The crossing aboard the Mayflower
On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower, a merchant ship that had left England sixty-six days earlier, dropped anchor in Cape Cod. On board were one hundred and two men, women and children, many of whom had fled Europe to escape religious persecution. The Pilgrim Fathers, English separatists who had failed to settle in Holland, had organized the voyage. They set off for the New World in the hope of founding a community in which they could freely practice their religion. The Mayflower carried more than just religious dissenters, however: among its passengers were adventurers, merchants, craftsmen and servants, all of whom the Pilgrim Fathers considered necessary to the success of the colony. Most came from modest backgrounds. Among the most illustrious passengers was John Carver, an English separatist accompanied by his wife, one of their children and five servants. During the crossing, Carver was elected governor of the Mayflower and became the first governor of Plymouth Colony. Also on board was John Alden, a carpenter who, shortly after arriving in the New World, married a passenger on the Mayflower. When he died at the age of 89, Alden was one of the Mayflower's last survivors. But of all the men on board, Stephen Hopkins, a merchant and tanner recruited to help establish the colony, was the only one to benefit from New World experience. He had already spent four years in Virginia between 1610 and 1614, in the first English colony of Jamestown, established in 1607. Some forty children were also part of the voyage, as well as an infant, born on board, known as Oceanus. The journey aboard the Mayflower, which was not designed to carry passengers, was not an easy one: crammed into the dark, damp holds of the ship, dirty, hungry and, for some, suffering from scurvy, the passengers had to cope with particularly difficult living conditions. A dozen or so passengers should have been aboard another ship, the Speedwell, which was to have made the same journey as the Mayflower, but had to turn back for repairs. Initially scheduled for July, the voyage was postponed and the Mayflower set sail, alone on the waters, two months late and at the height of the hurricane season. During the crossing, the Pilgrim Fathers drafted a short document dictating that new laws were to be put in place after their arrival in the New World: the Mayflower Compact, which specified that these rules were to be fair, equal and established for the good of the new colony. Almost all the men on board signed it before setting foot on land. The colonists, who described themselves in the document as "loyal subjects" of King James I, had no intention of declaring independence. However, the Mayflower Compact attests to their desire for freedom, and is the first document to establish the idea of self-government.
The founding of the Colony of Plymouth
The colonists initially decided to settle in Virginia, where the first English colony was founded in 1607. However, they were unable to reach their intended destination due to winter winds sweeping up the Atlantic coast and diverting their course. They finally decided to drop anchor at the tip of Cape Cod, next to the present-day town of Provincetown. Cape Cod's sandy landscape and conflicting relations with local Indian tribes, however, prompted the settlers to explore the region in search of a more suitable site for their colony. They settled along the coast and founded the colony of Plymouth, named after the English town from which the Mayflower had set sail a few months earlier. While waiting to build their homes, the new arrivals spent many months aboard the moored ship. Here, a new beginning seemed possible, but the hostile environment and harsh climate of this totally unfamiliar territory worked against them. Who could have expected winter in this region to be so different from the one they experienced in Europe? So terrible? The already frozen ground made cultivation impossible, and soon the first men and women were dying of cold, hunger and disease. Half of the Mayflower's passengers, including the young Oceanus, died during the first winter in Plymouth. Those who survive owe their salvation to the intervention of Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag tribe, who takes pity on these starving strangers and offers them food. He taught them to hunt, fish and cultivate the land of their new country. Under his guidance, the settlers planted squash, beans and corn. In April 1621, a treaty of peace and mutual protection between the colonists and the Wampanoags was drawn up, in which both parties pledged not to harm the other. It was signed by Massasoit and John Carver, the first governor of the Plymouth colony, who tragically died a few days later. It was the first known agreement signed between settlers and a Native American tribe. It was honored for over fifty years.
The Mayflower makes history..
Thanks to Massasoit's help, the harvest in autumn 1621 was good, and the colonists were finally able to eat their fill. William Bradford, the colony's new governor and one of the signatories of the Mayflower Compact, decreed three days of Thanksgiving and organized a large celebratory meal. This was an opportunity for the highly religious pilgrims to thank God for the blessings they had received since arriving on the continent. In gratitude, they invite Massasoit and a hundred Wampanoags to join in the feast. Wild turkeys, game, berries, lobster and squash were all eaten. It was from this meal in Plymouth that the traditional Thanksgiving holiday was born, one of the most important in the United States, celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November. In the years that followed, the Plymouth colony grew with the arrival of new ships from England. By the 1640s, it had grown to around 2,000 inhabitants. Some of the Mayflower passengers were joined by their families, whom they had left behind. Within 70 years, the colony's population grew from less than 100 to almost 3,000. In a booklet entitled Mourt's Relation, William Bradford and Edward Winslow recount their daily lives in Plymouth, including the first Thanksgiving and the crossing aboard the Mayflower. Published in London in 1621, the book gave an excellent overview of life in the New World, and encouraged other Puritans to join the ranks of the colonists. Between 1620 and 1640, some 20,000 people left the Kingdom of England to settle in New England. Some came from privileged backgrounds, leaving behind a comfortable daily life for one filled with the unknown and adversity. Not all would stay: around 10% of the settlers eventually returned to England before 1640. By the end of the 1680s, New England's population was estimated at 60,000. Today, over 35 million people trace their ancestry back to a Mayflower passenger, including 10 million Americans. These include historic figures such as Presidents John Adams and Franklin D. Roosevelt, as well as celebrities like Marilyn Monroe and Clint Eastwood.
The Legacy of the Mayflower and the Plymouth Colony
On April 5, 1621, four months after the colonists' arrival on Cape Cod, the Mayflower returned to England with its crew. The colonists had completed the construction of their wooden houses and no longer needed to spend the night aboard the ship, which returned to England on May 9. Traces of the Mayflower are found in 1624, when an appraisal is carried out to authenticate the ship, but no one really knows what happens to her after that. It is assumed that she was sold in pieces in England. However, a replica of the ship, called the Mayflower II, was built in England in 1955, using traditional techniques similar to those used on the first Mayflower. In 1956, the Mayflower II left the English city of Plymouth for its American twin, reproducing the route taken by the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620. After several years of renovation, notably at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut, the replica made its grand return to Plymouth in 2020. Today, it's possible to relive the daily life of the first settlers on the East Coast by visiting Plimoth Plantation. This museum complex tells the story of the Pilgrims and recreates the Plymouth colony as it was in the 17th century. A number of sites, including a mill, modest wooden cottages and a farmhouse, have been faithfully reconstructed to take us back to the time of the Pilgrims. Characters in period costume bring the history of the settlers to life, as if we were there! Every year in November, the Thanksgiving meal is recreated as faithfully as possible. Downtown Plymouth also boasts several sites that bear witness to the importance of the colonists. The Pilgrim Hall Museum is dedicated to the Pilgrim Fathers and the history of the Mayflower. It was founded in 1824, making it the oldest continuously open museum in the United States. To get an idea of where the Mayflower passengers set anchor four centuries ago, take a look at Plymouth Rock, a large rock on which the date of their arrival, 1620, is engraved. Not far away, the National Monument to the Forefathers, a granite monument built in 1889, also pays tribute to the Pilgrims. As for the statue of Massasoit, it honours the Indian tribal chief who came to the aid of the Pilgrims, and commemorates the alliance between the settlers and the Wampanoags. Finally, a number of historic homes dating back to the settler era are still standing. Such is the case of the Richard Sparrow House, built in the 1640s and considered to be the oldest house in Plymouth. Put yourself in the shoes of these men and women in search of freedom and adventure, who shaped this unknown territory and laid the foundations of the future United States. The 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower was due to be celebrated with great pomp and ceremony in 2020, but the planned festivities in Plymouth were unfortunately disrupted by the Covid-19 epidemic.
