The Mayflower and the Pilgrims' New World Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  PREFACE

  PART I - DISCOYERY

  ONE - They Knew They Were Pilgrims

  TWO - The Compact

  THREE - The Plague

  FOUR - Beaten with Their Own Rod

  FIVE - The Heart of Winter

  SIX - In a Dark and Dismal Swamp

  SEVEN - Thanksgiving

  PART II - Community

  EIGHT - The Wall

  NINE - At Death’s Door

  TEN - A New England

  ELEVEN - The Ancient Mother

  TWELVE - The Trial

  PART III - WAR

  THIRTEEN - Kindling the Flame

  FOURTEEN - Fuel to the Enemy

  FIFTEEN - Keeping the Faith

  SIXTEEN - The Better Side of the Hedge

  EPILOGUE

  TIME LINE

  MAYFLOWER PASSENGER LIST

  SELECTED READING

  Acknowledgements

  PICTURE CREDITS

  INDEX

  G. P. PUTNAM’s sONs

  A division of Penguin Young Readers Group. Published by The Penguin Group.

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  Copyright © 2008 by Nathaniel Philbrick.

  Adapted for young people from Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War. First published in 2006 by Viking

  Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (UsA) Inc. Copyright © 2006 by Nathaniel Philbrick. All rights reserved. This

  book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, G. P. Putnam’s

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Philbrick, Nathaniel.

  The Mayflower and the Pilgrims’ New World / by Nathaniel Philbrick.

  p. cm. Adaptation of: Mayflower : a story of courage, community, and war. New York : Viking, 2006. Includes index.

  1. Pilgrims (New Plymouth Colony)—Juvenile literature. 2. Massachusetts—History—New Plymouth, 1620-1691—

  Juvenile literature. 3. Bradford, William, 1590-1657—Juvenile literature. 4. Church, Benjamin, 1639-1718—Juvenile

  literature. 5. Indians of North America—Wars—1600-1750—Juvenile literature. I. Philbrick, Nathaniel. Mayflower.

  II. Title. F68.P.2’2—dc22 2007030669

  eISBN : 978-1-101-50040-8

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  To Melissa

  LIST OF CHARACTERS

  First Settlers and Their Affiliates

  William Bradford • governor of Plymouth Colony after John Carver dies; writes Of Plymouth Plantation

  John Robinson • pastor and leader of the English separatists in Leiden before they leave for America

  Elder William Brewster • Pilgrims’ leading lay minister

  John Carver • first governor of Plymouth Colony

  Robert Cushman • helped organize voyage to America

  Thomas Weston • leading Adventurer from London

  Christopher Jones • Mayflower’s master

  Robert Coppin • Jones’s mate and pilot

  Captain Miles Standish • (wife Rose) Pilgrims’ leading military officer

  Christopher Martin • Mayflower governor, original purchasing agent

  Stephen Hopkins • stranger who may have been to Jamestown before boarding the Mayflower

  Edward Winslow • leading Pilgrim diplomat who also served as governor

  John Howland • indentured servant who eventually became a leading citizen of the colony

  John Billington • head of what Bradford called the “profanest family” on the Mayflower; sons John and Francis

  Thomas Morton • leader of Merrymount

  John Sanders • leader of Wessagussett settlement

  Phineas Pratt • another leader of Wessagussett settlement

  John Hamden • English gentleman who spent winter of 1623 with the Pilgrims

  Native Americans

  Massasoit • Pokanoket sachem

  Canonicus • Narragansett sachem

  Squanto • Pilgrims’ interpreter, originally from Patuxet (Plymouth Harbor)

  Epenow • sachem from Martha’s Vineyard

  Samoset • sachem from Pemaquid Point, Maine

  Passaconaway • sachem and powwow from Merrimack River in southern New Hampshire

  Aspinet • Nauset sachem

  Canacum • Manomet sachem

  Iyanough • Cummaquid sachem

  Corbitant • Mattapoisett sachem

  Hobbamock • Pokanoket pniese

  Obtakiest • Massachusetts sachem

  Pecksuot • Massachusetts pniese

  Wituwamat • Massachusetts warrior

  Uncas • Mohegan sachem, pledged loyalty to Puritans during Pequot War

  Miantonomi • Narragansett sachem

  The Next Generation Settlers

  Thomas Prence • Plymouth governor

  Thomas Willett • founder of Wannamoisett and friend of Alexander (Wamsutta)

  Major William Bradford Jr. • William Bradford’s son

  John Miles • swansea minister whose house became Miles garrison

  James Cudworth • army commander from scituate

  Benjamin Church • carpenter and leading captain during King Philip’s War

  Alice Church • Benjamin Church’s wife

  Josiah Winslow • son of Edward; first governor of Plymouth Colony born in the New World

  Samuel Moseley • leading captain during King Philip’s War; known for his hatred of Indians

  Captain Roger Goulding • mariner who rescued Church’s men at the Pease Field Fight and was present at death of Philip

  Captain Thomas Lathrop • leader at Bloody Brook

  Major Robert Treat • led Connecticut forces at Great swamp Fight

  John Eliot • leading Puritan missionary to the Praying Indians

  Captain Daniel Gookin • superintendent to Praying Indians

  Major Samuel Appleton • commander of Massachusetts forces

&
nbsp; John Gorham • led Plymouth forces with William Bradford at Great swamp Fight

  Captain Samuel Wadsworth • led rescue of Lancaster

  Mary Rowlandson • (son Joseph, daughters Mary and sarah) captured by Indians at Lancaster

  John Rowlandson • Mary Rowlandson’s husband, minister of Lancaster

  Captain Michael Pierce • from scituate, killed with most of his men at Blackstone River

  Captain George Denison • led Connecticut force with Mohegans, Pequots, Niantics that captured Canonchet

  John Hoar • from Concord, negotiated ransom and release of Mary Rowlandson

  Captain William Turner • led attack on Indians at Connecticut River

  Pastor John Cotton • Plymouth minister

  John Leverett • Massachusetts governor

  Native Americans

  Wamsutta/Alexander • Massasoit’s eldest son

  Weetamoo • Alexander’s wife, female Pocasset sachem

  Metacom/Philip • Massasoit’s younger son, “King Philip”

  Tuspaquin • Amie’s husband, “Black sachem” of Nemasket

  John Sassamon • interpreter for Alexander and Philip; one of John Eliot’s pupils

  Awashonks • (son Peter) female sakonnet sachem

  Tobias • one of Philip’s senior counselors, accused of murdering John sassamon

  Totoson • sachem from Buzzard’s Bay, attacked Dartmouth and Clark’s garrison

  Nimrod • one of Philip’s leading warriors

  Canonchet • Narragansett sachem

  Quinnapin • Narragansett sachem and Weetamoo’s husband during King Philip’s War, Mary Rowlandson’s master

  Annawon • Philip’s principal captain

  Job Kattenanit • Praying Indian, becomes spy for English

  Sagamore Sam • Nipmuck sachem, bargains with English for ransom of Mary Rowlandson

  PREFACE

  The Story We Need to Know

  WE’VE ALL HEARD at least some version of the story of the Mayflower, how in 1620 the Pilgrims sailed to the New World in search of religious freedom; how after drawing up the Mayflower Compact, they landed at Plymouth Rock and befriended the local Wampanoag Indians, who taught them how to plant corn and whose leader, or sachem, Massasoit, helped them celebrate the First Thanksgiving.

  But the story of the Pilgrims does not end with the First Thanksgiving. When we look at how the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags maintained more than fifty years of peace and how that peace suddenly erupted into King Philip’s War, one of the deadliest wars ever fought on American soil, the real history of Plymouth Colony becomes something altogether new, rich, troubling, and complex. Instead of the story we already know, it becomes the story we need to know.

  ◆◆◆ It was King Philip who led me to the Pilgrims. Philip was the son of Massasoit, the Wampanoag leader who formed an alliance with the Pilgrims in 1621. I was researching the history of my adopted home, Nantucket Island, when I encountered a reference to Philip in the town’s records. In attempting to answer the question of why Philip—whose headquarters were in modern Bristol, Rhode Island—had traveled more than sixty-five miles across the water to Nantucket, I realized that I had to begin with Philip’s father, Massasoit, and the Pilgrims.

  My first impression of the period consisted of two conflicting ideas: the time-honored tradition of how the Pilgrims came to symbolize all that is good about America, and the now equally familiar modern tale of how the evil Europeans killed the innocent Native Americans. I soon learned that the real-life Indians and English of the seventeenth century were too smart, too generous, too greedy, too brave—in short, too human—to behave so predictably.

  Without Massasoit’s help, the Pilgrims would never have survived their first year in America, and they remained supporters of the sachem to the very end. For his part, Massasoit realized almost from the start that his own fortunes were linked to those of the English. In this respect, there is a surprising amount of truth in the traditional story of the First Thanksgiving.

  But the Indians and English of Plymouth Colony did not live in perfect harmony. It was fifty-five years of struggle and compromise—a difficult process of give-and-take. As long as both sides recognized that they needed each other, there was peace. The moment any of them gave up on the difficult work of living with their neighbors, they risked losing everything. It was a lesson that the first generation of Plymouth Colony had learned over the course of more than three long decades. That it could be so quickly forgotten by their children remains a lesson for us today.

  King Philip’s War lasted only fourteen months, but it changed the face of New England. After fifty-five years of peace, the lives of Native and English peoples had become so closely intertwined that when fighting broke out in June 1675, many of the region’s Indians found themselves, in the words of a contemporary writer, “in a kind of maze, not knowing what to do.”

  some Indians chose to support Philip; others joined the colonial forces; still others attempted to stay out of the conflict altogether. When the English authorities decided that all Indians—no matter whose side they said they were on—were now their enemies, the violence quickly spread. soon, the entire region was a terrifying war zone. By the end of the fighting, a third of the hundred or so towns in New England had been burned and abandoned.

  When violence and fear grip a society, there is an almost overpowering temptation to demonize the enemy, and both Indians and English began to view their former neighbors as subhuman and evil. But even in the midst of one of the deadliest wars in American history, there were Englishmen who believed the Indians were not naturally evil, and there were Indians who believed the same about the English. They remembered to treat each other like human beings and to keep learning from each other, just as their parents had done fifty years before. Unfortunately, this was not enough to prevent war from destroying the promise of the First Thanksgiving.

  ◆◆◆ The story of the Mayflower ends in tragedy, but it begins with a ship on a wide and blustery sea.

  PART I

  DISCOYERY

  ONE

  They Knew They Were Pilgrims

  FOR SIXTY-FIVE DAYS, the Mayflower had sailed through storms and headwinds, her bottom covered with seaweed and barnacles, her leaky decks spewing salt water onto her passengers’ heads. There were 102 of them—104 if you counted the two dogs, a spaniel and a giant, slobbery mastiff.

  They were nearly ten weeks into a voyage that was supposed to have been completed during the warm days of summer. But they had started late, and it was now November. Winter was coming on fast. They had long since run out of firewood, and they were reaching the slimy bottoms of their water barrels. Of even greater concern, they were down to their last casks of beer. Due to the terrible quality of the drinking water in seventeenth-century England, beer was considered essential to a healthy diet. And sure enough, with the rationing of their beer came the signs of scurvy: bleeding gums, loosening teeth, and foul-smelling breath. so far only two had died—a sailor and a young servant—but if they didn’t reach land soon, many more would follow.

  They were a most unusual group of colonists. Instead of noblemen, craftsmen, and servants—the types of people who had founded the Jamestown colony in Virginia—these were, for the most part, families—men, women, and children who were willing to endure almost anything if it meant they could worship God as they pleased. The motivating force behind the voyage had come from a congregation of approximately four hundred English Puritans living in Leiden, Holland.

  Like all Puritans, these English exiles believed that the Church of England had been corrupted. But unlike most English Puritans, they believed it was necessary to leave the Church of England if they were to worship God properly—an illegal act at the time. Known as separatists, they represented the radical fringe of the Puritan movement. In 1608, they had decided to do as several groups of English separatists had done before them and move to the more religiously tolerant country of Holland.

  �
� Photograph of the Mayflower II, a replica of the seventeenth-century ship, built in England in the 1950s and now at Plimoth Plantation.

  They settled in Leiden, a university town that could not have been more different from the rolling, sheep-dotted fields of their native England. Leiden was a redbrick maze of building-packed streets and carefully engineered canals, a city overrun with refugees from all across Europe. Under the leadership of their charismatic minister, John Robinson, their congregation had more than tripled in size.

  But once again, it had become time for them to leave. As foreigners in Holland, many of them had been forced to work backbreaking jobs in the cloth industry, and their health had suffered. Worse yet, their children were becoming Dutch. While the congregation had rejected the Church of England, the vast majority of its members were still proudly English. By sailing to the New World, they hoped to re-create the English village life they so dearly missed while remaining far from King James and his bishops.

  It was a stunningly brave plan. With the exception of Jamestown, all other attempts to establish a permanent English settlement on the North American continent had so far failed. And Jamestown, founded in 1607, could hardly be called a success. During the first year, 70 of 108 settlers had died. The following winter came the “starving time,” when 440 of 500 settlers were buried in just six months.

  In addition to starvation and disease, there was the threat of Indian attack. At the university library in Leiden were terrifying accounts left by earlier explorers and settlers, telling how the Indians “delight to torment men in the most bloody manner that may be; flaying some alive with the shells of fishes, cutting off the members and joints of others by piecemeal and broiling on the coals.”