9780674281424 (hardcover : alk. paper)

067428142X (hardcover : alk. paper)

"Recaptures the vivid sights, sensations, and illusions of nineteenth-century thoroughbred racing, America's first mass spectator sport. Inviting readers into the pageantry of the racetrack, Katherine C. Mooney conveys the sport's inherent drama while also revealing the significant intersections between horse racing and another quintessential institution of the antebellum South: slavery"--book jacket.

"Recaptures the vivid sights, sensations, and illusions of nineteenth-century thoroughbred racing, America's first mass spectator sport. Inviting readers into the pageantry of the racetrack, Katherine C. Mooney conveys the sport's inherent drama while also revealing the significant intersections between horse racing and another quintessential institution of the antebellum South: slavery. A popular pastime across American society, horse racing was most closely identified with an elite class of southern owners who bred horses and bet large sums of money on these spirited animals. The central characters in this story are not privileged whites, however, but the black jockeys, grooms, and horse trainers who sometimes called themselves race horse men and who made the racetrack run. Mooney describes a world of patriarchal privilege and social prestige where blacks as well as whites could achieve status and recognition and where favored slaves endured an unusual form of bondage. For wealthy white men, the racetrack illustrated their cherished visions of a harmonious, modern society based on human slavery. After emancipation, a number of black horsemen went on to become sports celebrities, their success a potential threat to white supremacy and a source of pride for African Americans. The rise of Jim Crow in the early twentieth century drove many horsemen from their jobs, with devastating consequences for them and their families. Mooney illuminates the role these too often forgotten men played in Americans' continuing struggle to define the meaning of freedom."--Book jacket.

Prologue : The loss of the stirrup has won the race

The glory of the four-mile horse

Knowed a horse when he seed him

A storm is approaching

These are the verities

The only practical means of reunion

I ride to win

I have got that nigger beat

Epilogue : He didn't go in no back doors!

1800 > 1899

Horse racing > Social aspects > United States > History > 19th century.

Horse racing > United States > History > 19th century.

African American horsemen and horsewomen > History > 19th century.

African American jockeys > History > 19th century.

Southern States > Race relations > History > 19th century.