On this day in history, December 21:
Passengers on the British ship Mayflower went ashore in 1620 to found the Plymouth Colony, the first large, permanent English settlement in New England. There are no contemporary accounts to verify the legend, but Plymouth Rock is often cited as the point where they first set foot in their new homeland.
Their story began in 1606, when reform-minded Puritans in England formed a church that was separate from the Church of England, which was sanctioned by the state. The separatists were accused of treason, and forced to leave the country and live in the more tolerant Netherlands.
After many years trying to make a living, they won financial support from merchants in London to establish a colony in America. On September 6, 1620, 102 passengers – many called Pilgrims by William Bradford, who would become the first governor of the colony – boarded the Mayflower to make the long voyage to a new life in the New World.
Unlike the settlers in Jamestown, Virginia, who were entrepreneurs, many of these people were fleeing religious persecution. Of the 70 adults on the Mayflower, 27 were such Pilgrims. Forty-three of the adults, called "strangers" by the Pilgrims, had no religious interest in the colony. They were indentured servants and pioneers whose only goal was to seek their fortune.
The Mayflower Compact
The Mayflower sailed from Plymouth, England, and, in November 1620, sighted the coast of Cape Cod. The ship anchored at what is now Provincetown harbor on November 11, 1620.
Before going ashore, 41 male passengers signed the Mayflower Compact, agreeing to submit to a government chosen by common consent, or the will of the majority, and to obey all laws made for the good of the colony. It also pledged allegiance to the English king. This historic document remained the basis of the colony's government until 1691.
In late November, Susanna White gave birth on the Mayflower to a son, Peregrine, who was the first English child born to the Pilgrims in America.
In the next month, small groups were sent ashore to find a place to build a settlement. Around December 10, one scouting party discovered a suitable harbor on the western side of Cape Cod Bay. Eight days later, the ship anchored at Plymouth.
After exploring the region, the settlers chose an area called Patuxet, previously occupied by the Wampanoag, a Native American tribe who had abandoned the village. The location, chosen for its defensive position, was centered on Cole's Hill, where a new town was built, and Fort Hill, where a cannon was stationed.
First Brutal Winter and Thanksgiving
The Pilgrims struggled to build their settlement, find food and prevent sickness, but the winter of 1620-21 was severe. By spring, about 50 of the original 102 passengers had died from scurvy and exposure. Of the 18 adult women, 13 died. It would be many years before the threat of famine would pass.
Governor William Bradford later wrote: "Of these one hundred persons who came over in this first ship together, the greatest half died in the general mortality, and most of them in two or three months' time.”
By 1621, the settlers made contact with the Wampanoag. On March 16, an Indian named Samoset, who had learned some English from European fishermen, walked into the colony and proclaimed: "Welcome, Englishmen!"
Then, the settlers signed a peace treaty with Massasoit, the tribal chief. Aided by the Wampanoag, especially the English-speaking Squanto, they planted corn and beans, which were vital to their survival. In early October 1621, they celebrated the first Thanksgiving.
The event now commemorated annually in the United States at the end of November was a harvest festival. It was celebrated by the surviving settlers, only four of them adult women, along with Massasoit and 90 of his men. It lasted three days and featured a feast that included wild turkeys, waterfowl and fish supplied by the colonists, and five deer brought by the Indians.
Governor William Bradford
In 1621, William Bradford became governor of Plymouth and , except for the five years that he refused, remained in the position until he died in 1657.
The treaty with Massasoit resulted in 50 years of peace with the Wampanoag. The Narragansett tribe farther west was hostile, but Bradford averted trouble with them. In 1623, Captain Miles Standish marched against Indians accused of plotting to kill the colonists at Weymouth. The Native Americans were gradually pushed back and deprived of their land.
In 1623, Bradford abandoned a communistic system of labor because it slowed the advancement of agriculture. Land was parceled out to each family instead. In 1627, the successful fur trade enabled the colonists to liquidate their debt to the London merchants who had backed them. The colony, which developed into a quasi-theocracy, expanded slowly due to the lack of a staple, money-making crop and the infertility of the land.
Province of Massachusetts
After several years, the colonists began to settle on more productive land to the north. A representative political system was introduced in 1638, using the town as a unit of government and mandating the General Court, as well as the governor and his council, as the law-making body. By the time the Plymouth Colony joined the New England Confederation in 1643, 10 towns with a total population of about 2,000 had been established.
Plymouth suffered severely during King Philip's War against the Indians in 1675–76, and was almost destroyed. The colony then became part of the Dominion of New England. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688–89 in England, it was reorganized, and Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and Maine were joined together in a crown colony called the Province of Massachusetts in 1691.
Plymouth grew into a prosperous fishing and shipbuilding center. In John Winthrop's sermon "A Model of Christian Charity,” delivered in 1630, the Puritan leader warned the colonists of New England who founded the Massachusetts Bay colony: “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. “
John Kirshon - John Kirshon is a journalist/editor with more than 25 years of experience at the Associated Press, The New York Times and CBS News. He was ...
