #26-29. Note: the dates and circumstances and locations of these cases are unclear in Millen. One refers to plugging.

1860.8 – Union Club of Former Slaves Plays in New York Area

Malloy, Jerry, “Early Black Baseball/Charles Douglass,” http://mysite.verizon.net/brak2.0/antebell.htm, accessed 6/2/04.

1860.9 -- Two African-American Teams Play in New York

Dixon, Phil, and Patrick J. Hannigan, The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History [Amereon House, 1992], pp. 31-2) cite a game played on September 28, 1860, between the Unknowns and another black team, the Union Club, of Williamsburg.

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