Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
The Mayflower passengers first sighted land off the coast of Cape Cod on Thursday, November 9, 1620. Before disembarking and ending their sixty-five day journey, a total of 41 men signed the Mayflower Compact, as seminal a document as the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. None could have imagined the unfathomable hardships and dangers that lay ahead for them all. Only 52 people out of 102 who left England would be alive after the first year in America.
The Pilgrims were mostly puritans mixed with some "strangers" but while they left England in search of religious freedom (more correctly they fled England about 10 years earlier for Holland and then set sail from England), they did not easily grant religious freedom to others of different beliefs- they were more intolerant of others' views such as the Quakers (some of whom they executed for refusing to conform) than the Anglican Church was of theirs. By forcing the English to improvise, the Indians prevented Plymouth Colony from ossifying into a monolithic cult of religious extremism.
It is ironic that even before encountering any native American Indians first hand, scouts sent out before the main party came ashore stole corn the Indians had stored- but they were adamant about devoting Sunday to worship and praying and not working.
Early on the Pilgrims were befriended by Massasoit the most powerful sachem in their area. There were literally dozens of tribes with sachems throughout what we call New England today, some more powerful than others. It was Massasoit's son Phillip (many Indians took English names) who went to war with the English 56 years after they landed at Plymouth Rock.
The Indians were certainly savages in certain respects; they were naked and without clothes, illiterate with different tongues, which meant no currency or land deeds, laws or other common institutions of a civilized society and mostly nomadic without permanent homes moving about with their food sources. But they were more skilled in many ways than were the Pilgrims and equally intriguing and deceitful. Interpreters were few in number and most of them betrayed both sides compelled by their own agendas. The English were just as barbaric in war as the Indians, often decapitating the Indian leaders killed in battle and hosting their heads on flag poles above the fort where they remained for years.
From 1620 until King Phillip's war began in 1675, the English had greatly multiplied helped by continuous immigration. This growing English population had an insatiable appetite for land. Our fore fathers traded and purchased land for almost nothing from the Indians who did not understand or appreciate what they were doing until it was too late. Although first blood in the war was drawn by the Indians, the English were as much or more at blame than the Indians for King Phillip's War, having constantly reneged on treaties, unfairly prosecuted the Indians and relentlessly pursued their land grab efforts.
King Phillip's war (1675-1676) was more costly in terms of the percentage of the male population killed than any other war in American history, including the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War II.
In the 2002, it was estimated that approximately 35,000,000 people in the United States are descendants of the Mayflower passengers.
Abraham Lincoln established the holiday of Thanksgiving in 1863; 243 years after the Pilgrims landed in America.
The Pilgrims were mostly puritans mixed with some "strangers" but while they left England in search of religious freedom (more correctly they fled England about 10 years earlier for Holland and then set sail from England), they did not easily grant religious freedom to others of different beliefs- they were more intolerant of others' views such as the Quakers (some of whom they executed for refusing to conform) than the Anglican Church was of theirs. By forcing the English to improvise, the Indians prevented Plymouth Colony from ossifying into a monolithic cult of religious extremism.
It is ironic that even before encountering any native American Indians first hand, scouts sent out before the main party came ashore stole corn the Indians had stored- but they were adamant about devoting Sunday to worship and praying and not working.
Early on the Pilgrims were befriended by Massasoit the most powerful sachem in their area. There were literally dozens of tribes with sachems throughout what we call New England today, some more powerful than others. It was Massasoit's son Phillip (many Indians took English names) who went to war with the English 56 years after they landed at Plymouth Rock.
The Indians were certainly savages in certain respects; they were naked and without clothes, illiterate with different tongues, which meant no currency or land deeds, laws or other common institutions of a civilized society and mostly nomadic without permanent homes moving about with their food sources. But they were more skilled in many ways than were the Pilgrims and equally intriguing and deceitful. Interpreters were few in number and most of them betrayed both sides compelled by their own agendas. The English were just as barbaric in war as the Indians, often decapitating the Indian leaders killed in battle and hosting their heads on flag poles above the fort where they remained for years.
From 1620 until King Phillip's war began in 1675, the English had greatly multiplied helped by continuous immigration. This growing English population had an insatiable appetite for land. Our fore fathers traded and purchased land for almost nothing from the Indians who did not understand or appreciate what they were doing until it was too late. Although first blood in the war was drawn by the Indians, the English were as much or more at blame than the Indians for King Phillip's War, having constantly reneged on treaties, unfairly prosecuted the Indians and relentlessly pursued their land grab efforts.
King Phillip's war (1675-1676) was more costly in terms of the percentage of the male population killed than any other war in American history, including the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War II.
In the 2002, it was estimated that approximately 35,000,000 people in the United States are descendants of the Mayflower passengers.
Abraham Lincoln established the holiday of Thanksgiving in 1863; 243 years after the Pilgrims landed in America.
Labels: Book Review
posted by Thomas D. Harris | 8:25 PM
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