1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:13,200 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome 3 00:00:13,240 --> 00:00:17,239 Speaker 1: to Friday. I'm Holly Fry, I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Uh. 4 00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:20,040 Speaker 1: Today's casual Friday feels extra casual because we're talking about 5 00:00:20,040 --> 00:00:23,480 Speaker 1: a game. Yep, we are. Have you played much croquet? 6 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:27,360 Speaker 1: So I did not grow up playing any croquet. I 7 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:31,640 Speaker 1: don't think I had ever played any croquet until I 8 00:00:31,680 --> 00:00:35,280 Speaker 1: had not moved to Massachusetts yet, but I had started 9 00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:37,960 Speaker 1: visiting here and hanging out with people who have been 10 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:43,960 Speaker 1: playing croquet their whole lives. Uh. And there is just 11 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:49,040 Speaker 1: a lot of especially in good weather UM casual croquet playing. 12 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:53,040 Speaker 1: A bunch of us go on a vacation UM every 13 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:56,280 Speaker 1: September where we all rent a house together and hang 14 00:00:56,280 --> 00:01:00,920 Speaker 1: out and there is a literal croquet tournament. UM. Sometimes 15 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:03,920 Speaker 1: there's some house rules or whatever, but it's like a 16 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:08,280 Speaker 1: pretty standard croquet tournament. We have also had weird variations 17 00:01:08,319 --> 00:01:11,559 Speaker 1: on croquet, like one year the vacation was Harry Potter 18 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:14,720 Speaker 1: themed and so we had wizards croquet as a thing 19 00:01:14,760 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 1: to play. UM. Some of the group are very competitive 20 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:23,319 Speaker 1: about this, but for others of us it is more 21 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:27,360 Speaker 1: about standing around and talking with a cocktail in her hand. Yeah. 22 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:30,720 Speaker 1: I Um. When I was a kid one Christmas, we 23 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:33,760 Speaker 1: got a croque set as a gift, and I don't 24 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:36,120 Speaker 1: think we ever like really got the hang of it 25 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:38,959 Speaker 1: or played by the rules. I'm a lot younger than 26 00:01:39,040 --> 00:01:42,319 Speaker 1: my siblings, so I think I wanted them to play 27 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:44,800 Speaker 1: with me, and they're like, you're a kid, um, And 28 00:01:44,959 --> 00:01:46,440 Speaker 1: so then it was kind of like my brother would 29 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:49,440 Speaker 1: smack a ball at me, and that's croquet, and so 30 00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:52,920 Speaker 1: it's never like a thing for me. Um. And now 31 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:56,279 Speaker 1: as I'm older, I don't tend to enjoy competitive things 32 00:01:56,320 --> 00:01:59,440 Speaker 1: with my friends. It's just not fun. But I was 33 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:01,480 Speaker 1: trying to come up with a way we could invent 34 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:06,520 Speaker 1: a game called cocktail croquet that maybe involves like getting 35 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:09,760 Speaker 1: through a wicket and you get some sort of drink 36 00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:11,919 Speaker 1: associated with that wicket. I don't know, it's still in 37 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: it's it's infant stages. Yet this game I'm making up 38 00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:17,680 Speaker 1: in my head. If I could add a Star Wars 39 00:02:17,720 --> 00:02:19,919 Speaker 1: seem to it, I think I'd really be onto it. Yeah. 40 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:22,079 Speaker 1: I have a feeling that the reason that we did 41 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:24,320 Speaker 1: not have a croquet set at at our house that 42 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:27,760 Speaker 1: I know about growing up. It's entirely possible my parents 43 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:30,200 Speaker 1: had one stashed in the attic or something because we 44 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:33,400 Speaker 1: had other outdoor games. We were encouraged to play outside, 45 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:36,520 Speaker 1: But I think it was my brother and I would 46 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:39,359 Speaker 1: have tried to hit each other with mallets and throw 47 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:42,280 Speaker 1: balls at each other and generally cause each other harm. 48 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:45,799 Speaker 1: But I think, yeah, that's often how games play out 49 00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:48,920 Speaker 1: when your kid. Yeah, especially if there are rules that 50 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:54,359 Speaker 1: seem like homework, you're more likely to default to just injury. 51 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:58,079 Speaker 1: You mentioned in the episode that you had come across 52 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:02,399 Speaker 1: an article discussing how okay had spread to other cultures 53 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:04,839 Speaker 1: and other parts of the world, and I actually had 54 00:03:05,040 --> 00:03:08,160 Speaker 1: had come across one that I was trying to fit 55 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: in here for a while, and it quickly became a 56 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:13,480 Speaker 1: much different thing, and I was like, this is not 57 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:16,040 Speaker 1: the place for it. And thankfully now we have these 58 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:18,440 Speaker 1: Friday episodes where I can kind of mention it, which 59 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:22,640 Speaker 1: is that there was a a particular military action that 60 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:26,280 Speaker 1: was going on on England's part at the border of India. 61 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:29,600 Speaker 1: There is a lot of complex politics there, which is 62 00:03:29,639 --> 00:03:32,720 Speaker 1: not great. But one of the things that gets mentioned 63 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,000 Speaker 1: in some of the accounts that were written by the 64 00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:39,640 Speaker 1: English military members were that they saw Seeks playing croquet 65 00:03:39,680 --> 00:03:42,400 Speaker 1: all the time because they had picked it up and 66 00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:44,840 Speaker 1: loved it as a game. But as I said, like 67 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:47,720 Speaker 1: to contextualize it and why they were all there together, 68 00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 1: got very complex and made it about military actions and 69 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:55,840 Speaker 1: really um crappy behavior on the part of England and 70 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:59,960 Speaker 1: their uh. And that was a little off the tone 71 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:04,200 Speaker 1: of the much lighter, long game fun I had in mind. Yeah, 72 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:06,360 Speaker 1: And we also we talked a little bit about it 73 00:04:06,480 --> 00:04:09,880 Speaker 1: about women, like it being a game that women were 74 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:12,840 Speaker 1: allowed to play, and that was also a thing that 75 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:16,640 Speaker 1: was criticized in the nineteenth century sometimes, like there were 76 00:04:16,640 --> 00:04:18,760 Speaker 1: people that were like, it is unseemly for these women 77 00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:20,840 Speaker 1: to be playing this game. They should not be doing that. 78 00:04:21,400 --> 00:04:24,400 Speaker 1: And that has sort of morphed into as croquet has 79 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:27,279 Speaker 1: been introduced into other parts of the world, Um, it 80 00:04:27,400 --> 00:04:31,479 Speaker 1: becoming a game that has given women more freedom to 81 00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:33,920 Speaker 1: play it than they have maybe had in other contexts, 82 00:04:33,920 --> 00:04:36,760 Speaker 1: which is all really interesting. Um, if you just want 83 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:39,839 Speaker 1: to look at all kinds of paintings of women in 84 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:45,040 Speaker 1: bustle gowns playing croquet, there are so many croquet games, 85 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:53,200 Speaker 1: very popular, very popular art topic in the nineteenth century. Absolutely. 86 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:56,880 Speaker 1: It's also interesting to me that in a lot of 87 00:04:56,920 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: the accounts that I was looking at, there is almost 88 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:04,120 Speaker 1: particularly in the casual friendly croquet that a lot of 89 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:07,080 Speaker 1: people were playing, there's almost this subtle hinting that it 90 00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:10,400 Speaker 1: was kind of a game where you could go and flirt. Like. 91 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 1: So it's one of the few because it was one 92 00:05:12,440 --> 00:05:15,840 Speaker 1: of the few sports where men and women would be 93 00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 1: out there competing or playing on a team together. It 94 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:22,400 Speaker 1: offered opportunities to mingle in ways that we're not really 95 00:05:22,880 --> 00:05:27,600 Speaker 1: common yes, and readily available, which is adds a sort 96 00:05:27,640 --> 00:05:30,520 Speaker 1: of cute dimension to it. Yeah, folks who visit our 97 00:05:30,560 --> 00:05:33,920 Speaker 1: website have noticed it does not look the same at all. Uh, 98 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:37,520 Speaker 1: it has totally moved to a new format um and 99 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:39,560 Speaker 1: so it doesn't have artwork on it, but we're still 100 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:42,599 Speaker 1: getting artwork for episodes in case that happens in the future. 101 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:45,160 Speaker 1: So I went like on a hunt for some pictures 102 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:48,560 Speaker 1: of croquet. I found all of these wonderful pictures, like 103 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:52,400 Speaker 1: wonderful paintings of um women, many of them in bustle 104 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:55,160 Speaker 1: gowns playing croquet. But then there were also some that 105 00:05:55,200 --> 00:06:00,160 Speaker 1: were on a spectrum between suggestive and nude that are 106 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:04,960 Speaker 1: like uh, tilating postcards of croquet games being played in 107 00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:08,359 Speaker 1: various states of undress or in suggestive poses. So it 108 00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:12,000 Speaker 1: definitely has that aspect. Also, listen, I'm not here to 109 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:15,880 Speaker 1: judge however, you want. Whatever you're happy. If you're having 110 00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:19,159 Speaker 1: fun in your bustlegown or in nothing at all, go 111 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:24,960 Speaker 1: you crokay. Maybe this this actual spring, I will make 112 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:27,360 Speaker 1: an effort to set up a little mini croquet on 113 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:31,560 Speaker 1: my lawn, make my husband and friends play it with me. Yeah. 114 00:06:31,680 --> 00:06:35,160 Speaker 1: I still have to figure out some sort of cocktail 115 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:37,320 Speaker 1: or Star Wars theme to make an appealing though that 116 00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:40,880 Speaker 1: seems fun to me to a wider herd. Yeah. So 117 00:06:40,960 --> 00:06:44,240 Speaker 1: our second episode this week was on King Philip's War, Yes, 118 00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:50,000 Speaker 1: which had come up briefly in the episode on Paul Coffey. 119 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:52,479 Speaker 1: It was also something that while I was at the 120 00:06:52,520 --> 00:06:56,279 Speaker 1: new Bedford Whaling Museum, because I was so interested in 121 00:06:56,279 --> 00:06:59,000 Speaker 1: Paul Coffey, I wanted to go see their exhibition on him. 122 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:02,240 Speaker 1: There was also a thing that was about King Philip's War, 123 00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:05,800 Speaker 1: and it jogged my memory of having in the past 124 00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:09,200 Speaker 1: previously planned to to cover King's King Philips were on 125 00:07:09,240 --> 00:07:12,960 Speaker 1: an episode and then it had slipped off the top 126 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:15,960 Speaker 1: of my mind for whatever, as it so often does 127 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:17,720 Speaker 1: with so many things, that we will be just on 128 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:20,320 Speaker 1: the verge of doing and then get distracted by some 129 00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:23,040 Speaker 1: other topic or or realized we don't have the resources 130 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:29,760 Speaker 1: or whatever. Any number of derailments could befall us. Yeah. Well, uh, 131 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:34,000 Speaker 1: and and history that is related to Native American history 132 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:37,640 Speaker 1: and indigenous nations can be really complicated to research because 133 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:42,360 Speaker 1: so much of what is written was not written from 134 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:46,040 Speaker 1: an indigenous perspective, and a lot of times totally misrepresents 135 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:52,360 Speaker 1: the indigenous side of the story. And there Yeah, well 136 00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:55,320 Speaker 1: so that gets complicated too because a couple of several people, 137 00:07:55,400 --> 00:07:57,080 Speaker 1: as I was reading, have made the point that, like, 138 00:07:57,160 --> 00:08:01,440 Speaker 1: it was very normal, um for for want and people 139 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:05,320 Speaker 1: to have name changes at various points during their life. 140 00:08:05,840 --> 00:08:10,360 Speaker 1: It seems like the colonists were trying to have it 141 00:08:10,440 --> 00:08:14,559 Speaker 1: be a mark of respect by offering totally different names 142 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:18,680 Speaker 1: than they actually had, but were like great leaders from 143 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:23,040 Speaker 1: history so like. But then the like Philip was definitely 144 00:08:23,040 --> 00:08:27,040 Speaker 1: not the name that that he was more often known by, 145 00:08:27,040 --> 00:08:30,000 Speaker 1: Like that just becomes this whole big thing, um of 146 00:08:30,040 --> 00:08:33,280 Speaker 1: how how do you interpret all that? The fact that 147 00:08:33,559 --> 00:08:36,440 Speaker 1: the the the whole idea that it was King Philip's 148 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:38,920 Speaker 1: War and that it ended when he died. It is 149 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:43,160 Speaker 1: just so is everywhere and and it like the fighting 150 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:45,120 Speaker 1: was still going on from his two more years after that, 151 00:08:45,240 --> 00:08:50,640 Speaker 1: and so I did not know where that idea had started. Definitely, 152 00:08:50,679 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: nobody who was living through it at the time was 153 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:58,240 Speaker 1: calling it King Philip's War. That came about after it 154 00:08:58,280 --> 00:09:02,160 Speaker 1: was over, and uh, people were writing books about their 155 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:08,400 Speaker 1: father's reminiscences of it. So yeah, the fact that Benjamin 156 00:09:08,559 --> 00:09:14,920 Speaker 1: Church's book is called Entertaining History of King Philip's War, Like, 157 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:19,319 Speaker 1: I haven't read that book, but that just sort of 158 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:25,600 Speaker 1: the fact that entertaining the title something that, yes, so 159 00:09:26,280 --> 00:09:31,280 Speaker 1: incredibly deadly and destructive, it seems barbaric. Yeah, I found 160 00:09:31,320 --> 00:09:35,240 Speaker 1: it troubling and to put it mildly, Yeah, let's talk 161 00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:38,200 Speaker 1: about how entertaining it is that all this suffering happened 162 00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:44,000 Speaker 1: and massacres and horrible treatment. Yeah, it's a non delightful Yeah. 163 00:09:44,080 --> 00:09:47,880 Speaker 1: So essentially somebody's collection of his dad's war stories became 164 00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:52,000 Speaker 1: how people thought about the framing of this war for 165 00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:56,040 Speaker 1: centuries afterwards. One of the things that was really challenging 166 00:09:56,080 --> 00:09:59,520 Speaker 1: about this episode was that because it was a war 167 00:09:59,640 --> 00:10:01,600 Speaker 1: that went on for as long as it did and 168 00:10:01,880 --> 00:10:06,720 Speaker 1: ranged among multiple colonies um and and an territory that 169 00:10:06,760 --> 00:10:10,120 Speaker 1: wasn't held by any particular colony at that point, like 170 00:10:10,120 --> 00:10:13,240 Speaker 1: that a lot went on um and so there were 171 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:16,040 Speaker 1: all kinds of moments that we did not talk about, 172 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:20,320 Speaker 1: uh in terms of like a specific timeline of the 173 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:25,120 Speaker 1: thing um, which is always challenging when there's something as 174 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:28,400 Speaker 1: big as an entire war. Yeah, well it's it is 175 00:10:28,400 --> 00:10:30,680 Speaker 1: tricky because, as you said, most of the narratives we 176 00:10:30,720 --> 00:10:34,320 Speaker 1: have of it are written from the white colonial perspective, 177 00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:38,560 Speaker 1: who it comes up in the episode are trying to 178 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:42,840 Speaker 1: fit indigenous culture into the models that they know and 179 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:45,760 Speaker 1: understand from Europe in terms of how a monarchy worked 180 00:10:45,760 --> 00:10:48,720 Speaker 1: in terms of like, to them, this idea of all 181 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:53,079 Speaker 1: of these different tribes was probably very confusing, and they 182 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:57,400 Speaker 1: just wanted to lump them together under an indigenous man 183 00:10:57,440 --> 00:11:00,120 Speaker 1: who they chose to call King Philip um. Like, there 184 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:04,280 Speaker 1: are a lot of of pretty obvious check boxes of 185 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:08,280 Speaker 1: evidence of like they did not understand these people, and 186 00:11:08,320 --> 00:11:11,440 Speaker 1: we're really trying to And as a consequence, there's almost 187 00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:15,400 Speaker 1: no way that the reality of this situation was captured 188 00:11:15,400 --> 00:11:20,559 Speaker 1: in the writing that we have from the the colonists perspective. Yeah, 189 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:24,120 Speaker 1: and I think a lot of people may imagine that 190 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:27,960 Speaker 1: these colonies were kind of isolated from the indigenous nations 191 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:31,320 Speaker 1: that were around them, but really all of these had 192 00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:35,480 Speaker 1: become so interconnected over basically a generation. This was happening 193 00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:41,760 Speaker 1: essentially a generation after the Mayflower arrived, but that everything 194 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:44,080 Speaker 1: had become so interconnected in terms of all the various 195 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:47,599 Speaker 1: indigenous nations and their existing networks, and then the colonies 196 00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:50,800 Speaker 1: becoming part of those networks. Um. That there are historians 197 00:11:50,840 --> 00:11:55,480 Speaker 1: who interpret it not as a war between indigenous people 198 00:11:55,600 --> 00:12:00,280 Speaker 1: and the colonies, but as a civil war, um, all 199 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:02,240 Speaker 1: of these people who were living in the same place, 200 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:08,360 Speaker 1: and this like very interconnected but still somewhat separate collection 201 00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:11,839 Speaker 1: of society's Um. You can, as I said at the 202 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:13,520 Speaker 1: end of the episode, there's so many books on this. 203 00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:17,120 Speaker 1: You could just spend years reading all kinds of different 204 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:21,280 Speaker 1: books and interpretations on King Philip's war. It's one of 205 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:25,719 Speaker 1: the things that highlights to me how sometimes people imagine 206 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:33,000 Speaker 1: history is like a recitation of facts, when really like 207 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:37,280 Speaker 1: there's interpretation and analysis of all those things that are happening, 208 00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:41,199 Speaker 1: and people have interpreted um various aspects of the King 209 00:12:41,440 --> 00:12:44,960 Speaker 1: of King Phillips War very differently from one another. Uh 210 00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:49,240 Speaker 1: in the modern era, not just going back to the 211 00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:53,320 Speaker 1: sixteen hundreds and seventeen hundreds. UM. So if you're interested, 212 00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:56,400 Speaker 1: so many books you could go read. So thanks again 213 00:12:56,440 --> 00:12:58,559 Speaker 1: for joining us on this Friday. If you want to 214 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:00,920 Speaker 1: write to us History Poda asked at I heart radio 215 00:13:00,960 --> 00:13:08,840 Speaker 1: dot com and we'll talk to you again soon. Stuff 216 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:10,760 Speaker 1: You Missed in History Class is a production of I 217 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:13,880 Speaker 1: Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts. For my 218 00:13:13,920 --> 00:13:17,200 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit i heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or 219 00:13:17,200 --> 00:13:19,040 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.