[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-591839-105":59,"doc-detail-591839-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","the-play-practices-of-enslaved-children","The Play Practices of Enslaved Children","","An academic study examines how formerly enslaved children’s experiences shaped their play, arguing that conventional scholarship often fails to account for play as a complex practice under conditions of ownership, restriction, and pervasive violence. The work reframes play as embodied actions and decisions aimed at behavioral, social, intellectual, or physical rewards, while also functioning as a way to learn and challenge enslaved children’s place in the world and to contest slavery and white supremacy.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-play-practices-of-enslaved-children/591839/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-play-practices-of-enslaved-children/591839.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Dipper","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":39},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why does the author argue that traditional understandings of play may not fit enslaved children?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Because researchers often do not treat enslaved children as fully “propertied” beings, the study emphasizes that their play was shaped by proximity to violence and by being owned as property.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the author define enslaved children’s play?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The author defines it as any bodily action, gesture, or decision made with intent to generate behavioral, social, intellectual, or physical rewards.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What role does violence play in enslaved children’s play practices?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"When play practices threatened masters’ authority, the system often responded with violence, yet enslaved children continued to play.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},591839,1792190531,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":39,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},1374404997633,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","The Play Practices of Enslaved Children  \n• Shakeel A. Harris  \nThe author examines the childhood experiences of formerly enslaved children. He suggests that the conventional understandings of scholars and historians concerning play may not be applicable to the complex lives of enslaved children because researchers do not consider such children as always propertied beings. Their play practices were molded by their proximity to violence and by their being owned as property. Rethinking what constitutes play for enslaved children, Harris asserts, unlocks newer possibilities for understanding the behaviors, actions, and desires of these children. Their play practices allowed them to learn about—and challenge—their place in the world. Building on and challenging seminal scholarship, Harris encourages readers to rethink what constitutes play and to view ordinary forms of play as intentional attacks against the institution of slavery and white supremacy.  \nKey words: enslaved children and play; slavery and play; white gaze In 1851 South Carolina slaveholder Gabriel Plowden gave his wife a special gift—a five-year-old enslaved boy named Titus Bynes. Plowden desired his wife to have someone she could groom into a reliable personal servant. Bynes, a sharp little boy with a searing desire to acquire knowledge, soon began to sneak glances at the various newspapers his owners read. The awesome words and images he encountered in this forbidden world inspired the little houseboy. One day, as Bynes was playing in the dirt and writing out various words and letters he had observed, one of the Plowden daughters caught him writing about water, and she swiftly ran off to tell her mother. The plantation mistress sternly chastised Bynes and warned him that, if he were ever caught writing again, she would be sure to have his right arm sawed off. After this encounter, the young boy never openly played games with words.1  \nThis incident captures the complexities and risks associated with the enslaved child’s play. When young Bynes first encountered words, he was restricted. He could go only so far, because it was illegal in all slaveholding states for enslaved people to read and write. The excitement of breaking oppressive  \n230  \nAmerican Journal of Play, volume 13, numbers 2 and 3 © The Strong Contact Shakeel A. Harris at [shar138@lsu.edu](shar138@lsu.edu)  \nrules and the internal desire to learn spurred Byne’s disobedience and metamorphosed into a playful game with an important lesson: Byne would never play with words in front of his owners again.  \nBefore continuing, let me clarify my definition of play. I define enslaved child’s play as any bodily action, gesture, or decision enacted by the enslaved child with the intent of generating behavioral, social, intellectual, or physical rewards. Historian Howard Chudacoff’s definition of play as an array of “amusing activities that have behavioral, social, intellectual, and physical rewards”offers a helpful starting point, but I hope to extend his definition beyond the realm of the amusing.2 Here, I incorporate the work of play scholar Thomas Henricks. His seminal essay,“Play as Self-Realization: Toward a General Theory of Play,” provides a tenable framework for rethinking the boundaries of play. Henricks suggests that all forms of play are “project[s] of self-realization.”3 When players engage in play, they do so to “acquaint themselves with the character of the world in which they operate and to evaluate the personal standings they can achieve within that world.”4 When enslaved children engaged in play through more recognizable modes of games and leisure activities or less relaxed social interactions with white owners and civilians, these children were gauging their potential and capabilities as slaves. They learned what was acceptable, inappropriate, prohibited, and dangerous to their persons as Black enslaved beings. The actions, gestures, and decisions of enslaved children, ranging from the leisurel","cbCaif06zUrC8Ism","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaif06zUrC8Ism","pdf",189806,23,"English","# Rethinking play\n## Definition and theoretical framing\n## Case example: Titus Bynes\n## Play as learning, navigation, and critique","[{\"question\":\"Why does the author argue that traditional understandings of play may not fit enslaved children?\",\"answer\":\"Because researchers often do not treat enslaved children as fully “propertied” beings, the study emphasizes that their play was shaped by proximity to violence and by being owned as property.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the author define enslaved children’s play?\",\"answer\":\"The author defines it as any bodily action, gesture, or decision made with intent to generate behavioral, social, intellectual, or physical rewards.\"},{\"question\":\"What role does violence play in enslaved children’s play practices?\",\"answer\":\"When play practices threatened masters’ authority, the system often responded with violence, yet enslaved children continued to play.\"}]","The Play Practices of Enslaved Children | PDF",1792073317,58]