ABSTRACT
Prisoner’s bars’ heyday was in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although there were regional variations in the rules, the game essentially involved two teams lining up opposite each other. The members of one team linked hands while a member of the opposing team tried to cross to the other side of the playing area without being touched. Each team took it in turns for a member to try to cross over. Anyone who was touched joined the opposing team and the winning team was that which ended the game with the most members.
