When the Mayflower embarked on her famous voyage to America in 1620, she was carrying 102 passengers. To most, they are simply known as “the Pilgrims.” Perhaps the name of Governor William Bradford, Elder William Brewster, or Captain Myles Standish are vaguely familiar; but the vast majority of the Mayflower passengers have remained anonymous and nameless. In The Mayflower and Her Passengers, I have attempted to resurrect the unique individuality of each passenger by providing short biographies for each person or family group. Also included is a groundbreaking new biography of the Mayflower ship itself.
In the spring of 1621, Plymouth Colony sent STEPHEN HOPKINS to make the first visit to Wampanoag sachem Massasoit to present a red horseman’s coat as a gift and sign of friendship. For most ordinary Englishmen, venturing off into the depths of unexplored America would have been a once in a lifetime adventure: but not for Stephen. By the time he turned forty, he had already survived a hurricane, been shipwrecked in the Bermuda Triangle, been written into a Shakespearean play, witnessed the famine and abandonment of Jamestown Colony, and participated in the marriage of Pocahontas. He was once even sentenced to death! He got himself and his family onto the Pilgrims’ Mayflower, and helped found Plymouth Colony. He signed the Mayflower Compact, lodged the famous Squanto in his house, participated in the legendary Thanksgiving, and helped guide and govern the early colonists. Yet Stephen was just an ordinary man, with a wife, three sons, seven daughters, a small house, some farmland for his corn, and cows named Motley, Sympkins, Curled, and Red. These are the extraordinary adventures of an ordinary man.
In the first book he has both written and illustrated, master artist P.J. Lynch brings a Mayflower voyager’s story to vivid life. At a young age, John Howland learned what it meant to take advantage of an opportunity. Leaving the docks of London on the Mayflower as an indentured servant to Pilgrim John Carver, John Howland little knew that he was embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. By his great good fortune, John survived falling overboard on the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, and he earned his keep ashore by helping to scout a safe harbor and landing site for his bedraggled and ill shipmates. Would his luck continue to hold amid the dangers and adversity of the Pilgrims’ lives in New England? John Howland’s tale is masterfully told in his own voice, bringing an immediacy and young perspective to the oft-told Pilgrims’ story. P.J. Lynch captures this pivotal moment in American history in precise and exquisite detail, from the light on the froth of a breaking wave to the questioning voice of a teen in a new world.
At the end of 1618, a blazing green star soared across the night sky over the northern hemisphere. From the Philippines to the Arctic, the comet became a sensation and a symbol, a warning of doom or a promise of salvation. Two years later, as the Pilgrims prepared to sail across the Atlantic on board the Mayflower, the atmosphere remained charged with fear and expectation. Men and women readied themselves for war, pestilence, or divine retribution. Against this background, and amid deep economic depression, the Pilgrims conceived their enterprise of exile. Within a decade, despite crisis and catastrophe, they built a thriving settlement at New Plymouth, based on beaver fur, corn, and cattle. In doing so, they laid the foundations for Massachusetts, New England, and a new nation. Using a wealth of new evidence from landscape, archaeology, and hundreds of overlooked or neglected documents, Nick Bunker gives a vivid and strikingly original account of the Mayflower project and the first decade of the Plymouth Colony. From mercantile London and the rural England of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I to the mountains and rivers of Maine, he weaves a rich narrative that combines religion, politics, money, science, and the sea. The Pilgrims were entrepreneurs as well as evangelicals, political radicals as well as Christian idealists. Making Haste from Babylon tells their story in unrivaled depth, from their roots in religious conflict and village strife at home to their final creation of a permanent foothold in America.
"First published in the United Kingdom under the title The Mayflower generation by Chatto & Windus, an imprint of Vintage, a Penguin Random House company"--Verso.
"The Pilgrim Migration in the 1620s to Plymouth Colony was the opening episode of the Great Migration to New England of the 1620s and 1630s. Separatists - Puritans opposed to the English church - first moved to Holland from England and then to Plymouth Colony, in what is now Massachusetts. In this one volume, Robert Charles Anderson tells the story of the Pilgrim Migration by relating the story of each family or individual known to have resided in Plymouth Colony between 1620 (when the Mayflower arrived) and 1633. Each of the more than two hundred sketches provides information on the early histories of these immigrants as well as their New World experiences. This material is followed by complete genealogical accounts, including all marriages and children of the immigrants"--Back cover
Did you know that Plymouth was named by the explorer John Smith in 1608? Twelve years later, in 1620, the Pilgrims started their journey from Plymouth, England, and were blown off course, landing in Plymouth, North America. As if it was a sign from God, the Pilgrims decided not to continue their journey but to settle right where they landed, starting one of the earliest American communities. This book traces the journey of the Pilgrims before the Mayflower even set sail. To understand what drove the Pilgrims into a form of self-exile, one must look further back to when King Henry VIII of England ruled. Religion was very important to the American settlers, and when they were not allowed to practice it the way they wanted, the Separatists emerged, demanding their religious rights and freedoms. England wasn't ready to allow the Separatists the freedoms for which they asked, and they started thinking about leaving. Holland was a natural choice because it was one of the rare countries in Europe that allowed religious practice, at least in the way the Separatists saw as suitable. But even there, this religious community didn't find what they were looking for. They remained there for only a decade and decided to move once more. It was then that they realized they were Pilgrims. They were travelers in search of their holy place, a land they could call home and shape it to their needs. At that time, the American continent was being explored, and it called to all those who needed a new life, a new adventure, and new opportunities. The Pilgrims rushed to the New World only to discover it wasn't so new, as there were native cultures there who were more or less willing to share their world with strangers. Read The Pilgrims and find out: How did the Separatists come to be What was their life in Leiden like The Mayflower's journey across the ocean How did the Pilgrims survive the first winter How Squanto, a Native American, deserved the Pilgrims' respect and friendship The origins of Thanksgiving How the Native Americans accepted the settlers How the Puritans joined the Pilgrims What the great wars against the Native Americans were like How religious intolerance among the early settlers almost destroyed them And much more So if you want to learn more about the Pilgrims, scroll up and click the "add to cart" button!
