The Northeast-or, more exactly, New York, Pennsylvania and New England-was the industrial center of the country. Increased industrialization led to more leisure time and to improvements in the welfare of children children were allowed more time for play, once the schooling and the chores were done. The elevator and the burglar alarm had just been invented and the new Western Union was exploiting a recent invention, the telegraph. The move from farmland to cities continued, as did the westward migration, even though the Gold Rush in California had ended in 1855.
The country was divided between the slave owners in the Confederate states of the South and the abolitionists-those against slavery-in the Union states of the North. The population was over 31 million, 4 million of whom were slaves. was less than 44 years, though a man in his 20s could be expected to live, on average, to 60. Immigration from Europe continued, following the emigration of more than 1.3 million people from England and, especially, Ireland over the previous decade. The Checkered Game of Life Milton Bradley’s First Game, 1860īased on a talk given by the author at the 2010 Board Game Studies Colloquium in Paris.