Public spaces for health and sport
6-12 Central Park
For New Yorkers of various social classes，ethnicities，and races，the creation of Central Park in the 1850s provided a place to play sports and enjoy fresh air in natural environs within a major city.With the increased pace of urbanization in the Antebellum Era，sports played in city streets came under criticism as a potential threat to personsmoving about in the walking cities.In the early decades of the nineteenth century，New York city officials had wanted to keep sport out of the parks in busy areas where working-classmen and youth playing games sent errant balls—or ran—into busy streets，thus perhaps endangering city folks who were passing by.
Providing appropriate grounds for sportand play in growing urban areas thus became a key issue for civic-minded public officials.Eminent white，middle-class New Yorkers，as well as reformers such aswriterWaltWhitman，educator Horace Mann，and journalist Sarah Josepha Hale，championed the need for a public park in New York City.Mayor Ambrose Kingsland's 1851 proposal of a 160-acre（65 hectare）space started the necessary political process for establishing Central Park.Built to promote themoral and physical health of urban residents in awholesome natural setting—and to promote political power，urban boosterism，and real estate，among othermotives—Central Park provided the framework for creation of other public parks in the United States.
In an annual report about Central Park，the class issue surfaced in the restrictions that board memberswanted to enforce on the behavior of people playing sports.Park commissioners believed that sport and other vigorous physical activity that threatened the“picture”portrayed by natural scenery in the park needed to be curtailed.To limit activity by working-class youth，park authorities required boys to show a certificate from a teacher confirming their good attendance and character，but many working-class boys during this period did not attend school beyond their early years.Schoolgirls，too，gained access to the fields for certain sporting games such as croquet5.
Notably，the park would be open to women's recreation.One of themost popular sports pursued by women in Central Park was ice skating，which gave them an outdoor pastime on the frozen waterways to promote health and enjoyment.Whether skatingwith otherwomen or girls or in amixed-gender skating party，women turned increasingly to ice skating during the Antebellum Period.In warmer weather，women and young girls turned to swimming for healthful exercise.Women learning to safely care for and avoid the drowning of their children near waterwaysmight swim in the public baths of Central Park.Swimming provided ameans forwomen to achieve physical health and to preventhorrible drowning of familymembers，frequently reported in urban and rural newspapers of the day.While private bathswere enjoyed by women of higher social status and means，public baths with a swimming pool provided a place where city women ofmodestmeans could learn to swim.
6-13 Ice Skating in Central Park
Then，as now，public amenities attracted themiddle class and businesses to the city.By that time in burgeoning Midwest cities where urban men and women might partake of sports，games，and the beauty of park grounds.From the 1820s through the 1850s，health reformers and advocates developed a positive outlook on the need for vigorous exercise and sport in order to advance a nation of sound American men and women.Yet not all inhabitants of the United States gained access to sporting opportunities or were included in the programs touted by reformers and sports journalists.Increased attention by people of diverse backgrounds to sport，along with the growth of industrialization，urbanization，and technological innovation—as well as the influence of social-class distinctions and gender and race lines that remained in the culture—provided the framework formodern competitive sport in the nineteenth century.
6-14 The Form ing of American Spirit
Notes：
1 The Great Awakening
The First Great Awakening（sometimes Great Awakening）or the Evangelical Revivalwas a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its Thirteen Colonies between the 1730s and 1740s.The revivalmovement permanently affected Protestantism as adherents strove to reneWindividual piety and religious devotion.The Great Awakeningmarked the emergence of Anglo-American evangelicalism as a trans-denominationalmovementwithin the Protestant churches.In the United States，the term Great Awakening ismost often used，while in the United Kingdom，it is referred to as the Evangelical Revival.
2 John Locke
John Locke FRS（/lɒk/；29 August1632—28 October 1704）was an English philosopher and physician，widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the“Father of Liberalism”.
3 Isaac New ton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS（25 December 1642—20 March 1726/27[a]）was an Englishmathematician，physicist，astronomer，theologian，and author（described in his own day as a“natural philosopher”）who iswidely recognized as one of themost influential scientists of all time，and a key figure in the scientific revolution.
4 Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakeningwas a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States.The movement began around 1790，gained momentum by 1800 and，after 1820，membership rose rapidly among Baptist and Methodist congregations whose preachers led themovement.Itwas past its peak by the late 1840s.In a reflection of Romanticism，the Second Great Awakening was characterized by enthusiasm，emotion，and an appeal to the supernatural.It rejected the skeptical rationalism and deism of the Enlightenment.
5 croquet
Croquet（croquêt）had been created in France，and it is a sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic ballswith amallet through hoops（often called“wickets”in the United States）embedded in a grass playing court.
6-15 Croquet at the Casino
6-16 Modern Croquet
Croquet at the Casino<The Irish Aesthete>V.SNow
Practice for the unit
A.Blank filling
1.Long before Europeans colonized the New World，Native Americans led physically active lives in pursuits necessary to their____________________________.
2.Running also served_________________________________，aswhen messengers needed to__________________________________________________________________________________________.
3.The cultural traditions these colonizers broughtwith them shaped the development of_____________________________________________________________________________.
4.Some of the new immigrants formed lower classes of laborers and enjoyed________________________________________________________________________________.
5.________were common sports for slaves.
A.Dance and music，horse racing，and hunting
B.Boxing，swimming，and fishing
6.The call to colonists to awaken from their religious slumber came together with the clergy's powerfulmid-eighteenth-centurymessage that_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________.
7.________became the first American college to start a gymnasium and organized competitive sportswould follow even later in the year__________________.
8.The process of transformation in the first half of the 19th century in the U.S.involved various changes，it strove to define itself as_____________________，with its own customs and culture，and_____________________________________________________.
9.Health reformer seeking to established a populacemade of_____________________________________in order to_______________________________________________________________________.
10.The three sports that are popular between woman in the Centre Park are_________________________________________.
B.Short-answer questions
1.The prohibition on sports and recreation on Sunday Sabbath were truly stern，which group of people were challenge the codes？
2.Most of the Black people were brought to America reluctantly，why they showed loyalty and solidarity to theirmasters？What kind of sports did slave parents preferred their children to practice？
3.Which Groups of people shaped the sporting heritage in colonial America？
4.What elements effect the forming ofmodern competitive sport？
C.Critical thinking
1.Sometimes sport divided groups，while at times it united people，how do you think？
2.Health reformers emphases sport for health，while the forming of modern competitive sport goes far beyond it，today，Chinese shows extremely high attention in competitive sport rather than the whole nation's health，how do you think？