The Pilgrims

• Term coined by Bradford to describe his community of believers• Distinct from “Puritans,” the majority of whom believed that the

Church of England could be reformed• Pilgrims were “Separatists” who believed their was no hope of

reforming the Church of England• They were largely opposed to the idea of a state religion or a national

church, and believed that individual communities or churches ought to be able to set their own mandates (123)

• They were Calvinists, who believed in an Elect• Faced various persecutions in England for forming their own

congregations: jailed, invaded, surveilled, fired from jobs, forced to flee their homes

The Netherlands (124-125)

• Bradford’s community – the Scrooby community – first fled to the “Low Countries,” or The Netherlands, where they might experience greater religious freedom. Most of them settled in Amsterdam and surrounding communities, where they were able to hold Sabbath according to their will.• Reasons for leaving:

• The “hardness of the place” meant that many of their followers refused to continue with them, and returned back to England.

• Even though the Pilgrims were, in general, suffering faithfully, it quickly became apparent that more and more of them would continue to flee if they remained in Amsterdam.

• The burden on the children was considerable. Given the “liscentiousness” of Amsterdam, they feared losing their children to sin, to the military, to lives at sea. Without children, there was no hope for the future of their community.

• They wanted to “propgat[e] and advance[e] the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world.”

Practical realities and fears of the settling in New World: A Hard Sell• “Casualties of the seas”• “Length of the voyage”• “Weak bodies of women and other persons with age and travail” (as many of them were)

could never be able to endure”• “Miseries of the land which they would be exposed unto, would be too hard to be borne”• “Famine”• “Nakedness”• “The want, in a manner, of all things”• “The change of air, diet, and drinking of water”• “Sore sicknesses, and grevious diseases”• “It would require greater sums of money to furnish such a voyage”• “Many precendents of ill success, and lamentable miseries befallen others in like

designs”• “How hard a thing it was for them to live in that strange place [Holland], though it was a

neighbor country and a civil and rich commonwealth”

Initial (and dangerously incorrect) perception of America from their temporary home in the Netherlands

• “Savage people, who are cruel, barbarous, and most treacherous, being most furious in their rage, and merciless where they overcome; not being content only to kill and take away life, but delight to torment men in the most bloody manner that may be; flaying some alive with shells of fishes, cutting off the members and joints of other piecemeal, and broiling on the coals, eat the collops of their flesh in their sight whilst they live.”• “The place they had thoughts on was some of those vast and

unpeopled countries of America, which are fruitful and fit for habitation, being devoid of all civil inhabitants, where there are only savage and brutish men, which range up and down, little otherwise than the wild beasts of the same.”

Justification for the journey and the Function of “Providence” • Determined to leave behind the elderly, sick, and those

who were not likely to make the journey, even though they understood they might never see them again• “It was granted that the dangers were great, but not

desperate; the difficulties were many, but not invincible. For though there were many of them likely, yet they were not certain; it might be sundry of the things might never befall; others by provident care and the use of good means, might in great measure be prevented; and all of them, through the help of God, by fortitude and patience, might either be borne, or overcome.”

The Journey to the New World

• Urged in a letter by John Robinson to remember their faith, to refuse to allow petty arguments to derail their progress, and to bear in mind that, in the New World, they must choose their own structure and see to it that their social organization is strong, given that many of them were “strangers” to one another and that, unlike in England, they would not have a fixed social hierarchy or caste: • “Whereas you are become a body politic, using amongst yourselves

civil government, and are not furnished with any person of special eminency above the rest, let your wisdom and godliness appear, not only in choosing such persons as do entirely love and will promote the common good, but also in yielding unto them all due honor and obedience in their lawful administrations” (130).

What kind of God did they worship?: An Example of “Providence”• “A special work of God’s providence” as follows:

• “There was a proud and very profane young man, one of the seaman, of a lusty, able body, which made him the more haughty”“He would always be conteming the poor people in their sickness, and cursing them daily with grevious execrations, and did not let to tell them, that he hoped to help cast half of them overboard before they came to their journey’s end, and to make merry with what they had”

• “If he were by any gently reproved, he would curse and swear most bitterly”

• “It pleased God before they came half seas over, to smite this young man with a grevious disease, of which he died in a desperate manner, and so was himself the first that was thrown overboard.”“His curses lighted on his own head; and it was an astonishment to all his fellows, for they noted it to be the just hand of God upon him” (131)

The Journey Over Was Horrible

• Terrible seasickness• Awful rations• “Many times a cross wind”• “Many fierce storms, with which the ship was shroudly

shaken, and her upper works made very leaky”• Damage to the vessel which threatened its seaworthiness• Dreadful boredom: “Seneca was so affected with sailing a few

miles on the coast of his own Italy; as he affirmed, that he had rather remain twenty years on his way by land, than pass by sea to any place in a short time, so tedious and dreadful was the same unto him.”

Harsh Reality: Arrival in Cape Cod on the 11th of November, on the cusp of winter• “Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their

preparation (as may be remembered by that which went before), they had now no friends to welcome them nor inns to entertain or refresh their weatherbeaten bodies; no houses or much less towns to repair to, to seek for succor. It is recorded in Scripture as a mercy to the Apostle and his shipwrecked company, that the barbarians showed them no small kindness in refreshing them, but these savage barbarians, when they met with them (as after will appear) were readier to fill their sides full of arrows than otherwise. And for the season it was winter, and they know that the winters of that country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search an unknown coast. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men--and what multitudes there might be of them they knew not.”

Another example of God’s “Providence,” Or if you’re a Pilgrim and you steal food from native peoples, it’s definitely because God wanted it that way. I mean, He wouldn’t have put the food there otherwise, just ripe for the snatching, right? And they were so so hungry. They’ll get ‘em back later, alright? Jeez.

“After this, the shallop being got ready, they set out again for the better discovery of this place, and the master of the ship desired to go himself. So there went some thirty men but found it to be no harbor for ships but only for boats. There was also found two of their houses covered with mats, and sundry of their implements in them, but the people were run away and could not be seen. Also there was found more of their corn and of their beans of various colors; the corn and beans they brought away, purposing to give them full satisfaction when they should meet with any of them as, about some six months afterward they did, to their good content.And here is to be noted a special providence of God, and a great mercy to this poor people, that here they got seed to plant them corn the next year, or else they might have starved, for they had none nor any likelihood to get any till the season had been past, as the sequel did manifest. Neither is it likely they had had this, if the first voyage had not been made, for the ground was now all covered with snow and hard frozen; but the Lord is never wanting unto His in their greatest needs; let His holy name have all the praise.”

Difficult Beginnings, indeed.

• On the 25th of December, after they had been in the New World for one month, they finally began to construct their first house “for common use to receive thm and their goods.”

• “But that which was most sad, and lamentable, was, that in two or three months’ time half of their company died, especially in January and February, being the depth of winter, and wanting houses and other comforts; being infected with scurvy and other diseases, which this long voyage and their inaccommodate condition had brought upon them; so as there died sometimes two or three of a day, in the foresaid time; that of one hundred and odd persons scarce fifty remained: and of these in the time of most distress there was but six or seven sound persons; who to their great commendations, be it spoken, spared no pains, night nor day, but with abandance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched them wood, made them fires, drest them meat, made their beds, washed their loathsome clothes, clothed and unclothed them; in a word did all the homely, and necessary offices for them, which dainty and queasy stomachs cannot endure to hear named and all this willingly and cheerfully, without any grudging in the least, showing herein their true love unto their friends and brethren; a rare example and worthy to be remembered. Two of these seven were Mr. William Brewster their reverend Elder, and Myles Standish their Captain and military commander (unto whom myself, and many others were much beholden in our low, and sick condition) and yet the Lord so upheld these persons, as in this general calamity they were not at all infected either with sickness, or lameness.”

Dealings with the Natives (better than expected, at least initially)• Samoset and Squanto, “a native of this place, who had been in England

and could speak better English than himself.”• Squanto was “their interpreter, and was a special instrument sent of

God for their good beyond their expectation. He directed them how to set their corn, where to take fish, and to procure other commodities, and was also their pilot to bring them to unknown places for their profit, and never left them till he died. He was a native of this place, and scarce any left alive besides himself. He was carried away with divers others by one Hunt, a master of a ship, who thought to sell them for slaves in Spain; but he got away to England, and was entertained by a merchant in London, and employed in Newfoundland and other parts, and lastly brough hither into these parts by one Mr. Dermer, a gentleman employed by Sir Ferdinando Gorges and others, for discovery, and other designs on these parts.”

Rules of Engagement with the Massasoit: A Treaty of Sorts• 1. That neither he nor any of his, should injure or do hurt to any of their people.• 2. That if any of his did any hurt to any of theirs, he should send the offender that they• might punish him.• 3. That if any thing were taken away from any of theirs, he should cause it to be• restored; and they should do the like to his.• 4. That if any did unjustly war against him, they would aid him; and if any did war• against them, he should aid them.• 5. That he should send to his neighbours confederates to certify them of this, that they• might not wrong them, but might be likewise comprised in the conditions of peace.• 6. That when their men came to them, they should leave their bows and arrows behind• them

Prosperity Weakens Community, or I’m Sorry We’re Growing• “Also the people of the Plantation began to grow in their outward estates, by reason of the

flowing of many people into the country, especially into the Bay of the Massachusetts. By which means corn and cattle rose to a great price, by which many were much enriched and commodities grew plentiful. And yet in other regards this benefit turned to their hurt, and this accession of strength to their weakness. For now as their stocks increased and the increase vendible, there was no longer any holding them together, but now they must of necessity go to their great lots. They could not otherwise keep their cattle, and having oxen grown they must have land for plowing and tillage. And no man now thought he could live except he had cattle and a great deal of ground to keep them, all striving to increase their stocks. By which means they were scattered all over the Bay quickly and the town in which they lived compactly till now was left very thin and in a short time almost desolate. And if this had been all, it had been less, though too much; but the church must also be divided, and those that had lived so long together in Christian and comfortable fellowship must now part and suffer many divisions. First, those that lived on their lots on the other side of the Bay, called Duxbury,49 they could not long bring their wives and children to the public worship and church meetings here, but with such burthen as, growing to some competent number, they sued to be dismissed and become a body of themselves. And so they were dismissed about this time though very unwillingly.”