5 Things You May Not Know About the Pilgrims
http://www.history.com/topics/mayflower/videos/deconstructing-history-mayflower
It’s Thanksgiving time in America, and families across
the country will soon enjoy a meal that harkens back to the harvest
feast held in 1621 by the residents of Plymouth Colony. But even as we
remember the Pilgrims, our image of the English settlers remains largely
based on myth rather than fact. Below, discover five things about the
hosts of the original Thanksgiving that might come as a surprise.
1. Not all of the Mayflower’s passengers were motivated by religion.
The Mayflower actually carried three distinct groups of passengers within the walls of its curving hull. About half were in fact Separatists, the people we now know as the Pilgrims. Another handful of those on board were sympathetic to the Separatist cause but weren’t actually part of that core group of dissidents. The remaining passengers were really just hired hands—laborers, soldiers and craftsmen of various stripes whose skills were required for both the transatlantic crossing and those vital first few months ashore. Community leader John Alden, for instance, was originally a cooper, brought along to make and repair barrels on board the ship. Myles Standish, who would eventually become the military leader of Plymouth Colony, was a soldier hired for protection against whatever natives the settlers might encounter.
2. The Mayflower didn’t land in Plymouth first.
The Mayflower first landed at the tip of Cape Cod, in what is now Provincetown. The settlers had originally hoped to make for the mouth of the Hudson River and find fertile farmland somewhere north of present-day New York City, but bad weather forced them to retreat. They intended to try again for the Hudson, but the approaching winter and dwindling supplies eventually convinced them to continue on across Cape Cod Bay to Plymouth.
3. The Pilgrims didn’t name Plymouth, Massachusetts, for Plymouth, England.
In fact, the Pilgrims didn’t name Plymouth, Massachusetts, at all. It had been dubbed that years earlier by previous explorers to the region, and was clearly marked as Plymouth (or Plimoth—spellings varied somewhat) on maps that the Mayflower’s captain surely had on hand. It’s sheer coincidence that the Mayflower ended up sailing from a town called Plymouth in England and then landing in a town called Plymouth in America. And it’s unlikely that the Mayflower’s passengers felt any emotional connection to Plymouth, England, at all. Most of the Separatists had been living in exile in Holland for 10 years before sailing for America, and the rest of the passengers were drawn from the greater London area. The Mayflower only ended up departing from Plymouth because bad weather and misfortune had prevented the settlers from making the crossing on two earlier attempts—first from Southampton and then from Dartmouth—before they finally succeeded in sailing from the port of Plymouth.
4. Some of the Mayflower’s passengers had been to America before.
Several of the Mayflower’s crew had made the journey at least once before, on either fishing or exploration trips. One notable figure, Stephen Hopkins, had even tried to settle in the New World 10 years earlier, in the Jamestown colony of Virginia. On his way to join the settlement, his ship was wrecked off the coast of Bermuda, stranding him and his fellow passengers for several months. The story of the Virginia settlers’ shipwreck and rescue made waves back home in England, and William Shakespeare freely admitted that he based his play “The Tempest” on the tale. He even may have named one of the characters, Stephano, after Stephen Hopkins, who was once one of Shakespeare’s neighbors. Hopkins eventually returned to England and later joined the Mayflower as a member of the sympathetic group of supporters from London.
5. The Pilgrims were relatively tolerant of other religious beliefs.
The Puritans, who settled the region north of Plymouth, were known for their strict approach to how religion was practiced within their borders. The Pilgrims, on the other hand, never made any attempts to convert outsiders to their faith, including the Native Americans they encountered in America and the nonbelievers who’d joined them as laborers in England. Generally speaking, they didn’t even try to impose their unique observances on their friends and neighbors. For instance, while the Pilgrims themselves didn’t themselves Christmas, they didn’t stop others from taking the day off and celebrating it as they wished. They also allowed men who were not part of their faith to hold public office, and they apparently had no problem with the intermarriage of believers and nonbelievers. As a matter of fact, they didn’t consider marriage to be a religious matter at all, preferring instead to view it as a civil contract outside the church’s jurisdiction.
The Mayflower actually carried three distinct groups of passengers within the walls of its curving hull. About half were in fact Separatists, the people we now know as the Pilgrims. Another handful of those on board were sympathetic to the Separatist cause but weren’t actually part of that core group of dissidents. The remaining passengers were really just hired hands—laborers, soldiers and craftsmen of various stripes whose skills were required for both the transatlantic crossing and those vital first few months ashore. Community leader John Alden, for instance, was originally a cooper, brought along to make and repair barrels on board the ship. Myles Standish, who would eventually become the military leader of Plymouth Colony, was a soldier hired for protection against whatever natives the settlers might encounter.
2. The Mayflower didn’t land in Plymouth first.
The Mayflower first landed at the tip of Cape Cod, in what is now Provincetown. The settlers had originally hoped to make for the mouth of the Hudson River and find fertile farmland somewhere north of present-day New York City, but bad weather forced them to retreat. They intended to try again for the Hudson, but the approaching winter and dwindling supplies eventually convinced them to continue on across Cape Cod Bay to Plymouth.
3. The Pilgrims didn’t name Plymouth, Massachusetts, for Plymouth, England.
In fact, the Pilgrims didn’t name Plymouth, Massachusetts, at all. It had been dubbed that years earlier by previous explorers to the region, and was clearly marked as Plymouth (or Plimoth—spellings varied somewhat) on maps that the Mayflower’s captain surely had on hand. It’s sheer coincidence that the Mayflower ended up sailing from a town called Plymouth in England and then landing in a town called Plymouth in America. And it’s unlikely that the Mayflower’s passengers felt any emotional connection to Plymouth, England, at all. Most of the Separatists had been living in exile in Holland for 10 years before sailing for America, and the rest of the passengers were drawn from the greater London area. The Mayflower only ended up departing from Plymouth because bad weather and misfortune had prevented the settlers from making the crossing on two earlier attempts—first from Southampton and then from Dartmouth—before they finally succeeded in sailing from the port of Plymouth.
4. Some of the Mayflower’s passengers had been to America before.
Several of the Mayflower’s crew had made the journey at least once before, on either fishing or exploration trips. One notable figure, Stephen Hopkins, had even tried to settle in the New World 10 years earlier, in the Jamestown colony of Virginia. On his way to join the settlement, his ship was wrecked off the coast of Bermuda, stranding him and his fellow passengers for several months. The story of the Virginia settlers’ shipwreck and rescue made waves back home in England, and William Shakespeare freely admitted that he based his play “The Tempest” on the tale. He even may have named one of the characters, Stephano, after Stephen Hopkins, who was once one of Shakespeare’s neighbors. Hopkins eventually returned to England and later joined the Mayflower as a member of the sympathetic group of supporters from London.
5. The Pilgrims were relatively tolerant of other religious beliefs.
The Puritans, who settled the region north of Plymouth, were known for their strict approach to how religion was practiced within their borders. The Pilgrims, on the other hand, never made any attempts to convert outsiders to their faith, including the Native Americans they encountered in America and the nonbelievers who’d joined them as laborers in England. Generally speaking, they didn’t even try to impose their unique observances on their friends and neighbors. For instance, while the Pilgrims themselves didn’t themselves Christmas, they didn’t stop others from taking the day off and celebrating it as they wished. They also allowed men who were not part of their faith to hold public office, and they apparently had no problem with the intermarriage of believers and nonbelievers. As a matter of fact, they didn’t consider marriage to be a religious matter at all, preferring instead to view it as a civil contract outside the church’s jurisdiction.
In September 1620, during the reign of King James I, around
100 English men and women–many of them members of the English Separatist
Church–set sail for the New World aboard the Mayflower, a three-masted
merchant ship. The ship landed on the shores of Cape Cod, in present-day
Massachusetts, two months later, and in late December anchored at
Plymouth Rock, where they would form the first permanent settlement of
Europeans in New England. Though more than half the original settlers
died during that grueling first winter, the survivors were able to
secure peace treaties with neighboring Native American tribes and build a
largely self-sufficient economy within five years.
Among the group traveling on the Mayflower in 1620 were close to 40
members of a radical Puritan faction known as the English Separatist
Church. Feeling that the Church of England had not sufficiently
completed the necessary work of the Protestant Reformation, the group
had chosen to break with the church altogether. The Separatists had
sought religious freedom before, fleeing England in 1607 and 1608 to
settle in the Netherlands, first in Amsterdam and later in the town of
Leiden, where they remained for the next decade. Wanting to secure their
English language and heritage, and seeking more economic opportunity,
the group–later known as the Pilgrims–laid plans for a voyage to the New
World aboard the Mayflower.
Rough seas and storms prevented the ship from reaching its initial destination–a region near the Hudson River–and after 66 days it reached the shores of Cape Cod, anchoring at the site of Provincetown on November 21. They sent an exploratory party ashore, and on December 18 docked at Plymouth Rock, on the western side of Cape Cod Bay. The explorer John Smith had named the area Plymouth, and the settlers decided the name was appropriate, as the Mayflower had set sail from the port of Plymouth in England.
Rough seas and storms prevented the ship from reaching its initial destination–a region near the Hudson River–and after 66 days it reached the shores of Cape Cod, anchoring at the site of Provincetown on November 21. They sent an exploratory party ashore, and on December 18 docked at Plymouth Rock, on the western side of Cape Cod Bay. The explorer John Smith had named the area Plymouth, and the settlers decided the name was appropriate, as the Mayflower had set sail from the port of Plymouth in England.
Surviving the First Year in Plymouth Colony
For the next few months, many of the settlers stayed on the Mayflower
while ferrying back and forth to shore to build their new settlement.
In March, they began moving ashore permanently. More than half the
settlers fell ill and died that first winter, victims of an epidemic of
disease that swept the new colony. Soon after they moved ashore, the
Pilgrims were introduced to a Native American man named Tisquantum, or
Squanto, who would become a member of the colony. A member of the
Pawtuxet tribe (from present-day Massachusetts and Rhode Island)
who had been kidnapped by the explorer John Smith and taken to England,
only to escape back to his native land, Squanto acted as an interpreter
and mediator between Plymouth’s leaders and local Native Americans,
including Chief Massasoit of the Pokanoket tribe. In the fall of 1621,
the Pilgrims famously shared a harvest feast with the Pokanokets; the
meal is now considered the basis for the Thanksgiving holiday.
All the adult males aboard the Mayflower had signed the so-called Mayflower Compact, a document that would become the foundation of Plymouth’s government. Though the Separatists were a minority in the group, they formed its powerful center, and would entirely control the colony’s government during its first 40 years. William Bradford, a leader of the Separatist congregation, was one of the framers of the Mayflower Compact, and would serve as Plymouth’s governor for 30 years after its founding. Bradford also kept a voluminous journal chronicling the ship’s voyage and the founding of Plymouth Colony.
All the adult males aboard the Mayflower had signed the so-called Mayflower Compact, a document that would become the foundation of Plymouth’s government. Though the Separatists were a minority in the group, they formed its powerful center, and would entirely control the colony’s government during its first 40 years. William Bradford, a leader of the Separatist congregation, was one of the framers of the Mayflower Compact, and would serve as Plymouth’s governor for 30 years after its founding. Bradford also kept a voluminous journal chronicling the ship’s voyage and the founding of Plymouth Colony.
Growth and Decline of the Plymouth Colony
With peace secured, the colonists in Plymouth were able to
concentrate on building a viable settlement for themselves rather than
spend their time and resources guarding themselves against attack.
Squanto taught them how to plant corn, which became an important crop,
as well as where to fish and hunt beaver. Though Plymouth would never
develop as robust an economy as later settlements–such as Massachusetts
Bay Colony–agriculture, fishing and trading made the colony
self-sufficient within five years after it was founded.
Many other European settlers followed in the Pilgrims’ footsteps to New England. As the settlers sought to occupy more and more land in the region, relations with Native Americans deteriorated, and sporadic violence broke out that would culminate decades later in the bloody King Philip’s War of 1675. By that time, the ideal of Plymouth Colony–conceived in the Mayflower Compact as a self-contained community governed by a common religious affiliation–had given way to the far less lofty influences of trade and commerce, and the devout Pilgrims had fragmented into smaller, more self-serving groups. Still, the original concept served as the foundation for many later settlements. These included John Winthrop’s Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded in 1630, which became the most populous and prosperous colony in the region. Plymouth’s influence in New England declined accordingly, until it was absorbed by Massachusetts in 1691.
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Many other European settlers followed in the Pilgrims’ footsteps to New England. As the settlers sought to occupy more and more land in the region, relations with Native Americans deteriorated, and sporadic violence broke out that would culminate decades later in the bloody King Philip’s War of 1675. By that time, the ideal of Plymouth Colony–conceived in the Mayflower Compact as a self-contained community governed by a common religious affiliation–had given way to the far less lofty influences of trade and commerce, and the devout Pilgrims had fragmented into smaller, more self-serving groups. Still, the original concept served as the foundation for many later settlements. These included John Winthrop’s Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded in 1630, which became the most populous and prosperous colony in the region. Plymouth’s influence in New England declined accordingly, until it was absorbed by Massachusetts in 1691.
The Mayflower
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In September 1620, a merchant ship called the Mayflower set
sail from Plymouth, a port on the southern coast of England. Typically,
the Mayflower’s cargo was wine and dry goods, but on this trip the ship
carried passengers: 102 of them, all hoping to start a new life on the
other side of the Atlantic. Nearly 40 of these passengers were
Protestant Separatists–they called themselves “Saints”–who hoped to
establish a new church in the New World. Today, we often refer to the
colonists who crossed the Atlantic on the Mayflower as “Pilgrims.”
Pilgrims Before the Mayflower
In 1608, a congregation of disgruntled English Protestants from the
village of Scrooby, Nottinghamshire, left England and moved to Leyden, a
town in Holland. These “Separatists” did not want to pledge allegiance
to the Church of England, which they believed was nearly as corrupt and
idolatrous as the Catholic Church it had replaced, any longer. (They
were not the same as the Puritans, who had many of the same objections
to the English church but wanted to reform it from within.) The
Separatists hoped that in Holland, they would be free to worship as they
liked
In fact, the Separatists (they called themselves “Saints”) did find religious freedom in Holland, but they also found a secular life that was more difficult to navigate than they’d anticipated. For one thing, Dutch craft guilds excluded the migrants, so they were relegated to menial, low-paying jobs. Even worse was Holland’s easygoing, cosmopolitan atmosphere, which proved alarmingly seductive to some of the Saints’ children. (These young people were “drawn away,” Separatist leader William Bradford wrote, “by evill [sic] example into extravagance and dangerous courses.”) For the strict, devout Separatists, this was the last straw. They decided to move again, this time to a place without government interference or worldly distraction: the “New World” across the Atlantic Ocean.
In fact, the Separatists (they called themselves “Saints”) did find religious freedom in Holland, but they also found a secular life that was more difficult to navigate than they’d anticipated. For one thing, Dutch craft guilds excluded the migrants, so they were relegated to menial, low-paying jobs. Even worse was Holland’s easygoing, cosmopolitan atmosphere, which proved alarmingly seductive to some of the Saints’ children. (These young people were “drawn away,” Separatist leader William Bradford wrote, “by evill [sic] example into extravagance and dangerous courses.”) For the strict, devout Separatists, this was the last straw. They decided to move again, this time to a place without government interference or worldly distraction: the “New World” across the Atlantic Ocean.
The Mayflower
First, the Separatists returned to London to get organized. A
prominent merchant agreed to advance the money for their journey. The Virginia
Company gave them permission to establish a settlement, or
“plantation,” on the East Coast between 38 and 41 degrees north latitude
(roughly between the Chesapeake Bay and the mouth of the Hudson River).
And the King of England gave them permission to leave the Church of
England, “provided they carried themselves peaceably.”
In August 1620, a group of about 40 Saints joined a much larger group of (comparatively) secular colonists–“Strangers,” to the Saints–and set sail from England on two merchant ships: the Mayflower and the Speedwell. The Speedwell began to leak almost immediately, however, and the ships headed back to port. The travelers squeezed themselves and their belongings onto the Mayflower and set sail once again.
Because of the delay caused by the leaky Speedwell, the Mayflower had to cross the Atlantic at the height of storm season. As a result, the journey was horribly unpleasant. Many of the passengers were so seasick they could scarcely get up, and the waves were so rough that one “Stranger” was swept overboard and drowned. (It was “the just hand of God upon him,” Bradford wrote later, for the young sailor had been “a proud and very profane yonge man.”)
In August 1620, a group of about 40 Saints joined a much larger group of (comparatively) secular colonists–“Strangers,” to the Saints–and set sail from England on two merchant ships: the Mayflower and the Speedwell. The Speedwell began to leak almost immediately, however, and the ships headed back to port. The travelers squeezed themselves and their belongings onto the Mayflower and set sail once again.
Because of the delay caused by the leaky Speedwell, the Mayflower had to cross the Atlantic at the height of storm season. As a result, the journey was horribly unpleasant. Many of the passengers were so seasick they could scarcely get up, and the waves were so rough that one “Stranger” was swept overboard and drowned. (It was “the just hand of God upon him,” Bradford wrote later, for the young sailor had been “a proud and very profane yonge man.”)
The Mayflower Compact
After two miserable months at sea, the ship finally reached the New
World. There, the Mayflower’s passengers found an abandoned Indian
village and not much else. They also found that they were in the wrong
place: Cape Cod was located at 42 degrees north latitude, well north of
the Virginia Company’s territory. Technically, the Mayflower colonists
had no right to be there at all. In order to establish themselves as a
legitimate colony (“Plymouth,” named after the English port from which
they had departed) under these dubious circumstances, 41 of the Saints
and Strangers drafted and signed a document they called the Mayflower Compact.
This Compact promised to create a “civil Body Politick” governed by
elected officials and “just and equal laws.” It also swore allegiance to
the English king.
Plymouth Colony and the First Thanksgiving
The colonists spent the first winter, which only 53 passengers and
half the crew survived, living onboard the Mayflower. (The Mayflower
sailed back to England in April 1621.) Once they moved ashore, the
colonists faced even more challenges. During their first winter in
America, more than half of the Plymouth colonists died from
malnutrition, disease and exposure to the harsh New England weather. In
fact, without the help of the area’s native people, it is likely that
none of the colonists would have survived. An English-speaking Pawtuxet
named Samoset helped the colonists form an alliance with the local
Wampanoags, who taught them how to hunt local animals, gather shellfish
and grow corn, beans and squash. At the end of the next summer, the
Plymouth colonists celebrated their first successful harvest with a
three-day festival of thanksgiving. We still commemorate this feast
today.
Eventually, the Plymouth colonists were absorbed into the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. Still, the Mayflower Saints and their descendants remained convinced that they alone had been specially chosen by God to act as a beacon for Christians around the world. “As one small candle may light a thousand,” Bradford wrote, “so the light here kindled hath shone to many, yea in some sort to our whole nation.”
Eventually, the Plymouth colonists were absorbed into the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. Still, the Mayflower Saints and their descendants remained convinced that they alone had been specially chosen by God to act as a beacon for Christians around the world. “As one small candle may light a thousand,” Bradford wrote, “so the light here kindled hath shone to many, yea in some sort to our whole nation.”
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