A Recent History Of Archery In America

segolden · Moderator

Since we have so many new members, I thought I would post this link:

http://www.stickbow.com/features/index.cfm?feature=history

A small commentary of my own:

Will and Maurice Thompson may be justifiably credited with establishing archery as both a hunting and target sport in America, and the little-mentioned circumstances are as interesting as the well-known facts are. They revolve around a simple question: Why would a couple of war veterans take up an art that had never been known among European settlers of North America (gunpowder weapons having already replaced the bow by the time colonialism had established itself in North America), and had nearly died out in Native American tribes?

According to some of Maurice Thompson's writings, the two brothers had some familiarity with archery from their childhood as a casual recreation. It was not until after returning from the disastrous War For Southern Independence (AKA the American Civil War) to their destroyed homes that reality set in, however. The family had had only a nominal amount of land before the war, and the destruction caused by war, occupation and an imposed military dictatorship had stripped it of the ability to support them. Recovering from wounds, the "boys" had little choice but seek out minimal employment, while supplementing this meager income with hunting and trapping. Eventually they would spend several years wandering the remaining wilderness of the Old South, before publishing the first articles that would bring archery to the American public's attention.

Two problems had to faced, however: The Federal military government and later Reconstruction-era civilian administrations imposed draconian laws forbidding most Confederate veterans from bearing firearms. Even if such illegal arms could've been had (and many were floating about at the time), the expense would've been prohibitive. I well remember my own great-grandmother talking of how her brothers and parents resorted to David-style slings and Cherokee bolas to put food on the table (when they had a table to eat off of) after the war. It would be many years before an ex-Rebel would allowed firearms, so archery was the logical alternative.

The second problem was equally tricky: What and how to use such weapons? By the time their years of hunting the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia were over, the Thompsons were accomplished archers and hunters, having adopted the English Longbow as their weapon of choice. Why they chose the classic longbow and how they learned its use is an enigma wrapped in the presence of a one man with them during those earliest days, an ex-slave named Thomas Williams. What his background was, where he came from, nor how he had acquired the knowledge of English-style archery will probably never come to light. Still, he transferred what he knew to the brothers, starting a chain of events that would finally give the bow and arrow the attention they deserved from American sportsmen and women.

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"For I have drawn Judah taut and applied [My hand] to Ephraim as to a bow." Zech. 9:13
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