In the early part of the 17th century, England was a brutal place. According to one source, it had become “nation without a soul.” Turmoil filled the Anglican Church as well, with two groups desiring to bring about a deeper and higher spirituality. The Puritans hoped to reform the church internally, while the Pilgrims believed the only lasting change could come from separating from it.
In the fall of 1620, a little over one hundred men, women, and children from the Pilgrim community sailed for America in The Mayflower to pursue religious liberty and to better themselves in a land quite apart from Old England.
They chose a bad time to leave. It took them over two months to cross the ocean, and when they arrived at Cape Cod on November 9, it was far too late in the year to plant crops. More than half of the colonists died from illness as they tried to survive that first harsh winter in primitive dwellings without enough food. William Bradford wrote:
“If they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed and was now as a main bar and gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of the world. . .What could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and His grace? May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say, “Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness, but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity.”
In addition to the stark climate, the Pilgrims found difficulty in taming the wilderness of Massachusetts because they were mainly shopkeepers and people who had inhabited towns all their lives. They had incredible fortitude, however, convinced that they were in God’s place in God’s perfect timing. One of them remarked, “It is not with us as with other men, whom small things can discourage, or small discontentments cause to wish themselves at home again.”
Aided by a native American named Squanto, they learned how to plant corn and catch fish. Although times were hard, when The Mayflower returned to England for supplies the following April, no one decided to give up and go home—they were home.
In the fall as they observed their one-year anniversary in America, the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving, a three-day feast that they shared with Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribe and ninety of his people. Governor Bradford recorded, “Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing. . . and as one small candle may light a thousand; so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea, in some sort, to our whole nation.”
(From Great Events in American History, pp. 9-11)
Tags: Massassoit, Pilgrims, Squanto, Thanksgiving, The Mayflower, William Bradford
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