Double Dutch (jump rope)

Common card · No. 342223

Double Dutch is a game in which two long jump ropes turning in opposite directions are jumped by one or more players jumping simultaneously. Jump rope games have been traced back to Ancient Egypt and China, eventually making its way to Europe. The Dutch are credited with bringing it to North America in the 1600s, with one of the games evolving into “Double Dutch.” Girls were particularly attracted to it with jumping becoming easier once they began to wear pantaloons in the 1800s. In the early to mid-20th Century, it became popular in working class and immigrant urban communities from a variety of ethnic backgrounds. It is widely acknowledged that modern, competitive Double Dutch originated in the United States among girls in predominantly Black urban communities during the 1940s and 1950s, who congregated on street corners to display new tricks and repurposed clotheslines as ropes. While it had long been a popular street activity for African American girls in New York City, the rules of...

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