Unorganized Recreation.

Even the earliest commentators recognized that America's lakes, rivers, and streams were overflowing with fish and shellfish. Since early settlements and all colonial cities were built near water, few people lived far from a fishing spot. Fishing was relatively easy since all one needed was a line, a pole, and some bait. Both blacks and whites also seemed to find small boats or canoes from which to fish. In the early 1730s the indentured servant William Moraley and a friend fished the Delaware River near Philadelphia and in twenty minutes "caught between us 140 Perch and Roach." They sold some sixty of them for "Rum and Sugar" and used the rest to serve a fish dinner, complete with drink, to four friends. Men and women went fishing together, one of the few recreations that saw the genders mingle. The great marshes of the Carolinas...