A Short Book Review-Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick

Well I just finished "Mayflower" by Nathaniel Philbrick and I must say it was a good read. The book covers the story of the Pilgrims from the planning stages of their exodus from Europe until the end of King Phillip's War. The book really portrays the gritty reality that the Pilgrims existed in and puts to rest quite of few of the romanticized ideas we have about our beloved Pilgrims. I won't go into an in-depth history of the Pilgrims, but I will pass along some of the more interesting facts and theories I gleaned from the roughly 400 pages of entertaining history.

You guys all know why the pilgrims decided to sail for the shores of America-they wanted to set up a community in which they could worship freely and in a way they choose. I really respect their take on Christianity. They were definitely in the Calvinist school of thought. They really had faith in God and believed they were God's chosen people. Several times, they compare their struggle to that of Israel and I got the impression that they believed they were voyaging to their own 'Promised Land'. They really had a bare-bones take on Christianity. If it wasn't specifically stated in the Bible, then it was not doctrine. For example, they didn't celebrate Christmas because they holiday wasn't biblically based. They really were a community of believers, that's probably the main reason they made it work in America and for-profit colonies like Jamestown didn't really prosper.

Before they left Europe, they went through quite a few hardships. They were forced to move from their native England to Holland to avoid persecution. They were pretty much constantly taken advantage of by people who they had enlisted to help them plan for their journey. I mean just imagine the confidence and balls it took for the pilgrims to actually think they could sail to an almost completely unknown continent and just set up shop. Most of the pilgrims were artisans and farmers, few had ventured beyond their small villages in the English country side. The closest thing to wilderness around them was Nottingham Woods.

Those Pilgrims were tough people. They had intended to make the 10 week voyage during the warm summer months, but due to set backs, they didn't start the voyage until early fall and didn't make it to the coast of America until mid-November. They were short on water, running low on food, and had little beer left. They were most alarmed by the shortage of beer, which would alarm me too. The book talks about how one of the first crops they planted was barley, in order to refill all of those empty beer casks.

They arrived at Cape Cod in mid-November during what would be an unseasonably cold winter. Did you guys know that we were at the end of a "Little Ice Age" in the 1620's? They had intended to arrive at the southwest corner of Long Island at the mouth of the Hudson River, which would have provided them with a river large enough to handle large merchant ships and they might have made some money from the whole operation. Instead they arrived of the shallow, shoal ridden shores of Cape Cod. If they would have arrived 10 years prior, they would have found a huge native population. They would have seen shelters and villages dotting the shoreline and a rather well developed culture. Instead they arrived along the shores of Cape Cod and found a desolate landscape. The past decade had been a decade of disease and the native population had been decimated. People think that as many as 75% of the natives had been wiped out by disease. And within 60 years, over half of the remained natives would be wiped out in King Phillip's War.

I remember as a kid reading a book about Squanto and his impact on the whole Pilgrim situation. The book I read as a kid was somewhat romanticized, come to find out. I had come to believe that Squanto had been loved by all and was a benevolent figure during his time. This book painted him in a somewhat different light. First off, did you know Squanto had named himself after his religions devil figure? Pretty crazy, eh! He did teach the pilgrims how to plant corn, beans, and squash the native way, which I am going to try someday. But he also used his relationship with the pilgrims and his ability to speak with the three major groups to attempt to seize power for himself. For example, fresh in the memories of Wampanoags and the Narragansetts was the horrible devastation disease had wreaked on the local populations during the past decade. Squanto used that fresh memory to extort goods from the local Indians. He claimed the pilgrims stored barrels of the plaque underneath their houses and they would unleash it at his request. He pretty much was up to mischief like that from the time the pilgrims came, until he was poisoned.

Did you know that Abe Lincoln was responsible for the creation of Thanksgiving? He did it in 1863. The pilgrims recognized three holidays; the Sabbath, days of thanksgiving, and days of fasting. They definitely celebrated their first harvest at 'Plymouth Plantation', but it probably didn't look anything like pop culture portrays it. We usually picture them sitting around a long table, forks in hand, and wearing those drab black and white outfits. First off, they celebrated with hundreds of local Indians around multiple bonfires. Second, they didn't have actual silverware for another year of so (they had knives and rough hewn spoons). Thirdly, the Puritans were the ones wearing the drab clothing. Many of the pilgrims had been weavers and textile workers back in Europe, so they had colorful clothing that probably was simple, yet fashionable for the times. They feasted on waterfowl, deer, and the bounty the land provided.

The Pilgrims existed in peace with the surrounding tribes for 50-60 years before King Phillip's War broke out. After England heard that the Pilgrims were making out well in the new world, it started a whole string of colonizing in the New England area. Puritans showed up, as well as a whole slew of other people. These new people were decidedly less open to the natives and pretty much treated them like crap. The up swing in population started a whole chain reaction of land grabbing and general mistreatment of the indigenous peoples. And thus emerges Phillip, son of Massasoit (the friendly, wise leader of Pokanoket tribe). Phillip wasn't as positive towards the English and figured the only way to get all of his land back was to kill all of the newcomers. At the same time, the English needed more land and they figured they needed to kill the Indians. And that brings us to King Phillip's War, the deadliest per capita war ever fought by Americans. 8% of the male population of New England was killed or wounded in the fighting and like 2 or 3 times that many natives were killed or sent into slavery.

I don't want to dumb down the book and I couldn't do it justice in just a few paragraphs, so you guys should go get it from the library. You'll find out all about awesome people from OUR history like Benjamin Church, Miles Standish, Massasoit, Edward Winslow, John Bradford, King Phillip, and a whole host of people who are the embodiment of GRIZZLED (meaning they accomplished great things in a very rugged and unknown environment). People need to read about our history, maybe it would help us pull our heads out of our asses and get some positive stuff done around here.