The Play of Slave Children

The Play of Slave Children

This article relates to The World Doesn't Require You

One of the stories in The World Doesn't Require You is inspired by the games of slave children. Given the harsh and miserable social realities forced upon slaves, it almost seems antithetical to think there was opportunity for play and games. However, evidence gathered from interviews with former slaves suggests that many children managed to engage in similar forms of play as free children of the time period.

Slave children played with dolls, balls and jump ropes, and also engaged in hopscotch and ring games. But since there was no possibility of purchasing toys from stores, children or their parents made their own. Discarded yarn was used to form balls. Corn husks or sticks and rags were used to create dolls. Marbles were made from clay.

There were also traditional games such as "skeeting." When lakes would freeze over in the winter, children would run out onto the frozen water, jump on the ice, and continue running as a sort of dare. Another game was "smut," which used grains of corn to stand in for the different suits in a traditional pack of cards.

Interestingly, research has shown that children avoided playing games that required the elimination of players, which potentially reflects the values of cooperation and community deemed important by slaves. For example, during a game similar to dodgeball, when somebody got hit by the ball, the children would simply start the game over again. This removed the need for players to have to sit on the sidelines for the remainder of the game.

Children also engaged in make-believe and roleplay. They would assume the roles of important characters from stories they made up or traditional folk stories, usually set around church activities, funerals and slave auctions. This goes to show that even in play, children were still governed by the realities they witnessed around them. Typically, children would continue to enact the roles they were born into and that formed the social etiquette of the Southern plantations. Even when white and Black children engaged in play together, despite some small friendships, the tendency was for the play world to reflect the caste system and hierarchy of the plantations. For example, in games of wagon, the white children would ride the cart while Black children pulled them along.

Despite these sad truths, historians believe that play was especially important to slave children since it allowed them to gain some semblance of control over their daily lives. Sports historian David K. Wiggins explains, "Play was one activity where slaves could realize a certain degree of dignity and could affirm and sustain their existence. They could withstand bondage much more easily when allowed to participate with fellow slaves in a variety of different play activities."

Through games and activities, children could come to terms with what they saw around them to better cope with slavery's stresses and instill a sense of self-worth in themselves. It's perhaps heartening to realize that even in situations of great oppression, children still have the capacity to conjure moments of joy and kindness.

Corn husk doll, courtesy of icollector.com.

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This "beyond the book article" relates to The World Doesn't Require You. It originally ran in October 2019 and has been updated for the August 2020 paperback edition. Go to magazine.