“Civil War on the Racetrack” In the years leading up to the Civil War, North and South put their pride and prestige on the line in a series of intersectional horse races. Fueled by the passions of the debate over slavery in the United States, these were the events that sparked our modern American mania for sport.

Bibliography:

Melvin Adelman, A Sporting Time: New York City and the Rise of Modern Athletics, 1820-1870 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinoi Press, 1990).

John Eisenberg, The Great Match Race: When North Met South in America’s First Sports Spectacle (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006).

Benjamin G. Rader, American Sports: From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Televised Sports (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999).