Everything you
know about the Pilgrims is Wrong. (Sorry...)
First of all, they weren’t
called Pilgrims. That’s a relatively modern name for people that called
themselves Saints, everyone else strangers and were Separatists. They were a
subset of that group we know and love called the Puritans.
The Puritans were to the Church
of England what Martin Luther was to the Catholic church. Just as Luther tried
to clean up the Holy Roman mess that Catholicism had become so too did the
Puritans try to purify the Church of England. Get it? Purify. Puritans.
The people that we call
Pilgrims were a radical subset of the Puritans. They were the ultra right-wing
part of Puritanism that thought the Church of England was so corrupt that it
couldn’t be saved. They just wanted to separate from the church and be done with
them.
Their first attempt at
separation had them going to Holland. In 1609 they settled in Leiden. It’s just
a bit ironic that this most illiberal group should settle in what may have been
Europe’s most liberal town of the time. The Separatist stayed in Leiden for 11
years.
After a decade it became
obvious to the Separatist leaders that Leiden wasn’t working for them on a few
different levels. Sure, they were living in Leiden but they were pretty much
keeping to themselves. They had their religion and their families and that was
it. Because they refused to join in the society of their new home they found it
hard to make it economically.
Then there was the problem with
the kids. Try as hard as they could the Separatists couldn’t stop their children
from becoming acculturated. The future forefathers found futility in trying to
raise good god faring English children in the middle of Holland. One can only
imagine the first time a Separatist kid came home wearing wooden shoes and
knickerbockers! “But Mom, all the kids are…”
It was back in the boat and a
return to England. Only England was getting less tolerant of the Puritans than
ever. Another viable option was (excuse me Horace Greeley) go west young
Pilgrims!
This next part is tough. The
Pilgrims came for religious freedom. Ahhhhh, no. They came to practice a
peculiar brand of religious intolerance. They wanted to be free to practice
their religion--they didn't want any other religions around. Period. That's not
practicing religious freedom at all.
You know the story:
The Pilgrims filled the Mayflower. The storm-tossed ship went off course. They
ended up off the coast of Massachusetts, signed the Mayflower Compact, settled
Plymouth, were saved by Squanto, and had the first Thanksgiving. Like most myths
there's a germ of truth there. Like Professor Ed O'Donnell likes to say, "Don't
confuse the past with history."
The Separatists were supposed
to go Virginia. They were to winter in Jamestown and then go up the Chesapeake
in the spring to found a new colony. At least that’s what they told the
representatives of the king they were going to do. They lied.
Of the hundred or so people on
the Mayflower only 35 were Pilgrims. The Separatists kidnapped 65 people and
headed off to an abandoned Native American village that they’d read about in
John Smith’s book. That’s right, the guy that became famous in the Disney movie
about Pocahontas had written a book and drew some maps that told of a place
where the forest was cleared, a fresh water stream ran down a hill, and
dwellings lay abandoned.
Back up a second. The uber-religious
people we know of as Pilgrims kidnapped 65 people? That’s right. Only a third of
the people on the Mayflower were “Pilgrims.” The rest were people that were
supposed to go to Jamestown as laborers. The vast majority were indentured
servants. They were to serve a period of seven years or so and then they’d be
free men to do as they please in North America. They paid for their passage over
with their future labors. So, in a very real sense, the Separatists not only
kidnapped, but they stole as well! Someone paid to have these people on that
boat and they just got ripped off.
The Mayflower Compact was a way
to keep the kidnapped from demanding they go to Jamestown! You
remember the Mayflower Compact. It said that the people on the Mayflower,
because they were not where they were supposed to be, could now declare
themselves a new and separate political entity to do as they all pleased.
That story about the storm
sending the Mayflower off course is just a smelly bucket of wode. When the
Mayflower reached the coast of Massachusetts the Separatist leaders spent a
couple of weeks in a shallop rowing up and down the coast looking for the
abandoned village described in John Smith’s book. They knew it was supposed to
be located at 42 degrees north latitude. Too bad they were too cheap to have
purchased John Smith’s map and not just his book.
You see there’s this thing
called Cape Cod the hooks around Massachusetts. There’s a part of Massachusetts
that is 42 degrees north on the mainland and another part of Massachusetts that
is also 42 degrees north on Cape Cod. When the Mayflower hit land at 42 degrees
north the Separatist leaders thought they were home. They got into their small
boat and rowed off to find their new digs. One problem—they couldn’t find the
abandoned village with the stream and the cleared fields to save their lives!
They were at the right latitude but not the right longitude. Longitude wouldn’t
be invented for another 140 years.
They futilely searched for
days! Can you imagine the choice words they had for John Smith and his book?
Imagine what the wives and kids had to say when the men kept coming home with
nothing to show for all their efforts. And the 65 others that were
stolen/kidnapped/ hood-winked into joining up with this bunch of maladroit
adventurers…
When the Mayflower headed
north, rounded Cape Cod and headed off for the mainland of Massachusetts they
found the promised land right where John Smith said it would be.
Now remember, the Separatists
are doing all this in November. Winter is coming on fast. No one in their right
mind would try to start a colony in Massachusetts in winter.
Luckily there were provisions
waiting for the Separatists. The provisions were stored in jars and stashed
right next to the cleared fields they found in small structures that had been
constructed to house this North American equivalent of Ye Olde Quicky Marte.
There was dried venison and fish, corn, beans—a veritable feast! The Pilgrims
had to be feeling pretty good about now. A new home with fresh running water,
cleared fields, a place to stay, and food.
Oh, there was one more thing.
Next to the provisions they found were bones. The bones of the indigenous
population. Indian bones. The dried foods were part of the burial rites for the
former occupants of their new home. The Pilgrims were desecrating the graves of
the recently deceased. The Pilgrims were grave robbers…
You’ll find Squanto’s story
elsewhere on this site. In Y’s room you’ll be able to access the rest of the
Pilgrim Story in the eBook, There’s Something about the Pilgrims you really
ought to know…
|
