The Sinfulness and Pernicious Nature of Gaming: A Sermon Preached before the General Assembly of Virginia at Williamsburg, March 1st 1752
by William Stith
| The Sinfulness and Pernicious Nature of Gaming | ||
 at the College of William & Mary. |
||
| Author | William Stith | |
| Published | Williamsburg: Printed and sold by William Hunter | |
| Date | 1752 | |
William Stith [1] (1707-1775) was a Virginia minister, an early American historian, and the third president of the College of William and Mary [2]. He is the namesake of the College’s Stith Hall. [1]
Stith was educated at William and Mary College and Queen’s College, Oxford [3].[2] He published three sermons, but is most widely known for his account of the founding of Virginia in The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia. The publication was not well received by Virginians, however. Thomas Jefferson found Stith’s “details often too minute to be tolerable,” but many still find the publication to be a valuable source for information about early Virginian history.[3]
Virginia sermons addressing social and political issues were sometimes reduced to print and delivered to Virginia leaders and other readers. Four of the state sermons, published by the government, have survived. William Stith’s “The Sinfulness and Pernicious Nature of Gaming,” is one of those surviving and may be the most famous of all Virginia state sermons. In his sermon, Stith argued that gambling was damaging to the morality and economic well-being of the State, that it was a vice that contributed to unhappiness. He argued that gambling encouraged other vice, such as drunkenness and idleness, which took a labor source away from the colony. His message was clear that something needed to be done to cure what he found to be a prevalent, cultural evil. The sermon was delivered before the General Assembly in 1752 and was received with wide acclaim by both the House of Burgesses and the general public. The sermon became the fourth highest selling printed work in the colony..[4]
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
See also
References
- ↑ Joseph M. Flora and Amber Vogel, eds.,Southern Writers: A New Biographical Dictionary, (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University, 2006), 384. Accessed April 3, 2015.
- ↑ Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, 1915 ed. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915. Accessed April 3, 2015.
- ↑ Joseph M. Flora and Amber Vogel, eds.,Southern Writers: A New Biographical Dictionary, (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University, 2006), 384. Accessed April 3, 2015.
- ↑ Jacob M. Blosser, "Pursuing Happiness: Cultural Discourse and Popular Regligion in Anglican Virginia, 1700-1770"(PhD diss, University of South Carolina, 2006), 217-220. Accessed April 3, 2015.
