Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

The narrative begins during the Mayflower’s voyage to America. The Pilgrims departure had been delayed, and they were now sailing in November, with winter just around the corner. Sickness, inexperience and the possibility of starvation haunted them aboard ship. There were 102 passengers in total, and they had been traveling for sixty-five days. They eventually ran out of firewood, as well as most of their water and beer (beer was consumed more than water as it was considered safer and more readily available).

The Pilgrims were known as Separatists, because they took their separation from the Church of England even further than their Puritan brethren (who arrived in the New World at a later date). The radical group wanted to worship as they saw fit, and were willing to travel to the New World just to ensure that they could. Their dream began in England, but as their religious radicalism was illegal there, they moved to Holland in 1608. Though the Separatists experienced religious tolerance in Holland, the public eventually began to turn against them, and they fell victim to religious persecution once more. More significant than the persecution, however, was the fact that the Separatists realized their children were growing up Dutch, rather than English. Though they wanted to distance themselves from the Church of England in their religious practice, they still held on to their English identity. As a result, they did not want their children to grow up Dutch, and this, compounded by the group’s persecution, led to their decision to sail to the New World.

The Separatists did not let adversity stop them. They dealt with punishment and persecution at home, but they were also aware of the adversity that might await them in the New World. Jamestown was on most people’s minds at the time. It was well known that over half of the settlers died in Jamestown during its first year. In fact, between 1619 and 1622, a total of 3,600 settlers left the Old World for the New World. Of that group, 3,000 would die. Starvation and disease were not the only possible threats; attacks from Native Americans were also a problem.

Philbrick mentions that what the public now knows about the interactions between Native Americans and the Pilgrims is taken from the writings of William Bradford, who travelled on the Mayflower and who would become one of the most important figures among the Pilgrims and in early New England history. Without his book, detailing the trials and tribulations of the Pilgrims, much of what transpired during the early years of their settlement might have been lost forever.

One of the factors motivating the Separatists’ decision to set sail was the question of religious instruction. During the seventeenth century, many people debated how the faithful were to interact with God. Catholics, as well as conservative Protestants, held to the belief that, due to their fall from grace, they could in no way question the traditions of the church. Separatists, however, thought that they needed to go back to the very beginning, before man corrupted the word of God with his own thoughts and traditions. If Separatists could not find something in the Bible itself, it should be discarded. For example, Separatists read from the Bible directly, instead of singing hymns, as hymns are not taken directly from the Bible. Another important element of Separatist belief was the idea that God had already decided who His chosen people were and mankind could do nothing to change this. This belief encouraged Separatists to lead pure lives, as no one technically knew who was saved or not. In other words, if one was saved then one would act saved.

William Bradford took to Separatist beliefs early on. Though he came from a well-to-do family, he was a sick child. Confined due to his afflictions, he often read his Bible. By the age of twelve, Bradford disliked the way his local church worshipped and he began meeting with a local group of Separatists in secret. This group included the soon-to-be famous William Brewster. The group grew stronger due to their inclusivity. As an illegal group, they had to look out for each other as well. Though the group knew it was only a matter of time before they were found out, it was not until 1607 that they were discovered. Some members were thrown in jail, and the group realized that they must flee.

The Separatists moved to Leiden, Holland, where people enjoyed greater religious freedom, and Bradford became a leader of the congregation. He married Dorothy May in 1613, and purchased a home as well. However, Bradford soon met with financial setbacks and the tide of religious freedom was turning. The Separatists found that the way of life in Holland was vastly different from what they knew back in England. They had to work harder, and the prospect of seeing their children grow up Dutch was particularly unsettling. William Brewster was forced into hiding after he published a religious tract that openly criticized the English king. With their troubles mounting, the Separatists wanted to set sail for the New World more than ever.

Though the Separatists were ignorant of what such a journey entailed, they began negotiations with officials in London to colonize a part of the New World. They finally secured a patent in 1619 from the Virginia Company, after being duped several times. The question now was how to finance their voyage. In the end, and to their future dismay, they placed their trust in a merchant named Thomas Weston. Weston represented a group called the Merchant Adventurers who were investors and adventurers. The group obtained a patent for the Pilgrims to settle at the mouth of the Hudson River.

The Separatists took the name “Pilgrim” directly from the Scriptures. It highlighted their task of finding a new world where God’s word might be worshipped the right way. In the beginning, Weston seemed like a man the Pilgrims could trust and seemed sympathetic to their plight. Weston suggested that the Pilgrims enter a joint stock company; this arrangement would ensure that the Adventurers supplied the initial investment so that the Pilgrims could generate profit for them once settled in the New World. The Pilgrims would work four days a week for the company. At the end of seven years, the profits would be divided among them all. Also, under this agreement, the Pilgrims would own their land and houses. With more ill tidings coming from the New World, however, some Pilgrims decided to stay in Europe and wait for an established, secure settlement to be built for them. By 1620, others were ready to set sail. Bradford, for instance, had sold his house and was busy preparing for departure. It was decided that a group of about 125 Pilgrims would set sail, with the rest of the congregation set to join them later.

Weston’s initial sympathy for the Pilgrims soon changed, however; he told the Pilgrims that their agreement needed to be altered or the Adventurers would back out of the venture. Under the amended agreement, the Pilgrims would have to work six days a week for the company, not four. The Pilgrims refused to sign or acknowledge the new agreement. As their leader was in hiding, however, their elected representative, Robert Cushman, agreed to the new terms without consulting the rest of the congregation. Adding to the Pilgrims’ irritation with Weston and his duplicity, they discovered in June that Weston had yet to secure them transportation. The whole reason behind their haste was to avoid arriving in the New World during winter. Moreover, under the new agreement, the Adventurers included non-Separatists among the passengers on the voyage.

The Pilgrims decided to take matters in their own hand. They purchased a sixty-ton ship named the Speedwell. As they were farmers and laypeople and knew nothing about sailing, they hired a crew to fit the ship out for their crossing. This move may have been what caused the Speedwell’s destruction. By July, it was time to leave. The group that would sail first boarded the Speedwell. By this time, Weston had also secured a ship, so the group planned to meet with Weston and his ship, and both vessels would set sail for the New World. Bradford took the departure particularly hard, as he and his wife left their three-year-old son behind. Weston’s ship was called the Mayflower; it was a merchant ship three times the size of the Speedwell. The ship’s captain was Christopher Jones, an older man who had been captain of the ship for eleven years. The two ships met up in Southampton, and the Pilgrims were excited to see some of their Leiden brethren aboard the Mayflower, including William Brewster. They were not so happy to meet the group known as the Strangers, the non-Separatists sent by the Adventurers.

Though the two ships set out for the New World with high hopes, they had to make their first stop just seventy-five miles south of Southampton to make repairs to the Speedwell. By now, it was already mid-August. As the encountered more and more problems, like repairs and bad weather, some of the Pilgrims began to question the wisdom of the voyage. When the Speedwell sprung a leak shortly after the first repairs had been made, it was decided to leave the ship behind. At this point, some of the group made the decision to abandon their journey. The rest continued aboard the Mayflower. Their prospects seemed ominous, given that provisions were already low and there has already been more than a month’s worth of delays. Also adding to the Pilgrims’ frustrations was the fact that out of the 102 passengers, only fifty were Separatists.

The journey to the New World took more than two months to complete. The conditions were dismal, with sickness and fear running rampant. Also on their minds was the thought of what awaited them in the New World. Though their patent was secured for a settlement at the mouth of the Hudson River, Jones had to make tough decisions about where to land when they encountered weather bad enough to damage the Mayflower and kill everyone aboard. With provisions and morale low, and with disease stalking the ship and the Pilgrims, Jones sighted land at Cape Cod on November 9, 1620.

Though the Pilgrims were relieved to finally arrive in the New World, they still had to deal with the dangerous weather. Not only this, but Jones had no real idea how to navigate the new waters he found himself in. Jones had to decide whether or not to try to reach the proposed settlement area; when they decided to head toward the Hudson River, the Mayflower found itself in dangerous waters. Known as the Pollack Rip, the area was responsible for sinking many ships. The wind was also fierce, and Jones decided to sail away from the Hudson River as the passengers were sick and the storm treacherous. This decision, however, angered the Pilgrims. Their patent was for the Hudson River, not for Cape Cod. The Strangers were also annoyed, as they were tired of dealing with the Pilgrims. The Pilgrim leaders knew that something needed to be done to create a bond between the groups, and so the Mayflower Compact was eventually written and signed by all the men aboard.

Though many people think of the Mayflower Compact as a milestone rebuke of government and governance as it worked in the Old World, the Compact was actually an agreement to bind the two groups on the Mayflower together to ensure their freedom and success in the New World. The Compact allowed for a government founded on civil consent, rather than divine consent. This agreement appeased the Strangers, though it made most of the Leiden Pilgrims unhappy. However, the Pilgrims knew that they must keep the Strangers appeased in order to make their settlement work. With the strength of numbers, the Separatists hoped to promote their cause by electing John Carver as governor of their settlement. With Carver as governor, the Separatists were able to maintain religious governance of the Pilgrims, while making an allowance for secularism in the form of civil consent. This “breach” of their staunch religious beliefs may have saved the Pilgrims and aided the settlement’s future growth.

Jones steered the ship toward Provincetown Harbor, near the northern tip of Cape Cod Bay, and on November 11, 1620, the male passengers signed the Mayflower Compact. The next objective was exploring the area. Sixteen men took a smaller boat and sailed ashore. Reaching land, they praised God and then set off to explore. They found firewood and brought it back to the Mayflower, where the Pilgrims had their first fire in quite some time that night.