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The Pilgrims. Written by Lin Donn Illustrated by Phillip Martin. The Pilgrims. In the 1600’s in Britain, everyone had to be a member of the Church of England. It was the law. It was illegal to be a member of any other church.
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The Pilgrims Written by Lin Donn Illustrated by Phillip Martin
The Pilgrims In the 1600’s in Britain, everyone had to be a member of the Church of England. It was the law. It was illegal to be a member of any other church. Not everyone believed in the teachings of the Church of England. They wanted to worship in their own way. Those who tried found themselves facing huge fines, vicious harassment, property seizure, and even prison.
The Pilgrims Some people decided to sail to the New World to escape punishment. They gladly left the Church of England behind. In the year 1620, a ship named the Mayflower was rented to take 105 passengers across the ocean. The plan was to join an existing colony. Either the weather was lousy or they got lost. They landed at Plymouth (in what would become Massachusetts) instead. No colony existed there. The settlers had brought supplies, but did they have enough to carve a new colony out of the wilderness? They decided to try.
The Pilgrims As the story goes, Squanto, a Native American and member of the Pawtuxet tribe, had once been captured by English sailors. He spoke English and had lived in London. Squanto taught the settlers how to plant corn and where to hunt and fish. Without his help, it is likely that none of these early settlers would have survived their first winter.
The Pilgrims Food: The settlers collected food as best they could that winter. In the spring, they planted seeds. The harvest in the fall that year, in 1621, was a time for true celebration. They celebrated with a special feast. Today, we call that celebration Thanksgiving. They ate pumpkin, succotash, roasted corn, nuts, fish, deer, duck and geese.
The Pilgrims In the following years, ships brought many more settlers. What did the colonists bring with them? First and foremost, they brought their beliefs, their habits, and their culture. Most people who immigrated to the New World did not really want a new world. What they wanted was to recreate the life they had in England with improvements. Different people wanted to improve different things, so right off, the colonists had more challenges to face than finding food and shelter. They had to find a way to get along.
The Pilgrims Some of the beliefs they brought with them were accepted by nearly everyone. It was the English way. Schools: Back in England, by 1640, there were over 900 elementary schools free to everyone including the poor. In the New World, elementary schools were started and were free to everyone. Rights of women: Back in England, women by law inherited some of their husband’s property. They could own their own business. They could marry whomever they chose. In the New World, the Pilgrims continued these rights.
The Pilgrims Right to a jury of their peers: In the New World, as in England, people had the right to trial, and the right to a jury of their peers. They brought a common goal - to carve a new England in the New World. Nearly every settler believed that the crown (the king back in England) was in charge even though he was an ocean away. Next in importance came the nobility, followed by the clergy, lawyers and doctors, and anyone else who could live without manual labor. That was the English way.
The Pilgrims But this was the New World. The class structure they followed back in England did not work very well in the New World. Farming skills were the single most important skill in these early days. Many people who came to the New World were not farmers. They came to escape their past, or to worship as they wished. They knew nothing of farming. That gave farmers something they never had before – a voice in government.
The Pilgrims The Pilgrims were headed for Virginia, but landed at Plymouth. Virginia did not control that part of the New World. No one did. Government: Since there was no official charter to obey, the Pilgrims created their own government. They drafted the Mayflower Compact, which basically said they would rule themselves. They established a system of town meetings, where every citizen (adult free male), rich or poor, had a voice and a vote. Later on, they became a royal colony, but they continued government by town meetings, a system adopted in some form by nearly all the northern colonies.
The Pilgrims New Towns: There were many fresh water streams and seemingly endless land in the New World. It was not long before people expanded beyond the first settlement and started building new towns. People were limited only by their courage and by other town boundaries. Pilgrim towns were designed in the same way.
The Pilgrims Towns: The core of a Pilgrim town was the village. One street ran down the middle of the village. Houses were built on both sides of the street. The Pilgrims placed a “green”, a large park, in the middle of the village. The village was surrounded by farmland. The village, the green, and the farmland made up each town. The green held the meeting house, which was also the church. People gathered on the green to chat and to watch the militia, the men of the town, practice fighting.
The Pilgrims In each Pilgrim town, villagers were given in ownership two plots of land. One plot was in the village, where they built their house. The other plot was farmland located just outside the village. The poor were given the worst farm plots and lived at the edge of their village. The rich were assigned the best plots and lived near the meeting house. But other than that, people in a town shared good and bad fortune. They worshiped together. They governed together. They tried to regulate everything, from what a craftsman could charge to how much the fine would be for bad language. They did not appreciate interference from other towns. A town was a unit. Each town looked similar but had its own character.
The Pilgrims Property Ownership: Before moving to another town, or creating a new town, people could sell their property where they currently lived, their two plots and their house, but a buyer had to be approved by the villagers. Anyone could visit a Pilgrim town, but no one could take up residency without approval by the townspeople. Homes: The early shelters the Pilgrims scrambled together were soon replaced with houses made of wood or stone or a combination of the two. Roofs were sharply slanted to help support and remove snow.
The Pilgrims Farmlands: Everyone in a Pilgrim town had a plot of farmland. But not everyone in a Pilgrim town was a farmer. Those with other occupations traded goods to pay farmers to farm their plot for them. Occupations: There were many occupations in Colonial times including butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, hatters, coopers, printers, cobblers, wheelwrights, smiths, teachers, and farmers.
The Pilgrims Clothing: The Puritans and Quakers wanted plain clothing because of their religious beliefs. The Pilgrims were more colorful. Their religion did not stop them from wearing fancy clothes. Since they made their own clothes, simple was stylish. They used wool, leather, and linen. Men wore loose shirts with pants that reached only the knee. Women wore a loose dress with a simple gown over that and a cap. Kids wore gowns until they were 7. Then they dressed like their parents.
The Pilgrims School: Since most people lived in the towns, there were enough people to support a public school in each Pilgrim town. Some families helped to support their school with firewood, money, food, produce and fish. The children of families who could not afford to give firewood or another form of help had to sit in the back of the classroom, as far away from heat as they could get. Usually, Pilgrim boys went to school in the winter and girls and young children went to school in the summer. Kids were taught the 3 R’s - reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic. They were taught religion, the 4th R, at home and at church.
About 10 years after the Pilgrims first landed at Plymouth Rock, another group, the Puritans, arrived with a royal charter in hand. They had the King of England’s permission to build a colony in the New World. They believed everyone should belong to the Church of England or be punished. But, they thought the Church back in England had too many Catholic beliefs, and not enough Protestant ones. The Puritans They wanted the Church purified. They came to the New World to start a better Church of England. They practiced religious intolerance.
The Pilgrims and Puritans There were similarities between the Pilgrims and the Puritans. Both groups spoke English and thought of themselves as English people. Both groups were loyal to the crown, or the King of England. Both groups settled in what would become the US State of Massachusetts. Both groups were intolerant of religious beliefs other than their own, but they were very different in their religious beliefs. The only settlers in the New World who practiced religious freedom were the Quakers.
The Pilgrims and Puritans The Puritans were supported by the crown (the king back in England) and by their royal charter, which the Puritans perceived as their right to be in charge. They were pushy. They kept pushing. In 1691, about 60 years after the Puritans landed in the New World, the Plymouth Colony (Pilgrims) was annexed into the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Puritans) by royal decree. The Pilgrims saw the principles established by the Mayflower Compact being pushed aside. Rather than argue about it, many Pilgrims migrated north to what is now the US State of Maine.
The Pilgrims and Puritans Some Pilgrims stayed. They worked with Puritan leaders to blend the principles of the Mayflower Compact with the dictates in the Royal Charter. These two groups were both loyal to the crown. But this was the New World. It needed new ways. The Pilgrims convinced the Puritans to keep local government by town meeting. Town meetings were never part of any royal charter. Town meetings were never adopted by the middle or southern colonies. But they were adopted in some form by all the New England colonies. Town meetings gave people a voice in government. That was a gift from the Pilgrims.
Massachusetts – the Bay State The people called themselves colonists. The Massachusetts Bay Colony became one of the most important of the 13 colonies. Some colonists from Massachusetts became leaders against British oppression. Their leadership led to the American Revolution and the formation of the United States. Less than 170 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the Colony of Massachusetts became a US State.
