Pilgrims

Where Were the Pilgrims Really Going?

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We all know the story of the Pilgrims landing in Massachusetts and coming ashore on Plymouth Rock to start a new colony based on religious freedom, and having Thanksgiving giving thanks to God for his bounty and blessings with the local Natives. Every American school child is told this story early on in their educations. The story has some truths to it, but it leaves out a lot. It is basically the sanitized and simplified version of what really went on when the Pilgrims came to America… a story suitable for children and one that instills pride in one’s country, but leaving out the more harsh details of the tale. For example, the Pilgrims were coming here to practice religious freedom… their own; they were considered too radical in their interpretation of Christianity in England, but once in America, they would tolerate no other type of religious practice in their newly formed town. Further, the Pilgrims lost more than half the passengers of the Mayflower during the first hard winter in America and never would have made it through the cold months had it not been for the assistance of local Natives.

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Mayflower Passengers: Not All Were There for Religious Reasons

Mayflower Passengers: Not All Were There for Religious Reasons

Though the Pilgrims (a separate group from the Puritans who came just after them) were all about establishing a religious community in the New World, they were forced to take on non-religious passengers to pay for the voyage. This was something they agreed to only very reluctantly, as they did not want their community corrupted. The elders of the church, who had led England some years previously to set up a community in the much more religiously accommodating Leyden, Holland, discussed at length whether they should allow passengers from outside their community on the ship. They were already concerned that the liberal, and what they considered hedonistic, atmosphere in Leyden was having a detrimental effect on their children. This is why they were so eager to go to the New World. They couldn’t go back to England, and Leyden was too permissive and secular in its nature, though it was more than willing to allow the Pilgrims to live there.

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The Mayflower Pioneers: The Hardships They Encountered

The Mayflower Pioneers: The Hardships They Encountered

The story of the Pilgrims has its origins in the desire of religious independence from the Church of England. A group of devout Protestants from England, and their fellows, who had 11 years before gone to Holland, believed that the Protestant Reformation in England had not yet been completed. They wanted to set themselves apart from the Church of England and the Catholic Church, because those religions had strayed from the teachings of the Bible.

How They Got Here

The Dutch contingent bought a small ship, the Speedwell, and sailed it to Southampton to join up with their English friends. The English had chartered the cargo ship, the Mayflower.

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