A brief history of the evolution of board games in the 19th-century U.S. unfolds something like this: The first known board game to be published in America was 1822’s Travellers’ Tour Through the United States. Educational in nature, as were many early American games, it aimed at teaching the geography and population of the early country. The board, basically a map of the U.S., was made of foldable linen. As dice were associated with vice, players moved around the map using a teetotum, a proto-spinner that yielded a random number.
Game development in the 1840s evolved to focus on Christian morality. The most famous example of the era—and a big seller—was The Mansion of Happiness (1843). In this game, players follow a track with
