Unraveling a Myth
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" Wherever they first set foot on the American continent, it wasn't Plymouth, and it certainly wasn't Plymouth Rock. The first Thanksgiving (in 1621) was indeed attended by Indians as well as Pilgrims, but they didn't sit at the tidy table depicted in Victorian popular art; they "stood, squatted, or sat on the ground as they clustered around outdoor fires, where the deer and birds turned on wooden spits and where pottages -- stews into which varieties of meats and vegetables were thrown -- simmered invitingly."
- Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
How many of us grew up with myths about the Pilgrims and about the first Thanksgiving? We all believed that the Pilgrims and the Indians sat at a beautiful table laden with turkey, cranberries and all of the fixings. Not only was that not the case, they certainly didn't set foot on Plymouth Rock.
Philbrick puts these myths to rest. And he tells us about the beginning of our new country and what was the basis for its foundation. Our myths contained stories about Massasoit and Squanto, Bradford and Winslow and, of course, Miles Standish.
One of the major accounts in the book was that of the King Philip's War. We learned that it really did not have to be. Both sides could have developed solutions which respected the goodness in each other as well as the differences.
We learned about how the Indians were shipped off to foreign places during this war and were separated from all of their families and tribes....never to be heard from again (having been made slaves). Only a few ever made it back like Squanto, for example.
Philbrick discusses why the war occurred after so many years of peace and why the descendants of Massasoit and of Bradford and Winslow came to see things differently than their fathers; losing sight of the faith and the respect for the individual that their forefathers had long revered. They also blocked out the memory of how they all needed one another to survive.
The Mayflower Compact, we learn, is one document that laid the foundations for the country that America was to become. Yet, our forefathers had to live through a nightmare of a war (of their own making) where both sides suffered tremendously. It took many years after the war ended to ever recoup even a portion of what was lost.
Philbrick's book is a story of courage, community and war on both sides as well as a story of how our forefathers lost sight of what the Indians had done for their ancestors and their fathers and what was owed to these people. In doing so, they also lost sight of the need for diplomacy and how to work together to come up with solutions that would be good for both the settlers as well as the Indians.
MAYFLOWER has won many awards and the book deserves all of them. What I have come away with deals first with the myth. This was unraveled for me so that I could understand and gain knowledge of the facts of these early settlements. I learned what worked, what didn't work and why the peaceful compact fell apart. I also learned that we can gain a lot from understanding our past and that we do not have to make the same mistakes over again.
Nathaniel Philbrick has given us hope that our future does not always have to resemble our past. He wrote, "When violence and fear grip a society, there is an almost overpowering temptation to demonize the enemy. But some on both sides refused to succumb. They were the ones whose rambunctious and intrinsically rebellious faith in humanity finally brought the war to an end, and they are the heroes of this story."
During the times that we face now, our heroes can continue to be those leaders and citizens who strive to focus on the faith in humanity and celebrate our differences as well as our similarities finding solutions rather than reasons to turn away from each other.
Four Stars: B+ (Recommend Highly)
Bentley/2007
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From Plymouth Rock to King Philip's War
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The story of the Pilgrims is a familiar one. Struggling for religious freedom, a small group of Puritans left their homes and traveled to the New World where they hoped to build a new life. Arriving in New England, they were saved from hunger and the cold of winter by friendly Native Americans. They celebrated by starting the tradition of Thanksgiving. Actually, that isn't quite the way it happened. First, less than half the passengers of the Mayflower were Puritans. And it wasn't really religious freedom they were struggling for but rather the ability to force everyone to follow their religion. Ultimately, the Pilgrims did make friends with the Native Americans but it was not an easy change for them to accept the "heathen" and not all tribes in the area were friendly.
But this book is not simply about those first few years in the New World. Just one generation after the arrival of the Pilgrims, just 100 years before Lexington and Concord, the bloodiest war in the history of North America was fought. King Philip's War saw the slaughter of 15% of the Native Americans in New England with many more sent off to the Caribbean into slavery. The Pilgrim population was also decimated (one in ten white men died) leaving the Pilgrims poorer and less able to defend themselves ultimately forcing them to ask for a Royal Governor to protect them.
This book is the story of how the children of the Pilgrims ignored the lessons learned by their parents and turned against the Native Americans who had saved the Pilgrims from starvation and how by doing so, they ultimately ruined themselves. Philbrick tells the story clearly and looks at events from the side of the settlers as well as the Native peoples. The narrative takes us through the period of peace, acceptance, and accommodation between the original Pilgrims and the Native Americans to a period where the Pilgrims looked upon the Native Americans as their inferiors. Native Americans sell their land to buy guns in order to make war. The children of the Pilgrims arrest and sell into slavery Native Americans on the slightest provocation or evidence. And both sides are drawn into the inevitable war that no one really wanted. Philbrick makes the story fascinating by bringing to life many of the characters on both sides. Whether it is 1620 when the Pilgrims are just landing or 1675 when the war breaks out, Philbrick makes the story highly readable by making the story about the lives of real people.
The book is not without flaws. The pictures are of mostly poor quality and unless you are familiar with the geography of New England it is difficult to follow the movement of the various peoples during the war. However, Philbrick does a nice job of showing how the events of the 17th century were critical in creating the United States that we know today. Overall, this was a very good book that is well worth being on your reading list.
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Not your father's Pilgrims.
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I wasn't sure what to expect from 'Mayflower'. It had been rated as one of the best books of the year by a number of book sellers, but sometimes reading an historical novel can be quite dry and boring- who knew it could be this interesting!
To begin with, I am certain so much of what is written in this book is unknown to most people. The story of the Pilgrims has become so commonplace and hackneyed that I don't think many of us even realize what the Pilgrims were really trying to accomplish by immigrating to North America. This book puts to rest any misconceptions, romantic notions or misperceptions about this group of people called the Pilgrims. It attests to the brutal nature of the world during that time and the sometimes-horrible things a people must do to survive. The fact that any of the Pilgrims actually lived through their first few winters on this continent is truly amazing and speaks to their strong stock.
'Mayflower' begins by documenting the decisions faced by these people in England to start their lives over again in a totally different "world". Freedom of religion was their most overriding reason for wanting to begin anew. They needed a place to live and worship free from persecution. The horrific voyage and their landing on the North American shore are all laid out very vividly, and there are side stories and anecdotes about the people and their families, making it possible to have a real connection to the story. In writing about the Native American tribes in the area surrounding Plymouth Colony, it is obvious Nathaniel Philbrick has done his homework. He speaks in excruciating detail about these tribes, their leaders and particularly about their wartime strategies and nomadic ways. In addition, the relationship between the Pilgrims and the natives was so adversarial, it belies the tradition we know of the "Thanksgiving Meal". I also think most people do not realize that the Pilgrims abused their relationship with the natives and took advantage of them. It certainly shocked me, and I found myself thinking they were bloody thugs, not the cute little stovepipe hat/golden buckle wearing saints they are often depicted as. 'Mayflower' is not glamorous or enchanting, nor is it a homey and heartwarming story, it's a gritty, harrowing, bloody, real-world view of a group of people who had a hand in developing a country known as the United States of America.
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