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Primary Source
of the Month
Birth Record for Samuel Asay, with details showing a horse race, America, ca. 1806.
CONTENTS
A Sport Only for Gentlemen
Primary
Source of the Month
Teaching
Strategy
Colonial Williamsburg Teaching Resources
Teaching News
Quotation of the Month
The
Next
Electronic Field Trip is
Remember the Ladies
March 16, 2006
2005
Teaching
Resources Catalog
2005–2006 Electronic Field
Trip Scholarships
Games, activities, and resources about life in colonial America.
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TOP STORIES
A Sport Only for Gentlemen
Virginians of all ranks and denominations were, as one writer put it, “excessively fond of horses.” He might have added they were also excessively fond of racing their horses. Proud owners boasted of their horse’s speed and endurance, only to be challenged by another braggart. From such informal challenges, organized racing soon followed.
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More
Primary Source of the Month:
Birth Record for Samuel Asay
This month's primary source, an 1806 birth record, includes a scene showing spectators gathered near the finish line of a horserace. A scene such as this would have been very familiar to colonial Virginians.
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More
Teaching
Strategy: Classroom Challenge Horserace
During the colonial period, horseracing was a popular leisure activity for people of all classes. Races were intense contests involving personal honor, elaborate rules, and wide community interest.
In this lesson, students will view an image depicting an early American horserace, learn about early horseracing in the colonies, and participate in a group-based horserace by answering a series of challenge questions.
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Colonial
Williamsburg Teaching Resources for Your
Classroom Colonial
Williamsburg offers a variety of quality
instructional materials dealing with 18th-century
life, including:
- A Day in the Life (video series)
- Link to the Past, Bridge to the Future: Colonial Williamsburg's Animals (book)
- If You Lived in Williamsburg in Colonial Days (book)
- Think Like a Historian Primary Sources CD-ROMs
Learn More
Teaching
News
Jamestown Live!
In commemoration of America's 400th Anniversary, Jamestown is offering a free nationwide educational webcast in November 2006. This interactive experience will bring special experts, student reporters, and student ambassadors into the classroom live to interact with students from across the country. Registration for the web cast begins March 31st! PDF of announcement flyer
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Primary Sources CD-ROM Wins Two Awards
Colonial Williamsburg recently received two awards for the interactive "Think Like a Historian" Primary Sources CD-ROM: the "Award of Excellence" from Technology & Learning Magazine, and the "Teachers' Choice Award" from Learning Magazine.
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Quotation
of the Month
“A race is a Virginian’s pleasure,
For which they always can find leisure;
For that, they leave their farm and home,
From ev’ry quarter they can come;
With gentle, simple, rich and poor,
The race-ground soon is cover’d o’er;
Negroes the gaming spirit take,
And bet and wager ev’ry stake;
Males, females, all, both black and white
Together at this sport unite.”
~ Anne Ritson
A Poetical Picture of America (1809) |
Volume
4, Issue 7 
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