The first board game made in the U.S. touted education while ignoring its dark past

In 2023 alone, the board game industry topped $16.8 billion and is projected to reach $40.1 billion by 2032. Classics like Scrabble are being refreshed and transformed, while newer inventions such as Pandemic and Wingspan have garnered millions of devotees. This growing cardboard empire was on my mind when I visited the American Antiquarian Society in August 2023 to research its collection of early games. As I sat in that archive, which houses such treasures as the 1640...