Old Ways.

The traditions of the past still defined recreations of most Americans in the 1850s through the 1870s, particularly in the years before the Civil War. Americans were flocking to cities, but in 1860 only six million, or one in five, lived in an urban environment. Old patterns of private entertainments, family amusements, and events such as cornhuskings, barn raisings, and country dances would continue to knit together the fabric of rural communities into the twentieth century. Throughout the nineteenth century, roles and recreations were largely dictated by one's sex. Although antebellum women, including Catharine Beecher and Lydia Sigourney, advocated physical exercise such as rowing, swimming, walking, and calisthenics, women generally engaged in domestic recreations, visiting neighbors and participating in quilting bees. Men spent much of their free time hunting and fishing and often gathered together for rougher amusements.

A Bloody Legacy.

Entertainments that featured the shedding of...