The Toys and Games of Slave Families
Can you help us?
Historic Dutch Artwork
Everywhere we go, we look to try to find information on this subject but so far we can find nothing written down or even still existing in old stories passed down, etc. A good friend of ours named Shannon Prince who is a curator of a local Black African Museum was telling me just the other day how much that she would like to find history on that subject. We do realize that children of this culture, and time period had little chance to have a toy, and little time to play with their parents. But, kids will be kids. They have been for centuries, and always will be. So, we firmly believe that they would indeed have played with toys. Many times of course with these kids especially it would be a stone or a stick but we do believe that they would have had other toys as well.
The purpose for this area really is to ask each person reading this if they can help us with documentation and/or ideas on this subject. However, we will attempt to give you some of our thoughts. Please realize that is exactly what this is. These are just ideas but they are based on a strong knowledge of history of toys and games of that time.
In the book "The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America", by Lawrence W. Levine, is this quote. "Elsewhere I have argued that the master class in the antebellum South had an unconscious stake in seeing their African slaves maintain much of their cultural distinctiveness since it was far more difficult to justify the enslavement of a kindred folk than of a people whose behavior patterns were sufficiently different to allow them to be branded with such commonly used epithets as 'primitive', 'barbaric', and 'childlike'." (end quote.)
This seems to point to the fact that there would likely be more toys and games of African origin than we might think of considering elapsed periods of time, culture, etc. Thus, their toys and games would likely be a mixture of African with American input, severely limited by the few things that their time and almost negligible amount of money (considering slavery) would permit.
The following are ideas that we have found, but we caution that as of yet we have found little research to back this up. We hope that someone can provide us with that!
Toys
- Hoops. Metal hoops. Never wooden ones like we see today. Slaves repaired the broken wheels of wagons, so they would be able to take the metal rims from some of the broken wheels home for their children to play with. They would though NEVER be able to buy wooden ones.
- Dolls. Corn Husk. These could be quickly made by someone who knew how for no cost at all.
- Dolls. Rag Dolls. As above these could be made from small bits of cloth not usable for other things.
- Dolls. Other. We have for instance seen dolls made from old shoes or corn cobs. It would be very likely that such items would be used to make the few toys that these kids had.
- Moon Winders or Button on a string. The button on a string would certainly be a common toy. It is very likely that a toy like our "walnut moonwinder" would be commonly carved out with a knife as well. Just a piece of old wood. Two walnuts split apart. And some pine tar to glue them. Nothing would need to be purchased.
- Dolls. Rag Dolls. As above these could be made from small bits of cloth not usable for other things.
- Stick Horses. There is a scene in the movie "Song of the South", which depicts a poor black child and a rich land owner's child together going to play. The rich child would normally have a fancy stick horse. However, he gladly grabs a plain and simple stick to play with the poor child, who has a long stick and nothing more. We believe that scene to be very accurate. Stick horses would we believe be used by these kids, but they would simply be a short stout stick of the proper length. Nothing more!
- Dolls. Corn Husk. These could be quickly made by someone who knew how for no cost at all.
- Spool tops. Tops were made by kids everywhere in these times from thread spools with a short spindle in them. They are NOT easy to use as they were not well balanced. But, they were available and often made by all kids. Again, only an old used thread spool left from thread used to mend the "Master's" clothing, and a small stick carved with the jack knife to make the spindle would have made a quick free toy for slave children. These would work, yes. But, they would be very, very crude and be extremely difficult to use.
- Drums. Drums were in very common use by these people where they came from in Africa. Thus, we think that if a father had a chance to make one for his son or daughter he would have tried to do it. It is also likely though that this would be beyond the capabilities of most of these folk due to time, etc.
- Stilts. These have been a great toy for centuries that seems to have been everywhere. Just two tree limbs with the proper crotch and you are away
- Drums. Drums were in very common use by these people where they came from in Africa. Thus, we think that if a father had a chance to make one for his son or daughter he would have tried to do it. It is also likely though that this would be beyond the capabilities of most of these folk due to time, etc.
Games
It would have been even more difficult for adults to play games in these times than kids. Thus the amount of their use is quite questionable, but we believe that in at least some circumstances, simple games would have been played. We believe that games like Blind Man's Buff, or Leap Frog could have been played, but we do have no reason to suggest that this was actually so.
Once again, the above are not documented, but are simply based on our knowledge of toys, games, and history of the time. We would love to receive documentation of toys and games used by these kids and their parents if anyone can supply it. Since we are located in North America, we are primarily looking for that information, but we would of course like to know about other areas of the world as well.
