By: Derek Gerry
As a young country, America is not rich in mythology, but one of our few treasured myths is that of the Plymouth Pilgrims. We hold romantic notions of religious separatists seeking freedom in the New World, aided by their friendship with Native Americans. Reality, as you shall learn, doesn't mesh with this mythological view.
- Few religious separatists were among the Plymouth Pilgrims. Only 27 of the adults on board the Mayflower were Puritans. The other 43 adults, known to the Puritans as The Strangers, included merchants, soldiers and indentured servants who hoped to build a better life in the New World. With 102 people on board, 32 of them children, The Strangers actually held the majority.
- The Mayflower landed in the wrong place. The land charter granted to the Pilgrims allowed them to establish a colony at the mouth of the Hudson River in modern-day New York. A lengthy voyage, coupled with shallow, rocky waters off the coast of Cape Cod, forced the Mayflower to turn north, rather than south, landing at Plymouth.
- The colony nearly fell apart. The Strangers decided that they were not bound by the terms of the original land charter, because the ship had landed in a different area. After some Strangers threatened to strike out on their own, the Puritans and the Strangers created the Mayflower Compact. This agreement between the two groups decreed that all decisions would be made by a majority of the adult men with an eye toward the best interests of the colony.
- The first winter was lethal. Arriving in late December, the colonists found themselves fighting a harsh New England winter as they started building their settlement. Women and children remained on board the Mayflower in cramped and squalid conditions, while the men braved the cold and snow to build houses. By the end of the first winter, 45 of the 102 colonists were dead. Only four adult women lived through the first spring.
- The Native Americans were suspicious of the colonists. Previous encounters with English fisherman, merchants and explorers had left the local Native American population wary of Englishmen. Some of Massasoit's men had been killed in an unprovoked attack. Squanto, who helped negotiate the first treaty between the English and Massasoit, had been kidnapped by Englishmen and held as a slave by the Spanish. Squanto returned to Plymouth to find that his village had been wiped out by smallpox. He set up a new home near Plymouth and taught the colonists everything he knew about farming, fishing and hunting in the area.
