Letters From the New World

By Remember Allerton
 Letters from the New World

Created by Liz Devlin

Text borrowed from:

“Remember Allerton” by Amy Kenney

“Colonial America: Cooperative Learning Activities” by Mary Strohl and Susan Schneck
The Voyage
My Dearest Aunt Constance,
Our family arrived in the New World at
long last. Our ship was the Mayflower, but we
actually started out on two ships, the Mayflower and
the Speedwell. We had 120 people in all. However,
after we were forced back twice because of leaks in the
Speedwell, we crowded onto one ship, the Mayflower
and our historic journey began.
The Captain of our vessel was Christopher Jones.
On board, we had 41 Saints (“Pilgrims”), 45
strangers, 12 servants, and the crew. Strangers were
members of the Church of England.
The voyage took 66 days. The ship, before it
carried us, carried wine. That wine smell masked the
odor of all the people, but after a while, the ship was
smelly, wet and dirty. We didn’t change or wash.
Each adult was assigned a space 7 feet by 2 ! feet.
Children got less room. There was little fresh air
below, where we stayed. The ceilings were only 5 feet
tall in the ‘tween decks where we stayed. There were so
many people crushed against each other.
Eventually, our fresh food ran out. The meat became
moldy and the water had bugs. We were forced to eat
salted pork and beef and hardtack, which is the
hardest bread you have ever had the displeasure of
eating. There were rats, fleas, cockroaches and
maggots. We used to eat at night so we would not see
the bugs.
We were all alone on the vast ocean. I was
terribly frightened. One man died and another, John
Howland, a laborer, was saved by grabbing hold of a
rope. On a good note, one baby was born, Oceanus
Hopkins. In the end, we survived the terrible ordeal
and it was worth it!
Your Loving Niece,
Remember
Arrival in the New World
November 20, 1620
Dear Aunt Constance,
Our destination was the mouth of the
Hudson River, but because of winds we didn’t
make it that far south. We traveled for 3 months
and finally landed on November 9, 1620.There
were many that were clinging to life. We had
no shelter, no crops. Winter was setting in.
Before we landed, the men of the colony
established a government for the civil good.
Forty-one men signed the Mayflower Compact.
We choose our own leaders and create our laws. Of
course, we women didn’t sign--no woman was
part of the government or had a say in any
laws or elections. Our group chose John Carver as
our first governor.
After 3 exploring trips, we docked at Cape Cod, a
bay area in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Here
we landed on December 26,1620. There were
rivers, a bay for a harbor and cleared fields, but
no Indians we had heard so much about. It was
the will of the Lord God that provided us with
buried corn, baskets and pots. If not for God’s
providence I do not what we would have done.
Surely it was God’s will.
Your Loving Niece,
Remember
My Dear Aunt Constance,
We have begun to build homes on the wild
land that the Indians refused to improve.
Their land was spacious and they did not have
the art or skill to improve it, so God’s will gave
us this land.
I can not go into detail about that first
winter. Just remembering the hardships and pain
we faced is distressing enough. Fewer than half
of the 102 passengers survived, I being one of
them.
Thankfully, in March 1621 we had a
visit from the leader of the Abenaki people to the
north, Samoset. He amazed us by speaking
English. He brought another Indiam
Tisquantum (Squanto) who also spoke our
language.
He had been kidnapped by earlier English explorers
and spent time in England.
We created a treaty with these Indians that
lasted for 55 years. We had a wonderful harvest
that spring of 1621. We rejoiced with 90
Wampanoag over 3 days. We entertained,
played ball, sang, feasted and had shows of our
arms-military drills. We did not call this
event Thanksgiving. Yes, we were thanking the
Lord for our survival, as we thanked Him in
many of our religious services.
In fact, we had many meals over three
days, no pumpkins and no cranberry sauce. It
was not until centuries later that this harvest
would be called Thanksgiving!
Love, Remember
Relations with the Native People
My Dearest Aunt Constance,
School is different here in Plimoth. We
go to school at Mrs. Brown’s farm, where she
runs a Dame School. We sit in her kitchen
each day and learn to read Bible verses and
recite lessons. We are also learning to add and
subtract. Mrs. Brown puts our lessons into
rhyme to make them easier to memorize. We
girls learn to mind our manners, to knit,
and sew.
We learn from a hornbook, which is a
piece of paper with letters of the alphabet, a Bible
verse, and the Lord’s Prayer. The paper is pasted
to a small board and covered with thin pieces
of horn.
When my brother is seven he will go to
grammar school. I have heard that the
schoolmaster is very strict and makes the boys
sit on narrow benches for eight hours a day
without fidgeting. If a boy makes a mistake,
he will be whipped with a birch rod and the
schoolmaster will call him “lazy” or “stupid.”
Other times he will have his nose pinched with
a clothespin, will have to balance on one foot,
or will sit in front of the class with a sign
around his neck telling how he misbehaved.
After hearing all of these tales, I feel lucky that
we girls will learn at home after we finish
Dame School. Although, I would like to learn
to read someday.
Your Loving Niece,
Remember
Games & Fun
Dear Aunt Constance,

Even though at times it feels like all we do is work to stay alive here in the New
World, we do manage to have some fun. Yesterday was a special day here in Plimoth.
We children played all sorts of games. We went fishing in the pond. Others played
Blind Man’s Bluff. Some of us girls had a jump rope contest. Jacob even caught the
greased pig! Later we had gunny sack races, a three-legged race, arm wrestling, basket
bowling, call ball, boot-pitch, stool ball, and quoits.
In addition to all of our games, we have also learned to make our own toys. We
have made buzz saws, button and cups, button bolos, and cornhusk dolls.
Mother gossiped with the other married ladies. In the afternoon we had a great feast
of all the food everyone had brought from home. We don’t have many days like this,
so everyone played until sunset.

Your Loving Niece,

Remember