Mayflower

Alice got home from her overnight trip to Plimouth Plantation this afternoon. For those who have never been, this is a fascinating educational trip. The Plantation itself is staffed by actors in period costume, who stay in character the entire time and are able to answer many questions on life in Plimouth for the early Pilgrims. Just outside the plantation wall is a small Wampanoag community. They do not do period recreation, but they are also an interesting source of information about native life. We had a great talk at dinner about her trip, and Alice and I shared information we had learned about the Pilgrims. I chaperoned when Emma took the trip with her class three years ago, and Alice’s recounting of her experience brought back some good memories.

In preparation for Alice’s trip, I read Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War (nonfiction, 415 pages) last week. First off, let me say that I hate the title of this book. The Mayflower returns to England on page 101 and is never heard from again. Plymouth would have been a much more appropriate name for the book. That said, I don’t have much more to quibble with over Philbrick’s fascinating history of the Pilgrims and early-Anglo New England history.

In Philbrick’s history, neither the Europeans nor the natives were painted as all good or all bad. Philbrick traces the origins of this early American settlement from the departure of the Pilgrims from Leiden, Holland, in 1620; through their initial exploration and settlement in Massachusetts; their treaties, early disputes, and agreements with the natives (in particular with Wampanoag leader Massasoit); their acquisition of land from the natives and their increasingly contentious relationships with them; and finally into their war with Massasoit’s son, King Philip, and the rest of the area natives. Throughout, Philbrick highlights the points at which poor judgment, by Europeans and natives alike, worsens relationships between the parties and leads to an avoidable, catastrophic war.

Near the end of his book, Philbrick points out that most Americans think of American history as the first Thanksgiving and the American Revolution, with nothing in the 150 years between. I think that’s a fair statement, and I appreciated learning about some of the “between” history.