So You Think You Know The Pilgrims

So You Think You Know The Pilgrims

As a little kid we were told about the pilgrims, and their epic voyage to the new world, the rough winter they faced, and the first Thanksgiving. Well, I hate to break it to you but some of the things you were told as a kid might not me so truthful after all. Robert Tracy McKenzie challenges everything we thought we knew about pilgrims as he lists and proves wrong five myths about the pilgrims.

Many people have taken a trip to the famous Plymouth Rock which marks where the pilgrims supposedly landed and started Plymouth colony. As said in the article Five myths about the Pilgrims by Robert Tracy McKenzie, “We “know” the location of the Pilgrims’ landing because in 1741 —121 years after they arrived — a young boy overheard 95-year-old Thomas Faunce relate that his father, who came to Plymouth three years after the Mayflower, told him he’d heard from unnamed persons that the landing occurred there.” Although we know the pilgrims landed around that area William Bradford never talks about Plymouth Rock in his history “Of Plymouth Plantation,”. The pilgrims may have landed there but the rock doesn’t seem to have had any importance to the Pilgrims and they probably didn’t huddle around it upon arrival in the New World.

From the beginning you were told the pilgrims came to America in search of religious freedom. Well, I probably didn’t know what it meant by religious freedom in the 3rd grade. But, I did know the reason the pilgrims came over had to do with religion. The pilgrims did leave England in search of religious tolerance but they didn’t go to America yet. They went to Holland. There the Pilgrims found the escape from religious persecution they were looking for but they felt they were losing their English identity. The Pilgrims would have stayed in Holland if they were only looking for religious freedom but what the Pilgrims wanted when leaving Holland was to reinforce their English roots.





A number of people connect the Pilgrims to Thanksgiving but in reality the Pilgrims did not have the first Thanksgiving celebration. Many groups of people had Thanksgiving services before the Pilgrims. These include the French Huguenots in 1664 in what is today Jacksonville Florida, as well as in St. Augustine by the Spanish Conquistadors in 1665. It is also said in the article, “the 1621 celebration wasn’t a thanksgiving at all from the Pilgrims’ perspective. As they understood it, a thanksgiving was a solemn observance, a “holy day” devoted to worship in acknowledgment of a specific, extraordinary blessing from the Lord.” If the Pilgrims weren’t the first one’s and they didn’t even think of it as Thanksgiving why should the Pilgrims get all the credit for Thanksgiving?!

A common stereotype for Pilgrims is that they dressed all in black and sported an equally as dull behavior. But, if you read Winslow’s description of the 1621 harvest festival you will see the pilgrims described as playing sports, shooting, having a ‘barbeque’, etc. As for the clothing, in the article it states that, “Bradford’s estate inventory showed that the long-term governor did, in fact, own a black hat and a dark suit, but he also sported a “colored” hat, a red suit and a violet cloak. Pretty gaudy, actually.” The Pilgrims weren’t as boring as many people think.


Finally, many Americans think of the Mayflower Compact as “an early and noteworthy example of American democracy.” of course it has it’s shining moments, for example when it states, “civil body politic” or “just and equal laws . . . for the general good of the colony.” but the Mayflower compact does have it’s flaws. As said in the article, “They also identify him” (talking about James I) “as their king not by virtue of their consent, but “by the grace of God.” This puts the Mayflower Compact closer to an affirmation of the divine right of kings than the right of self-rule.” The Mayflower Compact is a great historical artifact with a lot of importance but there is evidence that proves that it may not be “an early and noteworthy example of American democracy.”
We have studied the Pilgrims in my History class, we even read a book called Mayflower by Nathanial Philbrick. It described the pilgrims settlement of Plymouth and was an entertaining and informative story. More specifically, we also briefly talked about the Pilgrims finding religious freedom in Holland but then leaving because they felt as though they were losing their English background. I find it very interesting to find out that some things that you believe are true might not be so true after all.

Pictography:


1. http://www.reformation.org/oliver-cromwell.html

2.http://www.lookandlearn.com/blog/17341/religious-freedom-motivated-the-pilgrim-fathers-to-found-america/

3.http://www.examiner.com/article/thanksgiving-myths-the-first-thanksgiving-was-celebrated-by-pilgrims-and-indians-plymouth

4. http://www.mycutegraphics.com/graphics/thanksgiving/pilgrim-boy-and-girl.html 5. http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/mayflower.htm