The game is based upon the ills of slavery and in order towin the game...Justice must be served. I am sure that anyone could have found the game to be an entertaining one but it definitely embraces the injustices of the slave trade. This is obvious seeing as the winner of the game holds the valiant and sweet characters, Uncle Tom and Little Eva and of course Justice. This game was introduced during the active years of the slave trade but also at a time when more and more people were recognizing the injustice of the institution. This game would most likely appeal to abolitionists or anyone that felt that slavery was not a "just institution"!
Below is the link to the site containing the cards:
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/utc/tomituds/game3f.html
4 comments:
The thing that caught my eye was this line from the bottom of the instructions:
"Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852."
That's not something you expect to see in the instructions on your average deck of UNO cards.
These were very interesting times.
Tom
At first I was thinking,"What in the world?!" but it seems like this a positive step toward acknowledging slavery is wrong. I like the concept of uniting the families back together. Very interesting!!
I can't imagine a game like this in today's society! The phrasing for the winner is interesting: the winner "holds" Eva, Uncle Tom and Justice. Holding, implicating ownership of a person - but I guess in that time period, ownership of a person was not a foreign idea.
I wonder who the target audience for this game was. (Although I'm sure they didn't worry about that type of thing when this game was created.) I just can't imagine playing a card game with children where the main focus was "the continual separation and return of families." It seems like such a heartbreaking game.
I agree with Kandi. There is no way a game like this would be sold today. It's just not politically correct.
Post a Comment