59 pages • 1 hour read
Nathaniel PhilbrickMayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part I, Chapters 3-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part I, Chapter 3 Summary: "Into the Void"
About sixty miles from Provincetown Harbor lived Massasoit, an important Native American sachem, or leader. At one time, Massasoit had been the most powerful leader in the region, but disease had afflicted the Native Americans in the area and hit Massasoit’s people the hardest. From 1616 to 1619, it is estimated that what may have been the bubonic plague brought from Europe was responsible for killing close to ninety percent of the region's Native American population. Though the area in New England where the Pilgrims landed was sparse and unpopulated when they arrived, at one point it had been populated as densely as England.
Massasoit was the leader of the Pokanoket people. Before disease spread and killed many of the Pokanokets, there were around twelve thousand members of the tribe, including around three thousand warriors. After the plague, there were only a few hundred warriors left. Massasoit was under pressure from his neighbors to the west, the Narragansetts. Though his people struggled to survive and maintain their land, Massasoit found some support through an alliance he made with smaller groups. These groups all shared one common enemy, the Narragansetts, which still had around five thousand warriors.
Massasoit was engaged in this power struggle when the Pilgrims arrived. Their arrival, however, was not the first time that Native Americans had encountered Europeans. An Italian explorer had visited the region as early as 1524. The region was known for its fishing, so European vessels were becoming common. There were also other attempts to settle the region. In addition to these encounters, there were fatal interactions between Europeans and Native Americans. One example concerns Thomas Hunt, a renowned commander from John Smith’s voyage. John Hunt made a disreputable name for himself when he took Natives captive to try and sell them as slaves in Spain. These actions led to marooned passengers from a French ship being tortured and killed by the local Native American population more than a year later. Some of the passengers were taken as slaves, with one of them later commenting that God would punish the Native Americans for their cruelty. Interestingly, within three years’ time, most of the region’s Native population died from the plague.
Thomas Dermer also made a name for himself before the Pilgrims arrived. In 1619, Dermer sailed to Cape Cod with one of the slaves who had been taken on Hunt’s voyage. The man’s name was Tisquantum, or Squanto. After five years of being in a foreign land, Squanto was now home. His homecoming was strange, in that Squanto was returning to a divided and diseased land. Amidst the death and destruction, however, Squanto saw an opportunity to become something greater; he desired to be a sachem, or leader. Squanto introduced Dermer to sachems in the region. Massasoit distrusted Squanto, as did Epenow, a sachem from Martha’s Vineyard. Epenow had also been a slave, taken by Edward Harlow in 1611. He had tricked the English into sailing back to America, then jumped ship and fled. He also had plans to become a sachem, and when Dermer returned with Squanto he found that Epenow was indeed a sachem. Dermer was greeted coldly, and when he returned the following summer, he found himself constantly under attack. An English ship invited some of Massasoit's people aboard only to kill them in cold blood, causing anger and resentment. Dermer’s men were attacked in 1620; Dermer was badly injured, but managed to flee, though he died shortly after. During the attack, Squanto was taken prisoner and later sent to Massasoit. The Pilgrims arrived weeks after this incident, and their arrival would do nothing to change the Native American’s distrust of Europeans.
Part I, Chapter 4 Summary: "Beaten with Their Own Rod"
The day after the Pilgrims arrived was a Sunday. Pilgrims never worked on Sunday, and so the passengers stayed aboard the Mayflower to worship. Reconstruction on the shallop, a smaller boat, began on Monday. It would take some time to fix the ship. In the meantime, some Pilgrims thought it best to scout their new land. Though they had not seen any Native Americans yet, the threat posed by indigenous people was always high in their minds. Another party of sixteen men headed for the shore on November 15, led by Captain Miles Standish, an Adventurer. While scouting, they saw a group of individuals on the beach, comprised of about half a dozen men and a dog. When the group spotted the Pilgrims, they fled into the forest. Standish’s group gave chase but lost the Native Americans after only ten miles or so; the Pilgrims were in no shape to continue.
The next morning, Standish and his group continued to explore. They found further signs of Native habitation, including a gravesite. Interestingly, the group also discovered signs of European settlement, including a fair-haired boy buried in the gravesite. While exploring, they stumbled upon a storage place for corn. The Pilgrims took the four bushels of corn. Though they did not want to start off on the wrong foot with Native Americans, they knew their own food (wheat, peas and barley) might not last or thrive in the New World. They took as much as they could with the intention of paying for it later, and then headed back to the Mayflower.
On Monday, November 27, another group went to explore, now that the shallop was completed. This group was led by the Mayflower’s captain, Christopher Jones. Despite not being one of them, Jones wanted to ensure that the Pilgrims found a settlement site so that he could return to England. The scouting group of thirty-four men was soon overcome by horrible weather. Practically frozen with snow and already weakened from the long voyage, the men did their best to survive, eventually returning to “Corn Hill,” the place they first stole the corn from. They took the rest of the corn and, with Jones, headed back to the Mayflower. A group of eighteen men, led by Standish, decided to remain and continue the search. The group came across other examples of habitation and graves. This time, however, they looted whatever they could find. Their intent was to return and give beads in exchange for what they had taken, but the men forgot to leave these tokens in their haste to return to the Mayflower.
As Jones was aware, one of the Pilgrims’ most pressing concerns was to find a site for their settlement. They were not at the mouth of the Hudson River, as planned, and the land they had seen so far seemed inhospitable. When another scouting party went out to look for potential settlement sites, they came upon a group of Native Americans carving up a whale that had washed ashore. The Native Americans ran away. Though the Pilgrims were in awe of the whale (they did not have the necessary resources for hunting large animals yet), they also realized that the Natives were aware of their presence and that they needed to protect themselves. They erected a barricade on shore that night, and built a large fire, both to keep them warm and to protect themselves. The Pilgrims heard strange howls that night, but after their initial alarms, told themselves that the cries were from wolves. When morning came, the Pilgrims heard strange sounds again and were attacked by Native Americans. The Native warriors were experts with their deadly bows and arrows. The Pilgrims began shooting their muskets, and when the leader of the Native warriors saw the muskets in use, the Native Americans fled. The site of this first battle is now known as First Encounter Beach.
Another scouting party used the shallop to traverse the Bay. When the weather turned bad quickly, the Pilgrims and Jones found a harbor that they were able to sail the shallop into without crashing. They stopped over on what is now known as Clark Island, and then went ashore, and decided the harbor could serve their purposes as a settlement site. There was also a large rock that could work as a stepping-off point. This rock is now known as Plymouth Rock, though Philbrick questions the grandeur of the Plymouth Rock narrative. Philbrick says there is no real evidence that the Pilgrims used the rock as a stepping stone onto land, though it certainly could have been used for that purpose. As the Pilgrims scouted the coast, they saw no evidence of Native American settlement. The land was considered ideal for their purposes and the group returned to the Mayflower with the news, though it was met with little enthusiasm. The location had no navigable river into the interior, for starters, and there were other logistical issues. However, these issues were eclipsed by another setback: Bradford’s wife had died while he was out on the scouting mission. She had slipped and fallen overboard, and then drowned.
Part I, Chapter 5 Summary: "The Heart of Winter"
The Mayflower finally sailed to Plymouth Harbor on December 16. After days of deliberating on a site, the Pilgrims finally chose one that commanded a near panoramic view. The site had also already been cleared by Native Americans. Though the Pilgrims had now found a site to establish a settlement, bad weather and lack of food caused the group to sink into depression. Lethargy set in, and the leaders knew they needed to begin building their settlement before they all died from starvation. The first frame for a house was erected on December 25. Unlike Catholics and other groups, the Pilgrims thought of Christmas as another secular holiday and so worked through it. The first building was completed two weeks after the frame went up. With death and disease stalking the Pilgrims, only seven of the planned eleven houses would be built in their first year. Given the harsh conditions, an average of two to three people died each day during February and March. The Pilgrims also felt that they were living on borrowed time regarding the Native Americans. Several sightings confirmed this. The Pilgrims tried their best to conceal just how many of them were dying.
When the Pilgrim men met on February 17 to discuss settlement matters, two Native Americans were spotted atop “Watson’s Hill.” The Pilgrims assembled under the command of Miles Standish. The Native Americans stared for a while, and when the Pilgrims attempted contact, ran away. The Pilgrims brought their “great guns” to help defer any future attack. On March 16, another meeting was held to discuss what they should do to defend themselves. This time, a lone Native American was spotted atop Watson’s Hill. The Pilgrims sounded the alarm, but the Native American began walking toward them. He seemed more amused than afraid. The Native American walked into the village, and when he was finally stopped, said the now-famous phrase: “Welcome Englishmen.”
Part I, Chapters 3-5 Analysis
The Pilgrims had no experience as settlers, hunters and soldiers. When they arrived in the New World, they were forced to find a place to settle with no knowledge of the area. They had landed far from where their charter had given them permission to settle, and they had no idea what the Native population was like. Despite their fears, the Pilgrims sent out scouting parties to assess the land. They found evidence of Native habitation but saw no Native Americans. As times grew bleaker aboard ship, the Pilgrims, under Standish’s command, looted Native American storage sites that held maize, and even plundered houses and gravesites. These actions were motivated by the Pilgrims’ desperate need for survival, though they suggested disrespect, and worse, to the Native population. An earlier encounter with John Hunt had seen Native Americans captured and taken as slaves. The Natives in the region were still angry about this, as evinced by their treatment of the marooned passengers of a French ship. The Natives in the region still had the image of savage Europeans in mind when the Pilgrims arrived and began abusing Native land again.
One of the slaves from Hunt’s earlier voyage was Squanto. Squanto had since returned to his homeland, and when the Pilgrims arrived, he gave counsel to Massasoit. He suggested that the Pilgrims might help the Pokanokets. Squanto saw the possibility of political gain for himself with the arrival of the Pilgrims. He had plans to be a sachem one day, and seems to have put his plans into action while counseling Massasoit. The Pilgrims were eventually attacked by Native Americans and felt the need to protect themselves. They built a fortified settlement, despite being close to starvation, thus showing how fear of death could also bring them together to work toward a common goal. It was the Pilgrims who first acted aggressively by stealing from Native Americans, yet the Pilgrims felt threatened, and with good reason.
Eventually, the Pilgrims were greeted by a Native American ambassador sent by Massasoit. This led to the establishment of a fragile peace between the Pilgrims and the Pokanokets. Though the Pilgrims were the aggressors upon arriving in the New World, they also felt themselves to be victims, a feeling that would stay with them and justify many of their actions when it came to Native-English relations in the future.
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