How the Pilgrim's Landed

Queen Elizabeth in ascending to the thrown of Great Britain succeeded her half sister, known as Bloody Mary. Mary, a Roman Catholic, killed and outlawed hundreds of reformers. Elizabeth was Protestant and established Anglicanism as the religion of England. She, however, would not tolerate other religions, like that of the Puritans and Separatists. The Pilgrims were a group of people who strove for religious freedom and worshipped quietly in Scooby, England. Once King James I (a Stuart) succeeded Elizabeth, their existence was tested, for James proclaimed, “I shall make them conform or I shall harry them out of the land.” So, the Pilgrims as a group fled to Holland where they could worship in freedom.

They stayed about 12 years in Holland, but desired the traditions and nationalism of their homeland. Fearing their children were becoming more Dutch than English and more morally loose and free spirited, they decided to look for new horizons. They found the opportunity in Sir Edwin Sandys, a friend of John Robinson and William Brewster, the Pilgrim leaders in Holland. Sandys was a sympathizer to the scruples of Separatism, which was the religious name assumed by the Pilgrims, for they separated themselves from the Church of England. When Sandys became the treasurer of the Virginia Company of London, which held the land rights to the Virginia Colony and granted charters, he arranged a 7000 pound loan to the Separatists to sponsor a colonization effort in the new world. The loan was terribly small in comparison with the 200,000-pound financial backing given to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the 300,000-pound loss incurred by the Bermuda and Jamestown effort. Even though small, the Pilgrims would have to trust God for a successful colonization.

On September 16, 1620, a group of 40 Separatists and 62 sectarians sailed from England in the now famous ship called the Mayflower. They first landed at what is now Provincetown, some 200 miles off course, for they were to settle in New Jersey, which was then part of the Virginia land grant. While anchored off the coast, they enacted the Mayflower Compact, which was a covenant whereby all the settlers agreed to submit themselves to the laws of the colony. It contained the seeds of democracy, the foundation upon which America was built. After a month of exploration, the Pilgrims chose Plymouth to become their new home, for there they found a deep harbor, fresh water, and hills for defense.  A deserted Indian village was also located on the site; and the fields for planting were already cleared. They realized that God had been one step ahead of them, providing a new home.

The first winter, however, was terrible. Scurvy set in and took more than half of the colonists. Out of 18 married women, only 4 survived the winter. Bodies were buried during the night in order to prevent the local natives from knowing how depleted they were in people. Yet, when spring came, not one Pilgrim abandoned the colony to return to England. They persevered and were fortunate to have met Samoset, who on March 16, 1621, entered the encampment at Plymouth and spoke to the colonists. He had learned his broken English from fishermen that came to fish off the coast of Maine. After spending the night with the Pilgrims, he left and returned with five others, who brought deerskins to trade. As it was Sunday, the colonists declined to trade at that time, but offered them some food. On March 22, 1621 Samoset came back with Squanto, the last remaining Patuxet, who spoke much better English than him. The Patuxet Indians, known to be a more ruthless tribe than the Wampanoags led by Chief Massasoit, had settled the Plymouth area, but were wiped out by a plague. Squanto, at the time, was in England, thereby avoiding the plague. He eventually lived outside the village and became a friend to the Pilgrims.

God surely prepared a place for the Pilgrims. Psalm 104 says, “These all look to you to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things” (vv. 27-28). The Pilgrims certainly looked to God who also provided fields ready to be planted, which insured their survival. He also surrounded them with friendly Indians, with whom they would eventually sign a pact for mutual defense. To celebrate their blessings, they held the first Thanksgiving in which 100 Indians attended. The feast of fowl and venison, pumpkin and corn, lasted three days. Certainly, this great banquet was a fitting celebration of God’s providential care.

Fact and Fiction about the Pilgrims

            I grew up outside of Plymouth in the land of the Pilgrims. I even attended school or played ball with some of the descendants of our first settlers—Brewster, Bradford, and Standish. Since November is the month of Thanksgiving, I thought I would list 10 little known facts or trivia about the Pilgrims. There are questions at the end of each paragraph, which may be used at Thanksgiving as a game of Pilgrim Trivia.

1. Samoset, an Indian from Maine, first came alone to the Pilgrims. His first words in broken English were, “Welcome, Englishmen! You got beer?” In Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, it is reported that Samoset asked for beer, “but we gave him strong water, and biscuit, and butter, and cheese, and pudding, and a piece of mallard; all which he liked well."[1] The manifest of food on the Mayflower indicated that the Pilgrims had kegs of beer, but they may have run out by the time of Samoset’s appearance. Beer was better than water because you could not trust the water. Harmful microorganisms, present in water, cannot survive long in beer (or wine). To survive the trip across an ocean, you needed a source of water, which during the colonial era, was beer and wine. What do you think the “strong water” was that was given to Samoset in place of beer? Holland Gin or Brandy. These alcoholic beverages were known as “strong waters,” which were relied upon for maintaining body warmth. According to Azel Ames in his The Mayflower and Her Log; July 15, 1620-May 6, 1621 (Complete), the food manifest not only included beer, but listed brandy and gin (in pipes).

2. Squanto introduced the Pilgrims to native seed such as pumpkin, beans, and corn. He taught them to plant a dead fish over the seed of corn that acted as fertilizer, causing greater growth and production. Did he teach the Pilgrims how to make popcorn? No! According to Andrew F. Smith who wrote Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America (Smithsonian, 2001), the Pilgrims’ popcorn myth is traced to the 1880s, when heavy immigration fostered the creation of national myths to sell magazines, newspapers, and school curricula to Americanize the newcomers. The Department of Agriculture asserts that South and Central American Indians ate popcorn more than 2500 years ago, but no evidence exists for popcorn being eaten in the Massachusetts or Virginia colonies.

3. Of the 149 people aboard the Mayflower, 48 were crew, 45 were Pilgrims or Separatists, 36 were Sectarians from London and Southhampton, 14 were servants of the Pilgrims, and 6 were servants of the sectarians. Only one person, a seaman, died during the voyage across the Atlantic though 4 died on the ship in the harbor of Plymouth. How many died the first winter? Over Half! They were buried at night to prevent the Indians from knowing how many of their number were depleted.

4. John Alden was 21 years old when recruited as a crewman and cooper on board the Mayflower. He married Priscilla Mullins who was 19 and the daughter of one of the sectarians. According to Longfellow’s The Courtship of Miles Standish, the captain sent his young friend, Alden to speak for him in his proposal of courting Miss Mullins. After Alden had pleaded Standish's case, Mullins said, "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" They were clearly in love, but the couple was afraid of offending Standish. When they received word that the captain had been killed fighting Indians, they agreed to marry. At the end of the wedding, Standish, alive and well, appeared, saw the starry-eyed couple and gave his blessing, asking forgiveness for his previous behavior. Alden and Mullins had 11 children and were among the founders of the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts. What was Priscilla’s occupation besides spinner and weaver? Schoolteacher.

5. The first Thanksgiving feast was based on the Jewish holiday, Sukkoth or Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles). It commemorated the temporary shelters used by the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness. The Pilgrim celebration lasted 3 days and included games and recreation. They ate outside and their tables didn't overflow with pies, partly because there was no desire to deplete their sugar supplies. The pilgrims hunted fowl for the feast and 100 Indians arrived with five deer to be dressed, cooked and served for the meal. Although George Washington commemorated the feast by calling for a day of thanksgiving, Thanksgiving was not declared a federal holiday until which President? Abraham Lincoln.

6. The Pilgrims did not call themselves “Pilgrims” or “Separatists.” They referred to themselves as “saints” and were much ridiculed by the sailors. The leader, according to the Pilgrim who kept a journal, was a “very profane young man” who was strongly built and haughty in attitude. He and others gloated at the seasickness of the Pilgrims and told them how much he would delight in sewing them in shrouds and feeding them to the fish. He even called them “psalm singing puke-stockings.” The Pilgrim journaler wrote that “it pleased God to smite the young man with a grievous disease,” which led to his death at sea. Ironically, he was the first to die, his body thrown into the sea to be feasted on by the fish. Who was the Pilgrim who wrote about this? William Bradford who was a signatory of the Mayflower Compact and served as the 2^nd Governor of Plymouth after the death of John Carter. He retained this post for most of the remainder of his life.

7.  The Pilgrims hardly wore clothing that was black and white as portrayed in the pictures that we see. Women wore red, green, browns, blue, violet, and gray. A common color for children was blue. Boys wore dresses until six; then they started dressing like their fathers. What were their pants called? Breeches.

8. Pilgrims played “draughts,” their name for checkers. Outside, children played a game called “hid,” which we call “Hide and Seek.” They also played “lummelen,” a Dutch word known today as “Keep Away.” They also liked to participate in “Leapfrog” and marbles, and solve riddles and puzzles. Children also played “naughts and crosses,” “naughts” being an old English word for zero and crosses made like an X. What game would that resemble today? Tic, Tac, Toe.

9. Pilgrims also participated in sports. One in particular was "stool ball," which involved a three-legged dairy stool that the participants would try to knock over with a leather ball while another defended it with a wooden bat. "Pitching the bar" was a contest of strength, usually for older youth and adults, in which the participants would have to toss a long, thick pole end over end. The winner was the person who could throw it the farthest. Which Scottish game does this resemble? The caber toss. The term 'caber' comes from the Gaelic word "cabar" or "kaber," meaning rafter or beam. The origin of the caber toss is most likely traced to the military action of breaching barriers or crossing streams. During battle, the caber was tossed from one side of the stream to the other to quickly make a bridge. The warring Scotsmen would then cross the freezing stream and pursue their enemies.

10. The father of Priscilla Mullins was a cobbler and shoemaker. He brought with him on the Mayflower 250 pairs of shoes and 13 pairs of boots. Popular footwear for men in the northern countries was either high-topped boots with turnovers or low-heeled, round-toed shoes. Were these shoes fastened with buckles? No. There were no shoe buckles during this period nor were there hat buckles. They did not come into fashion until much later in the 17^th century. So, pictures of Pilgrims with buckles on hats and shoes are not portraying accurately what they wore in the 1600s.

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[1] http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2699800153.html (accessed 10/23/14)