Who Were The Pilgrims?

Meet the English Puritans who founded America.

Landing of the Pilgrims, by Charles Lucy

Europe was ruled by kings, who dictated the rules to their subjects. But many ordinary people did not want to live under the yoke of monarchy. The Pilgrims preached their own way of living. Radical and liberal in their beliefs, these forward-thinking dissenters supported equal rights for all human beings regardless of religious affiliation. So on 1620, the brave Pilgrims made a perilous journey out of Europe into the New World. Arriving aboard the famous Mayflower, they came in search of freedom. 

The Puritans

One of the Pilgrims was named William Bradford, who recorded journals from 1620 to 1646. Together, these documents are known as Of Plymouth Plantation. It describes the first three decades of Plymouth life, which Bradford himself helped to shape as the colony’s governor. Bradford hoped to extend England’s domain into the unexplored New World. He lived among the freethinking Puritans, who emphasized individualism rather than social hierarchy. For the Puritans, serving God’s covenant occurred through freedom of discussion and the consent of the majority. They imbued those core democratic values with a spiritual significance. To the Puritans, the will of the people was God’s will. Their pious faith in popular sovereignty was an affront to the old monarchies of Europe, which claimed the king was uniquely inspired by God. 

English Reformation 

Bradford was born in 1590 in northern England, toward the end of the Elizabethan Age. Orphaned as a boy, he found solace in a Puritan parish. There, he spent his leisure studying the Bible, as translated by John Calvin. But to the Puritans, the English Reformation was not radical enough. After over half a century of religious upheaval, the Puritans attempted to reform the Anglican Church from the inside. During the latter half of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, the Puritans tried to get rid of the superstitions of the Catholic Church, which were still present in the Anglican Church. They tried to get rid of the pompous ceremonies, vestments, incense, and other non-scriptural elements of the religion. Queen Elizabeth was very reluctant to make any major religious changes. King James came to the throne in 1603. Because he was raised in a Reformed Protestant Church, the Puritans saw him as an ally. But as it turned out, King James was very unresponsive to their reforms. Even worse, the mad monarch went so far as to exile the Puritans out of England. Opposition to the Anglican Church was tantamount to high treason. The British Crown cracked down mercilessly, inflicting persecution, torture, and execution to enforce religious conformity. 

Dutch Republic

The English Separatists realized that their motherland was beyond saving. So they fled to liberal Holland, which had freed itself from Spanish rule. In 1608, Bradford and his fellow parishioners moved to their new homeland. The charismatic Reverend John Robinson led the group to the Dutch city of Leiden. Leiden was a flourishing settlement with thousands of small businesses. Everyone was welcomed who was willing to work and obey the laws. Refugees of religious persecution fled to Holland, where they enjoyed some semblance of tolerance. Commerce and profit were far more important than dogmatic theology. Everyone’s life centered on their employment. The citizens of the Dutch Republic toiled diligently from sunrise to sunset. Out of Holland, Robinson articulated his groundbreaking religious and political theories. He suggested that there were three forms of government in a covenanted church. First, there was a monarchy, with reference to God and Christ. Second, there was an aristocracy, ruled by elders who ran daily affairs. Third, there was a democracy, where decisions were ultimately made by the whole people of God. Robinson’s revolutionary Puritanism challenged the Church and Crown, promoting democracy against Anglican monarchism. The Puritans covertly snuck their material back into England, hoping to inspire others to rise up against the Crown. Pressured by King James, Leiden was forced to jail the authors, but they were soon freed. They could not be thrown in prison without breaking Dutch law, which they had not. So the Separatists were still able to publish their beliefs freely from Holland. Convinced of their higher calling, the Puritans were determined to set up a new life in the New World, which could inspire people across the world. In a famous speech from 1630, John Winthrop described the Puritan settlements in the New World as a “city on a hill.” The Puritans emphasized tolerance and freedom of thought. They throughly rejected religious dogmatism. Robinson interpreted the Expulsion from Eden story in Genesis as an allegory for the intolerance of more dogmatic Christians. 

Crossing the Atlantic 

The situation in Holland grew more tense, as the Dutch verged on open warfare against the Catholic Habsburgs. This placed the Separatists in a difficult position. Some of them wanted to leave Holland, and start up a new life in the New World. Others feared this dangerous trek into an unknown land. Lacking any experience, the Puritans purchased a ship for their voyage. The Speedwell traveled first to Southampton, where they planned to join up with fellow believers. Then, they would sail to the New World in two ships, out from the southern coast of England. It was extremely difficult, and many Pilgrims simply gave up. But those who persisted eventually set sail for the New World aboard a rented freighter, the Mayflower, in 1620. The fateful Mayflower voyage was truly a leap into the unknown. It was accompanied by dangerous storms. The ship had an intolerable stench, and their diet was meager. The lack of vitamin C was harmful, as was the excessive salt. They grew tired and weaker as the journey dragged on. Robinson knew that harmony was essential for the survival of a colony. So he urged tolerance and peace among the settlers. As their supplies nearly vanished, the Puritans could only entrust their fate to God. On November 9, after 65 days, the Pilgrims finally arrived. 

The New World

The Pilgrims established their first settlement on Cape Cod. Democracy and equal rights were introduced, at a time when most of Europe was still ruled by monarchies and rigid social class. The settlers set up their own system of government. Rights and responsibilities were written down into a social contract, which respected the rights of many different social groups. The Pilgrims meticulously laid out how elections would take place, who could vote, and the principles of law and order. Known as the Mayflower Compact, it became one of the very first written constitutions in human history. The Pilgrims were mesmerized by what they saw in the New World. They encountered new crops, which were quite providential to the starving Pilgrims. Back in England, the Pilgrims had heard only rumors about the Native Americans, and were terrified of them. They did not make fires, out of fear of attracting the Indians’ attention. But before long, the Puritans encountered the Indians. The Natives shot their arrows, while the Pilgrims fired off their muskets. It confirmed their suspicion that non-Europeans lived in the New World, and were less than enthusiastic about their arrival. The Pilgrims continued to the other side of the huge bay. There, they founded the colony of Plymouth. Adventurer John Smith had previously founded a colony in southern Virginia years before. While the Pilgrims used Smith’s maps, they were left on their own to find a suitable place to settle. To their shock, they found human remains all over the Plymouth beach. Surrounded by death, they were simply too weak to wander any further. The Promised Land, it seemed, was little more than a barren wasteland. But the Pilgrims held close to their faith, believing that their struggles were still part of God’s plan. Embracing fate, they could no help but see a higher purpose amidst their suffering. On December 21, 1620, the Pilgrims finally landed on the frozen Plymouth beach. The Mayflower was a hotbed of fever, killing men, women, and children. There was nowhere to plant or harvest any crops. Half of them died of malnutrition and fever in the first winter. When Christmas arrived, the settlers worked hard to build their first houses. Fever and dysentery made it difficult for any reveling. Worse still, the Pilgrims lived in constant fear of the Indians, whom they had not yet encountered directly. They knew little about the Natives, apart from the propaganda of Spain and Portugal to justify their colonial conquests and genocides in Central and South America. European propagandists depicted the Natives as savages and cannibals, who needed to be civilized by force. 

Native Americans 

In the spring of 1621, many of the Pilgrims’ fears had been allayed. The only remaining challenge was the Natives. For the very first time, the Pilgrims encountered a Wampanoag Indian on March 16, standing on Watson Hill on the edge of the village. Tall and self-assured, the Indian male had little fear of foreigners. Much to their surprise, the man greeted the Pilgrims in English. He asked for bread and beer, items only the Europeans would have. The man’s name was Samoset, and he learned to speak the English language from cod fishermen. Samoset was a crucial source of information for the colonists. The mighty chief ruled over all the people in a wide area. He promised to return with another chief named Massasoit, who spoke even better English. His intentions seemed peaceful. The earliest Plymouth Pilgrims had a much more benevolent and humane approach to the Indians compared to later generations of settlers. They saw the Natives not as animals, but as fellow human beings capable of converting to Christianity. In many respects, the early relationship between the Pilgrims and the Natives was mutually beneficial. But European diseases, such as chickenpox and mumps, inadvertently ravaged alarming high numbers of Indians, which lacked immunity to those illnesses. The Pilgrims also met Squanto, an Indian who spent time in Europe and spoke English quite well. Years before, Squanto had been abducted to England as a slave. Now, he pursued his own goals as an adviser to the Indian chief. Squanto provided great service to the English, but he also did so for his own benefit. He tried to raise his own social status within his tribe by successfully forging ties with the Pilgrims. For months, Massasoit agonized over what to do about the new English settlers. He asked his priests to seek guidance from the spirits, hoping for inspiration on what to do for the benefit of his people. Some of the chief’s advisers urged him to simply expel the weaker English. But Squanto knew the English better than most of his fellow Indians. He warned about the superiority of European weapons. He also feared that the Europeans could literally weaponize their diseases in barrels, in a primitive form of biological weapons. But it was a lie, which Squanto used to ensure a peace treaty and consolidate his own position within the tribe. Plymouth signed a treaty with their Indian neighbors, ensuring peace and prosperity. This allowed the Pilgrims to focus their attention on actually surviving and building a settlement. The Indians traded fur, in exchange for steel knives. Shortly after the peace treaty, Governor John Carver died unexpectedly. The fledgling colony needed a strong successor. William Bradford was selected, despite his initial hesitance. Plymouth benefited dramatically from the Indian treaty. The Wampanoags taught their English friends how to cultivate native plants, as well as the natural rhythm of the seasons. Corn served as a miracle crop, without which the Pilgrims would have probably died within a year or two. The positive relationship between Pilgrims and Indians lasted for over 50 years, which did much to ensure the enduring success of the English colony. 

Secularism

The first marriage took place in the spring of 1621. Unlike the ecclesiastical marriages of motherland England, the Pilgrims of Plymouth treated marriage as a civil ceremony. It established a strong tradition of separating church from state. Laws, magistrates, and organizations operated within the secular, civil sphere of Plymouth life—without the meddling of Anglican clergy. The Pilgrims gave free and equal treatment to all citizens of the colony. Rights were not dependent on one’s affiliation with an established state church. 

First Thanksgiving 

Having survived through their first year, the Pilgrims hosted the First Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621. It was a celebration of their successful harvest, for which they gave hearty thanks to God. Massasoit and 90 of his men were in attendance, bringing five deer to the banquet as a gift. While the Indians might not have been familiar with the Calvinist theology of thanksgiving, they were there to express their friendship and good will to the Pilgrims. The celebration lasted for three days. Sadly, the mutual respect and loyalty between Plymouth and the Indians did not last beyond this first generation. A few years after the deaths of Bradford and Massasoit, war broke out between the settlers and the Native Americans. After winning the war, the Europeans reduced the Natives to slavery, including women and children. While there is some ambivalence regarding the mistreatment of the Indians, it does not change the fact that the Pilgrims founded America and everything that it represents today: democracy, freedom, and equality for all people. 

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