Interest in sports grew with rising income levels and a growing colonial economy that made leisure activities more attractive. Attempts to enforce seventeenth-century laws prohibiting popular leisure activities had long since ended. As the colonies developed stable economic and social foundations, however, such prohibitions broke down and colonists of all classes engaged in a wide range of games and amusements.īy the mid-1700s distinctive regional patterns for individual and organized sport had taken root.
Massachusetts Bay Colony and Jamestown, leaders felt compelled to 'suffer no Idle persons' and to adopt laws 'in detestation of idleness.' During the early decades of settlement, strict proscriptions against dancing, bowling, dice and cards, and the playing of games of ball were imposed, although enforcement was sporadic. The settlers who came to North America brought with them the love of games and amusements that characterized 'Merrie Olde England,' but recreation had to give way to the creation of a new society in an intimidating and dangerous environment. By 1750 sport and recreation had become an important part of everyday life in colonial America.
