Brief Biography of William Bradford

William Bradford was born into a prosperous family of farmers.

As a teenager, he began attending sermons delivered by
church reformers, despite the fact that his family believed all
reforms to the church to be heretical. Bradford eventually
became a Separatist—a Christian who believed in separating
from the established Church of England. In the 1610s, Bradford
fled to the Dutch Republic to avoid persecution in his own
country. It was during this period that Bradford and some of his
fellow Separatists began to entertain the idea of settling in
America. In 1620, Bradford and his wife set sail aboard
the Mayflower, along with a few dozen other Separatists.
Bradford rose to become the governor of the Plymouth Colony
from 1621 to 1632, and later served as governor from 1645 to
1656. During these years, Bradford was instrumental in
instituting a fledgling system of democracy in the colony, and in
negotiating with Native American tribes in the surrounding area.
His journal of the colony’s history, Of Plymouth Plantation, is
still regarded as one of the key primary sources of early
American history. He died in 1657, a highly respected colonist.

Overview
Author
William Bradford
Years Written
1630–51

Type
Primary Source

Genre
History

At a Glance
In writing a year-by-year history of
Plymouth Colony, also called New
Plymouth, William Bradford hoped
to leave a record of the colonists'
experiences for future generations.
In early chapters Bradford
repeatedly stresses the religious
motives that led the Pilgrims to
emigrate first from England to the
Netherlands and then to found a
colony in the New World.
Later chapters tell of the challenges
faced by the settlers, including
famine, disease, and intermittent
war with their Native American
neighbors.

At some point during the late 18th

century, Bradford's writings were
transported to England, where they
lay in obscurity until their
rediscovery in the 1840s. Since
then they have been eagerly
studied as the single most important
primary source concerning life at
Plymouth Colony. Their value
derives from the importance of
Plymouth itself as the first
successful British colony in New
England. Given the almost
mythological place the Pilgrims
occupy in American history, it is no
surprise to find Of Plymouth
Plantation on the syllabi of history
and literature courses nationwide.

About the Title

William Bradford's work is an
account of the origins of Plymouth
Colony, or what is known as
Plymouth Plantation in present-day
Massachusetts. The book—
Bradford's journal—tells of the
colony's creation as a response to
religious persecution in England
and relates major events during the
first 25 years of its existence.

Main Ideas
A Sacred Mission to
the New World
From the start, Bradford and other
Pilgrims saw their migration to New
Plymouth as the fulfillment of a
sacred calling. They believed they
would be able to spread the Gospel,
establish a haven of religious
freedom for others of their
persuasion, and
convert Native Americans to
Christianity. Of Plymouth
Plantation expresses that belief in
both its style and contents. The
chronicle is punctuated by
exhortations to readers,
encouraging them to see God's
hand in everything that happened in
the new colony. In Book 1, Chapter
9, for instance, Bradford stops to
marvel at the huge odds the
Pilgrims faced:

 What, then, could now sustain

them but the spirit of God, and His
grace? Ought not the children of
their fathers rightly to say: Our
fathers were Englishmen who came
over the great ocean, and were
ready to perish in this wilderness;
but they cried unto the Lord, and He
heard their voice, and looked on
their adversity. 

Of Plymouth Plantation is also

replete with quotations from
Scripture, which Bradford
uses to underscore further the
seemingly miraculous aspects of
the colony's survival, growth, and
eventual prosperity. Bradford also
uses Bible quotations to assert the
piety and orthodoxy of the
Separatist church. As he and the
other Separatists well knew, the
established church back in England
saw any deviations from the
religious mainstream as suspect at
best, heretical at worst. Thus, in his
own report Bradford makes a
continuous effort to show that the
New Plymouth settlers behaved in
line with Biblical precedents. Their
modes of worship might not have
matched those of the Anglican
Church back home, but they were—
at least in Bradford's interpretation
—consistent with Scripture.
Despite Bradford's attentiveness to
defending Separatist beliefs and
practices, his religious vision for
Plymouth Colony
frequently put him at odds with
others outside his church. At times
he argued with the leaders of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, whose
own brand of Puritanism was
stricter and more demanding of
conformity. The New Plymouth
leaders also found themselves in
trouble when they visited England
and had to defend the colony
against various accusations. Their
enemies within the Anglican Church
produced letters and personal
testimony claiming, in sometimes
blatantly slanderous ways, that New
Plymouth was a chaotic and
irreligious place. Bradford, Edward
Winslow, and others had to answer
these charges in order to protect the
colony from being seized by pro-
Anglican, anti-Puritan officials.
In practice, the spread of
Christianity in New England was
really the spread of
Christian colonists. No wholesale
conversion of Native Americans
took place under Bradford's watch—
and certainly nothing to compare
with Spanish efforts to spread
Catholicism in Latin America during
the same period. Rather, New
England became a predominantly
Christian region because
populations who already professed
Christianity flourished, while
populations that practiced
indigenous religions were sharply
reduced by disease and war.

An Ideological Middle
Ground
In terms of religious and personal
freedom, New Plymouth Colony
was neither the most tolerant nor
the most repressive of the early
New England colonies. Like their
neighbors at Massachusetts Bay,
ties of religious
identity brought many New
Plymouth settlers together. The core
of New Plymouth society consisted
of Separatists like Bradford who had
been part of the same congregation
back in Leyden. Massachusetts
Bay, likewise, was populated and
governed largely by non-Separatist
Puritans who styled themselves as
the "Holy Commonwealth of
Massachusetts." At New Plymouth,
however, Strangers—private
settlers who were not members of
the Separatist church—were given
substantial political rights and
personal freedom. For example,
Myles Standish, leader of the
colony's militia, never joined the
Separatist congregation. At the
opposite end of the spectrum from
Massachusetts was Rhode Island,
founded in 1638 as a haven for
religious dissenters. There, freedom
of religion was a bedrock principle,
attracting Quakers, Baptists, and
others who would never have been
welcomed at Massachusetts Bay.
The administration of law and
justice at New Plymouth likewise
followed a middle course. In
principle, neither New Plymouth nor
Massachusetts Bay recognized a
consistent distinction between
church and state, but in practice,
the New Plymouth legal system was
slow to punish people for purely
religious offenses. At
Massachusetts Bay, however,
perceived crimes against God were
prosecuted just as vigorously as
crimes with human victims. Failing
to keep the Sabbath was a crime in
Massachusetts, as were swearing
oaths, disrespecting one's parents,
and other "thou shalt nots" from the
Ten Commandments. To question
the colonial government's authority
in these matters was to court
banishment, as Roger Williams did
when he lived there during the
1630s. At New Plymouth, too,
Williams had been a controversial
figure, but his
opinions were not seen as seditious
(defying authority), let alone
criminal. Bradford, in fact, praises
Williams as "a godly and zealous
man," despite their religious and
political disagreements.

In later years, Massachusetts Bay

would become infamous for two
strings of religiously motivated
executions. From 1659–61 the
"Boston Martyrs," or "Quaker
Martyrs"—four members of what is
now called the Society of Friends—
were hanged for refusing to recant
their religious beliefs. Several
others were whipped or mutilated to
discourage them from preaching or
were banished from the colony
altogether. The entire affair became
so infamous back in England that
King Charles II passed an
emergency statute preventing the
colony from executing any more
Quakers. Three decades later, at
Salem (another Massachusetts
settlement), an even more lurid, or
horrific, episode played out: the
Salem Witch Trials of 1692, in which
19 colonists were executed for their
alleged dealings with the devil.
Contrast that with New Plymouth,
where five colonists were executed
during the period covered in Of
Plymouth Plantation, four of them
for murder. Religious dissenters
may have been unpopular at
Plymouth, but they never faced the
gallows for their beliefs.

Mutual Defense Unites

the Colonies for the
First Time
The last decade or so of Bradford's
chronicles witnesses several
attempts to bring the colonies
together for mutual defense against
hostile forces. The French raided
English trading posts, the Dutch
tried to block development, and
alliances
with Native American groups proved
more tenuous than once hoped.
Though these factors might have
been expected to draw the English
colonies together sooner, the first
lasting "supra-colonial organization"
was formed only in 1643. This was
the United Colonies of New
England, also known as the New
England Confederation. Its aims
included the formation of a
coordinated militia and a legal
means of resolving intercolonial
disputes. The Confederation had its
first military success in the 1645
conflict between the Narragansetts
and the Mohegans, in which a show
of force was sufficient to prevent
further hostilities. This was followed
by a decades-long lull in large-scale
armed conflicts, during which time
the Confederation had little
influence on colonial politics. The
United Colonies banded together
once more in the Great
Narragansett War (1675–76),
fielding a
large and well-coordinated militia.

Because its decisions were not

binding, the New England
Confederation had limited practical
successes outside of warfare. The
populous and politically prominent
Massachusetts Bay Colony tended
to take the lead in intercolonial
negotiations, with other colonies
often forced to comply to its wishes.
Nonetheless, the New England
Confederation is historically
significant as the first formal attempt
to unite a group of English colonies
into a larger political entity. In this
light, the Confederation has
sometimes been described as an
ancestor of the Continental
Congress and thus of the United
States.
Context
Reformation and
Dissent in
16th-Century England
Much of Bradford's history—
particularly the opening chapters of
Book 1—takes place against the
backdrop of the Protestant
Reformation, which swept through
Europe in the early 16th century.
The movement responded to the
perceived corruption and rigidity of
the Catholic Church hierarchy and
led to the establishment of new
Christian denominations, including
Lutheranism and Presbyterianism.
In England, where the Reformation
reached its height during the 1530s,
the Church of England—which had
been fairly established by the 4th
century—separated its ties with
Rome, and a state religion known
as Anglicanism began to emerge.
This church acknowledged the
English monarch—not the Pope—
as its head and preserved its own
hierarchy of bishops. In many
respects, however, its
liturgy, theology, and organization
mirrored those of the Roman
Catholic Church. The differences
were set down in 1534 when King
Henry VIII implemented two laws
defining the Church. First, the Act of
Succession validated Henry's
divorce from Catherine of Aragon
and his marriage to Anne Boleyn,
both of which the Pope had
disapproved. Second, the Act of
Supremacy formalized the king's
position as head of the English
Church.

These acts, however, were not

England's last word on the matter.
Henry proceeded to seize
monasteries and other former
Church possessions in the late
1530s (the Dissolution of the
Monasteries). Toward the end of his
reign, the doctrines and practices of
Catholicism came under attack
along with its remaining clergy. The
relative religious unity achieved
under Henry was threatened under
his young son
and successor, Edward VI (reigned
1547–53). His ministers' attempts to
establish a uniform doctrine for the
Anglican Church led to a result that
was too reformist for the Catholics
and too conservative for the
Protestants. Catholicism underwent
resurgence under Mary Tudor (r.
1553–58), who was also known as
Mary I or Bloody Mary. But
Anglicanism returned in full force
under her successor Elizabeth I (r.
1558–1603). Elizabeth's moderate
reforms, known as the Elizabethan
religious settlement, were accepted
by many and formed one pillar of
her long and stable reign. The
settlement was rejected, however,
by the Puritans, who felt the
Anglican Church had not gone far
enough in "purifying" itself of
Catholic doctrines and practices.

When James I acceded to the

English throne in 1603, he was
almost immediately
drawn into the continuing debate
over religious reform. A group of
Puritan ministers, supposedly 1,000
in number, presented him with the
Millenary Petition, which called for
an end to various practices
considered holdovers from
Catholicism. In response, James
met with both Anglican bishops and
Puritan leaders at the Hampton
Court Conference of 1604. There he
affirmed the need for a new English
edition of the Bible (today called the
King James Version). However, he
flatly denied most of the Puritans'
other requests, both large and
small. In particular, he staunchly
refused to reform the church
hierarchy in any way that would
take authority away from bishops
and give it to local leaders, such as
pastors and elders. Disappointed in
their king, some Puritans became
Separatists, seeking to become as
independent as possible from the
mainstream Anglican Church. It is to
this group—sometimes tolerated,
often oppressed—that Bradford and
his fellow Pilgrims belonged.

Origins of Plymouth
Colony
Of Plymouth Plantation takes the
form of annals: year-by-year
records of events, with dates given
in place of chapter numbers or
titles. The broader historical arc of
New Plymouth's history can be
difficult to pick out against the
annual details of the colony's trade,
agriculture, and finances. The basic
story is well known: in the autumn of
1620 a group of 102 passengers
sailed aboard the Mayflower from
Plymouth, England, to Cape Cod in
present-day Massachusetts. Their
arrival in November of that year
marked the establishment of the
second permanent English
settlement in the New World—and
the first in New England. The
Separatists, with William
Bradford and William
Brewster (1566/1567–1644) among
their leaders, were a minority
among these passengers and are
known as the Pilgrims or the Saints.
The rest were the so-called—by the
Pilgrims—"Strangers" who came to
North America seeking profit and
personal freedom. A crew of about
30 sailors manned the ship.

The colonists, Saints and Strangers

alike, had planned to settle in the
northern reaches of Virginia—a
territory that then included modern-
day New Jersey and New York. The
site they favored, which was on the
Hudson River in present-day New
York, would keep them far enough
from the established colony at
Jamestown, so they could retain
their independence. Yet when they
reached the shores of North
America in November,
the Mayflower crew was
short on supplies, and the
approaching winter made navigation
difficult. They briefly struck out from
Cape Cod in hopes of arriving
farther south along the coast but
were driven back by poor weather.
They eventually resigned
themselves to landing—and settling
—in present-day Massachusetts,
much farther north than intended.
With food running low and tempers
running high, the colonists realized
they would need to set down
fundamental laws and a form of
government. They did so in
the Mayflower Compact, an
agreement signed by 41 of the adult
male passengers while
the Mayflower was still at anchor.
The ship and its crew remained until
the spring, forced by sickness to
spend the winter on the North
American coast.

The story of the New Plymouth

Colony plays an outsize role in
American history
for multiple reasons. One is the
democratic ideal expressed in
the Mayflower Compact, which
describes a system of majority rule
and elected leadership. Another is
the Pilgrims' status as religious
refugees, which resonated with later
popular depictions of America as a
land of freedom and opportunity.
New Plymouth lasted for about 70
years before its absorption into the
neighboring Massachusetts Bay
Colony, but its place in the lore of
the early United States remains
secure. Of Plymouth Plantation is
valuable as a firsthand account of
the colony's establishment and
growth in the face of tremendous
difficulties.
Bradford's Manuscript
Bradford's original handwritten
chronicles had an interesting
afterlife. Some time after Bradford's
death, they were brought
to Boston, where they were
eventually stored at the Old South
Meeting House (built 1729). The
building was originally constructed
as a Puritan place of worship, but it
later became a notable site of
revolutionary activity: in December
1773, thousands of disgruntled
colonists gathered there to plan and
execute the Boston Tea Party.
Because of its symbolic status, Old
South was targeted by British troops
during their occupation of Boston in
1775. They ransacked the
meetinghouse and transformed it
into a place for practicing
horsemanship, which included a bar
for spectators. By the time Old
South was returned to its
congregation, the Bradford
manuscript had been transported to
England. To this day, no one is
certain exactly how or when Of
Plymouth Plantation was brought
over the Atlantic.

For roughly the next 70 years, the

manuscript lay in obscurity, its
whereabouts known only to a few.
In 1844 Anglican bishop Samuel
Wilberforce quoted from the work in
his History of the Protestant
Episcopal Church in America. This
citation brought Bradford's
manuscript to the attention of
historians on both sides of the
Atlantic. After the original was
discovered in the Fulham Palace
library in London, Americans made
numerous requests for its return to
the United States. For decades
these pleas were ignored, but in
1897, a group of New England
historians won the ear of Frederick
Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Acting on the authority of an
ecclesiastical court in London, he
ordered that Of Plymouth
Plantation be returned. The
document was placed in the care of
the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts and entrusted to the
State Library for safekeeping. Since
then, multiple print versions of the
text have been produced,
with the first major edition appearing
in 1912. The version used in this
guide, like several other editions
designed for classroom use, is a
modern English rendering by Harold
Paget.

Of Plymouth Plantation Literary

Elements
Genre
Historical, Realistic

Setting and Context

The settings of the book are Holland, New world and Plymouth
in the 16th and 17th century and the colonial history ranging
from the arrival of Mayflower at cape code to the first
thanksgiving has also been narrated in the book.

Narrator and Point of View

The novel has been narrated from first person’s point of view
i.e. Bradford’s point of view. Bradford’s account of the history of
Plymouth and the protestants have been given in the book.
Tone and Mood
Serious, anxious.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonist in the book is William Bradford while the
Anglican church has been portrayed as the antagonist.

Major Conflict
The major conflict in the book is between the Anglican Church
and the Puritans and between the native American sand the
pilgrims.

Climax
The climax comes when the pilgrims left England and migrated
to American in order to practice their religious views and to
save themselves from the persecution of the Church of
England.

Foreshadowing
N/A

Understatement
The understatement in the book is that one must strive to
understand the drastic stakes of survival. Another
understatement in this historical account is that one must strive
to learn the true facts of history.

Allusions
Allusions to Long fellow’s poem, Salem witch trials, Moses,
Bible, nemesis, Anglican Church, American revolution and
puritans have been employed in the book.

Imagery
Images of religion, church, plants, pilgrimage, colonization,
death, survival and harshness of winter have been presented
by the author.

Paradox
The paradox in the book is that the Puritans left England in
order to save themselves from the atrocities of the Anglican
Church but after reaching America, they themselves started
persecuting others.

Parallelism
There is a parallelism between the journey of Moses to the
Promised land and the expedition of Bradford to America.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

An example of Metonymy is 'pilgrims', which includes all the
Puritans who moved to America. An example of synecdoche is
'colony' which refers to colonization.

Personification
Pilgrimage and Plymouth have been personified.

Plymouth Plantation Background

The story of William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation is nearly
as interesting as the story Bradford tells in his foundational
historical document. The original manuscript went missing from
its place in Boston sometime following the Revolutionary War.
Fortunately, everything through Chapter IX had previously been
transcribed into a copy held among the church records of
Plymouth. Everything from Chapter X onward, however, was
assumed to be lost forever until one providential day in London
when a British bishop discovered the original manuscript
in its entirety. The book was subsequently published in 1856. It
would not be until 1897, however, that Bradford’s account was
finally returned to its homeland.

As for the history contained within the volume itself, Of

Plymouth Plantation represents a historical account recorded
by Bradford over a two-decade period. Bradford himself spent
thirty years as Governor of Plymouth and the result of his effort
to provide a detailed personal reporting—never actually
intended for publication—became instrumental in providing
insight into some of the most iconic moments of early colonial
history, ranging from the landing of Mayflower at Cape Cod to
the first Thanksgiving. Reading Bradford’s history presents
students with a stunning—and not always altogether flattering
—disconnect between reality and the myths which arose from
the facts.

For instance, that world-changing anchoring of the Mayflower

on November 11, 1620 did not feature a rock of any sort.
“Plymouth Rock” was an unknown and unmentioned aspect of
the New World until almost a century later. In addition, the
actual landing of the Mayflower on what came to be known as
Plymouth Rock is revealed through reading Bradford’s account
as one that is a far cry from the standard depiction in art and
cinema: the landing did not involve the Mayflower itself, but a
small dinghy on which there were no women and which was not
greeted by any “Indians.”

The history Of Plymouth Plantation follows the various travails,

hardships, indignities, triumphs and stories of the founding of a
nation up to 1646.

Summary
Origins of the Plymouth Colony: 1607–20
The New Plymouth colony, also known as Plymouth Colony,
came about as a response to religious persecution. A group of
English Separatists—reformers who wanted to break with the
Church of England—were
oppressed and finally resolved to leave the country in secret.
They fled to Holland, settling first in Amsterdam and then in
Leyden (present day Leiden). After about a decade in Leyden,
however, the Separatist congregation realized they would never
thrive there and decided to relocate to the New World.

After some debate, the Separatists agreed to settle in Virginia,

the vast North American territory under the control of the
Virginia Company. They planned to move to New England, a
remote northeastern region where they could exercise their
religious freedom without harassment. From 1617 until early
1620, the would-be colonists were caught up in often-tense
negotiations not only with the Virginia Company, but also with
the voyage's financial backers in London. Ships were finally
hired in mid-1620, and after an abortive first attempt,
the Mayflower set sail across the Atlantic in September. The
ship arrived at Cape Cod in November, and the coastal area
now known as Plymouth was chosen as a site for the
settlement.

Early Years: 1620–28

Things at New Plymouth got off to a rocky start, with many
colonists dying of hunger or disease during the first
winter. Squanto, a Native American who had been in Europe,
helped the settlers survive by teaching them to farm, fish, and
trap game. Squanto also helped the colonists establish peace
with Massasoit, the Wampanoag chieftain who governed the
neighboring lands. The first harvest, in 1621, was meager, and
supplies were strained by the unforeseen arrival of dozens
more colonists. Trade goods were sent back to England for the
first time that year, marking the start of the colony's strenuous
efforts to appease its financial backers. Some of the new
arrivals proved troublesome, and the colonists at New
Plymouth often found themselves bailing out those less
fortunate and less prepared. Early plans to hold all property in
common were abandoned, and lands were divided up privately.

Meanwhile in London, the colony's investors grew uneasy and

impatient, proposing various projects by which the colony could
repay its debts. An attempt at boat building went passably well,
whereas a salt-making
enterprise proved disastrous and unprofitable. Eventually, a
group of leading colonists agreed to pay off the colony's debts
to the investors in exchange for a temporary monopoly on
colonial trade. Agriculture and trade continued to grow at New
Plymouth, though the presence of increasingly well-armed
Native Americans would spell trouble for the colonists down the
road.

Growth and Prosperity: 1629–38

The remaining Separatists in Leyden crossed the Atlantic to
Plymouth Colony in 1629, fulfilling a long-held promise to do so.
The colonists struggled to finalize the terms of their agreement
with the London investors and experimented with the
establishment of other trading houses along the rivers of
southern New England. Isaac Allerton, the colonist sent to
manage New Plymouth's trade in England, instead ran up huge
expenses on unauthorized projects, including the purchase of
two ships, which arrived in 1630 to the surprise of the colonists.
He was dismissed from his role as colonial agent, but not until
after he had done much harm to the colony's finances. It took
more than a decade before the colonies abandoned their efforts
to recover the misspent money from Allerton.

Relations with other New England colonies became more

important throughout the 1630s. At various times, the New
Plymouth colonists attempted to form a military pact with
neighboring Massachusetts Bay Colony, but disputes over
territory prevented the two colonies from becoming true allies.
While visiting London, Edward Winslow was imprisoned on the
orders of Archbishop Laud, signaling—to Bradford, at any rate
—that New Plymouth still faced a significant threat from the
established church. Militiamen from New Plymouth joined those
from Massachusetts and Connecticut in the Pequot War (1636–
38), wherein they helped the Narragansett tribes defeat their
rivals, the Pequots.
The Seeds Scatter: 1639–46
The final chapters of Bradford's chronicle read as a kind of
denouement. The colony's continuing financial tangles with its
English investors were
resolved, though it would take until 1648 for the colonists to
finish paying off their debts. In 1639 New Plymouth and
Massachusetts finally reached an agreement about their
respective borders. A war broke out between the Narragansetts
and the Mohegans. The colonists arranged a brief truce and
then threatened to intervene directly if an enduring peace were
not established. As the New Plymouth Colony grew, the New
Plymouth congregation scattered, and the original Plymouth
settlement diminished in population and prestige. Bradford's
records end on an anticlimactic note, with Winslow having gone
to England in 1646 and not yet returned.
Book 1, Chapters 1–2 | Summary
Of Plymouth Plantation consists of two larger sections and 35
chapters. Book 1 has 10 numbered chapters, and Book 2 has
26 chapters, one for each year from 1620 to 1646. For the
purpose of summary and analysis, this study guide groups
some chapters together.

Summary
Book 1, Chapter 1
New Plymouth, William Bradford writes, was founded by a
group of English colonists seeking to escape religious
persecution. During the 16th century, the Protestant
Reformation swept across England, ushering in a debate about
how Christianity should be practiced. Some people,
like Bradford, preferred a simple and unceremonious
expression of their faith, while others held relatively close to the
devotions and hierarchies of the Catholic Church. As the latter
group gained power within the Church of England, their
opponents, called Puritans (a derogatory term given to them)
were oppressed. After imprisonments, house arrest, and other
injustices, Bradford reports, the Puritans resolved to leave
England in secret.

Book 1, Chapter 2
Getting out of England, however, was almost as difficult as
living there. First, the Puritans attempted to hire an English sea
captain, but he sold
them out to the English authorities and allowed his ship to be
raided. The passengers were jailed and their goods and money
confiscated. After this setback, those not imprisoned made
another attempt, this time with the help of a Dutch captain. The
group managed to meet him on the appointed day, but only one
boatload of passengers was able to board before a posse of
armed villagers came out to capture the rest. Those who
managed to get on the boat arrived in Amsterdam, though only
after a violent storm at sea. The others gradually made their
way over from England one way or another and, according to
Bradford, inspired many others by their example.

Analysis
Bradford frames the entire history of Plymouth Colony as a
quest for religious liberty. Certainly, the desire to escape
persecution by the established church was a major motivator
for many of the Plymouth colonists—especially the Pilgrims
(called Pilgrims because of their pilgrimage in search of
religious freedom) or Separatists, who are discussed in these
chapters. From the beginning, however, Plymouth was made
up not only of "Saints," as Bradford occasionally called the
colonists who followed his religious leanings, but also of
"Strangers" who joined the project for economic or personal
reasons. Bradford remains privately suspicious, but officially
tolerant, of the "Strangers" throughout his time as governor.

Again and again in Of Plymouth Plantation, Bradford will

explain the colony's policies in terms of a desire to keep the
congregation together. At the outset, he expresses some
unease about the idea of having two churches, one in Leyden
(spelled Leiden in the present day) and one in the New World.
This unease will resurface as Plymouth Colony gets underway
and brings over one new preacher after another, sometimes
threatening to split the congregation apart. Near the end of his
record, Bradford's chief complaint will be that the Plymouth
church has largely dispersed, as new churches are established
in outlying towns. At that point, the colony is a political success,
but Bradford worries about its spiritual fate.
Bradford's emphasis on religious unity is not surprising, given
the history of the Plymouth Pilgrims. A spectrum of religious
opinions, from staunch traditionalism to radical reformism, had
emerged in the Reformation's wake. The Separatists
themselves, a small group within this spectrum, often suffered
from disagreements. What kinds of reforms were necessary?
How much reform was enough? Which traditional practices
should be kept and which ones discarded?

Even before they left for North America, the congregation

witnessed the departure or defection of some members,
including a few early leaders. For Bradford, such losses were
tragic because they undermined the image—as he believed it
to be—of the true followers of Jesus. Whatever made the
Pilgrims look bad made Christ and the Gospel look bad, too.
This desire to project a positive image to the world is a main
driver of Bradford's political and economic policies.

Summary
Book 1, Chapter 3
Upon first arriving in the Netherlands in 1609, the Separatists
saw many "fortified cities" and heard a strange language. They
settled in Amsterdam under the leadership of John Robinson
and William Brewster and remained there for about a year.
Starting from abject poverty, they provided for themselves as
best as they could. To avoid quarrels with other English
Protestants in Amsterdam, however, they left the city after
about a year and moved to Leyden, where they eventually
established a "competent and comfortable" standard of living
for their congregation. Bradford praises the community for their
spirit of solidarity and fellowship, which he says was also
admired by the Separatists' Dutch neighbors. He denies what in
his view are the slanderous rumors that the Separatists were
kicked out of the Netherlands when they set sail for North
America. Instead, he says, the Dutch regarded them as model
citizens.

Book 1, Chapter 4
 After the Separatists spent 11 or 12 years in Leyden, Bradford
claims four main reasons persuaded them to leave Europe
altogether and found a colony in the New World.

Ÿ The ongoing hardship they faced in the Netherlands deterred

others from joining the congregation.

Ÿ The great strain of this harsh way of life caused older members
of the group to die prematurely.

Ÿ The congregation's younger members also suffered and were

worn out and "decrepit" before their prime—or left the
congregation to seek their own fortunes.

Ÿ Some Separatists at Leyden wanted to spread the Gospel to

"the remote parts of the world," which from their point of view
included America.

There were, of course, some arguments against going. For one

thing, some congregants thought the journey would be too
dangerous, and the change of climate would weaken or kill off
those who survived it. Others cited the dangers posed by North
American "savages," about whom they had heard many tales of
violence and cruelty. Money for the trip was another
consideration, as was the uncertainty of how the travelers
would provide for themselves in an unfamiliar and "uncivilized"
land. Despite these objections, most of the congregation
decided to take the risk and began making plans for a
transatlantic voyage.

Analysis
Bradford describes the desire for religious freedom as a major
reason for the congregation's move to the Netherlands. The
specific part of the Netherlands to which they relocated was
known as the United Provinces, in contrast to the Spanish
Netherlands to the southwest. By the standards of early 17th-
century Europe, the United Provinces were indeed relatively
tolerant of religious diversity. The Dutch Reformed Church,
theologically and devotionally close to the religion of the
English Separatists, enjoyed a privileged status throughout the
Provinces. It was not, however, a state religion in the same
sense as Anglicanism was in England. The only religion openly
persecuted in such cities as Amsterdam and Leyden was
Roman Catholicism, whose practitioners faced fines and other
official sanctions. This intolerance was hardly a deal-breaker for
the English Separatists, who regarded the pope as the
Antichrist.

In other ways, however, the Separatists struggled in the

Netherlands. One reason was the language barrier, which the
English refugees made a strong effort to overcome. Another
reason was the mismatch between the skills and experiences
of the Separatists and the economic needs of the cities in which
they settled. The Separatists were mainly farmers from central
and northern England. However, Amsterdam and Leyden
thrived on trade and manufacturing. In fact, the United
Provinces were, throughout their existence, among the most
heavily urbanized nation in early modern Europe. Knowledge of
the Dutch language proved beneficial much later, when the
Separatists—now the New Plymouth colonists—brokered trade
relations with their neighbors from the United Provinces.

The Pilgrims' ideas about the Native Americans may seem

shockingly crude and stereotypical. Their worries of "savages"
who delight in torturing their captives do little justice to the huge
range of cultures found on the North American continent prior to
European colonization. Readers should remember, though, that
the Pilgrims had little information—and no firsthand experience
—on which to base their opinions. Among their sources were
the reports coming out of Jamestown, the first English
settlement in the New World. There, relations with Native
Americans had deteriorated to the brink of open war, as the
English encroached on the lands of the Powhatan Confederacy.
Such reports predictably emphasized the raids by Powhatan
warriors, but not the English seizure of food, land, and trade
goods. The 1610 account entitled A True Declaration of the
State of the Colony of Virginia is typical in this respect: it
describes Powhatan as a "greedy vulture" who "cruelly
murdered and massacred" the English during the so-called
"Starving Time" of 1609–10.
Book 1, Chapters 7–8 | Summary
Summary
Book 1, Chapter 7
The Separatists finally left Holland in the summer of 1620,
when two ships were hired to transport them westward.
Boarding a small ship, the Speedwell, at Delftshaven, they
traveled to Southampton, where a larger vessel, the Mayflower,
waited for them. Disputes over the terms of their agreement
cost them the support of Thomas Weston, the merchant who
originally had arranged shipping for them. Several farewell
letters from John Robinson, the leader of the Leyden
congregation, are reprinted next.

As a result of the dispute, the Pilgrims now were about 100

pounds short of meeting their obligations. Thus, they were
forced to sell some of their provisions.

Book 1, Chapter 8
After Southampton, however, the Pilgrims' troubles continued.
The Speedwell began to leak and had to return to London, with
some of its passengers being taken on board the Mayflower. A
letter from Robert Cushman—one of the Speedwell passengers
who stayed behind—further attests to the difficulties faced in
this early leg of the voyage.

Analysis
Surprisingly, given how famous the ship later became, the
name "Mayflower" is not mentioned by Bradford in the chapters
describing the Pilgrims' original voyage. It first appears not in
Bradford's writings, but in a 1623 record of land allotments. The
name of the companion vessel, the Speedwell, is likewise
omitted from Of Plymouth Plantation but is present in later 17th-
century literature.
The colonists got much more from the Mayflower than passage
over the Atlantic. The ship sheltered them until a safe landfall
could be made and served as a temporary lodging while
settlements were built on shore. Like other merchant ships of
its kind, the Mayflower was also armed with cannons of various
sizes to defend against pirates and privateers. Several of these
were left behind for the defense of the colony and were
mounted on the fortifications of the New Plymouth settlement.
Bradford later describes this "great ordnance" (artillery) as
valuable in warding off Native American attacks.

After its return to England in the spring of 1621,

the Mayflower made a few more voyages before being
effectively retired in 1622. The ship was appraised in 1624, at
which point, if not before, it was deemed no longer seaworthy.
Historians generally believe it was broken up soon thereafter,
and its timbers may have been used for building on land.
Bradford's subsequent references to a vessel called
the Mayflower indicate a completely different ship of the same
name.

Book 1, Chapters 9–10 |

Summary
Summary
Book 1, Chapter 9
On September 6, 1620, the Mayflower set sail once more from
Plymouth, England. The voyage was an arduous one, with
many of the crew and passengers falling sick. Despite illness
and the "many fierce storms" the ship encountered, only one
passenger died on the way over. The ship arrived at Cape Cod
on November 11, to the great relief of all those on
board. Bradford closes by reminding his readers of the many
dangers still to be faced by the newly arrived Pilgrims.

Book 1, Chapter 10
With winter on the way, the Pilgrims needed to build shelter
quickly. An
expedition party landed and followed the tracks left by a small
band of Native Americans, which led to a source of fresh water
and a small abandoned village. The colonists took food and
other items from the village's stores, intending—so they said—
to pay the residents back later. In early December, having
scouted the coast for some weeks, they happened upon the
harbor of New Plymouth, where they decided to establish their
settlement. The Mayflower arrived in the harbor on the 16th,
and construction began on the 25th.

Analysis
Bradford describes the discovery of the abandoned village as a
gesture of divine providence. If God had not left the corn,
beans, and other supplies for the colonists to find, he says,
then the colony would likely have starved. Without seed to plant
in the spring of 1621, the colonists indeed would have had an
extremely difficult time surviving another winter. They had
brought along their own Old World crops, such as wheat, but
these simply did not thrive in coastal New England soil.

The reasons for this remarkable coincidence, however, are less

mysterious than Bradford lets on. The village was empty either
because of its occupants' seasonal way of life or because of a
disaster that visited the Native American population shortly
before the Pilgrims' arrival. The village belonged to the
Wampanoag, who lived in coastal settlements, like the one the
colonists discovered, during the warmer months but retreated
inland to the forests during wintertime. The seeds and other
supplies found there were thus likely intended for use the
following spring by those who had left them behind.

If the village had been abandoned permanently, it was likely as

a result of the disease outbreaks that ravaged the Wampanoag
in 1617 and 1618. The Mayflower colonists arrived to find Cape
Cod and the surrounding region much more sparsely populated
than was described in the European accounts of the 1600s and
1610s. Whether or not it visited this particular village, the
plague had almost wiped out the Wampanoag in the precise
area where the Mayflower colonists then settled.
Book 2, A.D. 1620–21 | Summary
Summary
Book 2, A.D. 1620
Bradford first presents the "Deed of Government," written and
signed by the Mayflower passengers. This document is usually
known to modern scholars as the Mayflower Compact. In
accordance with the Compact, the colonists elected John
Carver governor and began setting down the basic laws of the
colony. In the meantime, a harsh winter caused many of the
100 colonists to die of disease or starvation. Bradford contrasts
the Pilgrims' compassionate treatment of one another with the
rough and callous behavior of the Mayflower's crew, who were
also suffering from illness.

In March, Samoset and Squanto, two Native American men

who helped arrange a peace between New Plymouth and the
neighboring chief Massasoit, visited the colonists. Both
Samoset and Squanto spoke English, Squanto having been to
England when he escaped from slavery in Spain. Squanto had
been kidnapped by English explorer and trader Thomas Hunt in
1614 and sold into slavery to the Spanish. He made his way
back to North America in 1619. Squanto then remained with the
colonists long enough to help them learn to farm, fish, and trap
in the New World. Bradford closes the chapter with a brief
biography of Squanto, supplemented by the writings of English
explorer Thomas Dermer.

Book 2, A.D. 1621

In April 1621 the Mayflower returned to England after a longer
delay than originally planned. Those who had survived the
winter began planting wheat, a European crop, alongside
maize, or "Indian corn." Governor John Carver died later that
month, and Bradford was elected to replace him. To further
their peace with Massasoit, the colonists sent a delegation
bearing gifts. The harvest that autumn was small but
adequately
supplemented with fish and game. In November Robert
Cushman and three dozen others arrived unexpectedly on
board a small ship, the Fortune, thus putting a strain on food
and supplies. The Fortune returned to England with the first
consignment of trade goods from the colony. After a threatening
message from the Narragansett tribe, the colonists appointed a
night watch and started fortifying their settlement.

Analysis
Squanto, or Tisquantum, is by far the most famous of the many
Native Americans who welcomed, resisted, or simply endured
the arrival of English colonists in New England. His prior
experiences, briefly stated in Bradford's entry for 1620, left him
uniquely suited for the task of brokering peace between the
English and the Wampanoag. Squanto was himself a member
of the Pawtuxet tribe, which shared both a language and a
border with the Wampanoag. Although history rightly
emphasizes Squanto's role in helping the colony survive,
Bradford had his misgivings about the relationship. Squanto
drew considerable bargaining power from his friendship with
the English, and he evidently used this power on occasion to
coerce gifts or other concessions from neighboring tribes.
Though he does not shortchange Squanto's assistance,
Bradford ultimately sees him as a man who "sought his own
ends and played his own game."

Less is known about Samoset, the first to introduce the New

Plymouth colonists to the Wampanoag. A sagamore, or chief, of
the Abenaki tribe in Maine, he was engaged in diplomacy with
Massasoit, the Wampanoag chief, at the time the English
settlers arrived. He spoke relatively little English but was
instrumental in bringing the English into contact with both
Squanto and Massasoit. The latter was, to be more specific
about his title, the grand sachem of the Wampanoag, meaning
he stood at the head of this confederation of tribes. This
position made him an important regional ally throughout the
next four decades.

Book 2, A.D. 1622–23 | Summary

Summary
Book 2, A.D. 1622
This year's record is largely concerned with Thomas Weston,
the English merchant who had helped the Pilgrims secure
shipping to North America. Just before their 1620 departure,
Weston fell out with the group over their refusal to change the
terms of their agreement with him and other investors. In 1622
Weston sent over a ship of his own with 60 colonists, asking
the Plymouth settlers to look after the new arrivals and
promising to pay them for their trouble. Weston's letters,
which Bradford describes as "tedious and impertinent," are
highly critical of the other London "adventurers" (investors),
who have refused to make additional investments in the New
England colonies.

Despite their uncertainty about Weston's motives, the Plymouth

colonists helped feed and shelter the newly arrived settlers,
who eventually founded their own struggling colony. In the
summer, those at New Plymouth continued fortifying their
settlement against the threat of a Native American attack. The
harvest that autumn was mediocre, leading the colonists to fear
for their survival through the winter. Soon after harvest
time Squanto died—a "great loss" to the colony, as Bradford
notes.

Book 2, A.D. 1623

The Weston colony, meanwhile, was reduced to starvation.
Bradford diagnoses the cause as wastefulness and "lack of
order." Through visits to Massasoit, the New Plymouth colonists
learned of a conspiracy to kill off the Weston settlers. Myles
Standish, the New Plymouth militia captain, took an expedition
to the Weston settlement and drove off some attackers. The
remaining Weston settlers dispersed to the coast either to work
as fishermen or to seek passage back to England. Weston
himself arrived at New Plymouth after an eventful trip and
borrowed some beaver skins to trade.
Having concluded that communal property was a failure, the
colonists decided to divide the land by household. A successful
planting period and a large harvest followed this division,
proving, Bradford says, private property is the natural order of
things. Between planting and harvest, the colonists suffered
from food shortages, which they alleviated as best as they
could by fishing and hunting. Letters from England tell of an
attempt by one investor, John Pierce, to claim lordship over
New England and all the surrounding territory. (He did not
succeed in his plan.) New settlers arrived from England by the
shipload, including some of the wives and children of the
original Mayflower passengers. To deal with the influx of private
settlers—those not part of the New Plymouth congregation—an
agreement was drawn up concerning trade, militia service, and
obedience to colonial laws. A party of English officers arrived
with orders to arrest Weston for fraud and embezzlement, but
he was soon released and returned to New Plymouth before
striking out for Virginia.

Analysis
Bradford's bearishness about the concept of communal
property is interesting in light of his emphasis on building a
Christian community in New England. His observation that
"Plato and other ancients" advocated communal property as
part of their ideal systems of government is partly correct.
Plato, the classical Greek thinker famous for his philosophical
dialogues, certainly takes this approach in his Republic. He
argues communal property is the only way to prevent wasteful
quarreling and keep people focused on the common good. Not
all "ancients" felt this way, however. Aristotle, Plato's most
famous student, favored private property for essentially the
same reasons Bradford provides here. He viewed communal
property as an inducement to laziness and vice, whereas
private ownership would stimulate the development of personal
virtue.
Less clear are the grounds on which Bradford believes
communal property to be anti-Christian, as he implies when he
says its advocates consider themselves "wiser than God." In
fact, the Christian Scriptures speak favorably of communal
property in the early Church, where it is just one expression of
the first Christians' sense of brotherly love and
solidarity. The Acts of the Apostles, the New Testament text that
deals with the Church in its infancy, makes the point twice. Acts
4:32, King James Version, the more direct of the two
statements, says: "And the multitude of them that believed were
of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that
ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they
had all things common." Acts 2:44–45 includes similar
language, also noting the early Christians "sold their
possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every
man had need."

Like any scriptural interpretation, early modern English

interpretations of the Bible were colored by the cultural context
in which they took place. For Bradford as a child of the
Protestant Reformation, more immediate and problematic
examples of communal property likely came to mind: namely,
the Catholic monasteries before being wiped out by Henry VIII.
Decades of Protestant preaching, much of it sanctioned by
Henry and his successors, had led to a popular view of
monasteries as repositories of ill-gotten wealth, extorting
money and goods from the local populations. In this narrative
the holders of communal property were the villains, while the
farmers and tradesmen were the victims.

Book 2, A.D. 1624–25 | Summary

Summary
Book 2, A.D. 1624
Despite their agreement with the New Plymouth government,
private settlers in the area began to make trouble, inciting some
of the colonists to leave the settlement and strike out on their
own. A letter from James Sherley, one of the colony's investors,
tells of quarreling among the others back in London. Despite
this dissension, in early 1624 the investors sent over a fishing
ship, with men and materials for boat building and salt making.

Another letter lists various rumors heard in England about the

colony's struggles with crime, poverty, and irreligion.
These Bradford debunks one
by one. Finally, letters from John Robinson—the Pilgrims'
pastor back in Leyden—exhort the colonists to treat the Native
Americans humanely and to await patiently the arrival of the
rest of the congregation.

The colony, by now, had cultivated a successful agricultural

routine, with the famine years behind them. Other ventures,
however, fared less well. Boat building proceeded briskly until
the master builder died. Salt making failed utterly and wasted a
lot of money in the process. Two other new arrivals, John
Lyford and John Oldham, were initially welcomed, but they
quickly set to work to overthrow the church and government at
New Plymouth. Their plot was foiled when Bradford intercepted
their letters home. Confronted with the evidence, the two men
were sentenced to exile from the colony: Oldham immediately,
Lyford after six months. In the interim, Lyford pretended to
repent but was soon found sending seditious letters to England
again.

Book 2, A.D. 1625

Bradford now gives the story of Oldham and Lyford in greater
detail. Oldham returned to the colony in the spring of 1625,
defying his sentence of exile. Locked up and banished once
more, he then sailed for Virginia, where he mended his ways
before his death. Lyford, it was discovered, had come to
Plymouth after an extramarital affair ruined his reputation in
Ireland. After being exiled from New Plymouth, he too went to
Virginia, where he died not long after. Meanwhile, several
English investors backed out of the Plymouth project, citing
heavy losses at sea. In hopes of salvaging the agreement,
Captain Myles Standish was sent to London, but a plague
outbreak there hindered both negotiations and trade.

Analysis
By the mid-1620s, Bradford's writings contain an increasing
number of references to other colonial histories already in print.
The most important of these, and the one Bradford likely has in
mind, is Mourt's Relation, Edward Winslow's account of New
Plymouth during its first year. His text is somewhat more literary
and less utilitarian in style than Bradford's, and it contains many
naturalistic and geographic details Bradford overlooks.
It also includes insights into the intertribal politics of the local
Native American groups, fleshing out Bradford's more simplified
map of tribal allegiances and influences. Notably, Winslow also
saw fit to include (as does Bradford in Of Plymouth Plantation)
the entire text of the Mayflower Compact, the original governing
agreement of Plymouth Colony. Winslow's work was originally
published in 1622 as A Journal or Relation of the Proceedings
of the Plantation Settled at Plymouth in New England. It takes
its shorter name from its publisher, George Morton.

From 1622–23 Winslow compiled a sequel of sorts to Mourt's

Relation, entitled Good News from New England. Published in
1624, and like the Relation, it is essentially a chronological
journal of happenings in the colony. The preface to Good
News is notable in its own right as a reflection of the Pilgrims'
preoccupation with their colony's reputation back in England.
Bradford, Winslow, and the others were well aware that
slanderous rumors about New Plymouth were being spread not
only in the upper echelons of English society but also in the
popular press. Their writings can therefore be considered part
of a public relations campaign aimed at dispelling
misinformation that could jeopardize the colony's funding or
even its existence. Winslow specifically addresses the arrival
and failure of the Weston colonists (1622–23), who, he
predicts, will complain about New England "because she would
not foster them in their desired idle courses." In other words, he
is hoping to pre-empt the "sour grapes" attitude of colonists
whose failures were caused by their own unruly behavior.

Book 2, A.D. 1626–28 | Summary

Summary
Book 2, A.D. 1626
Captain Myles Standish returned from England in 1626,
bringing with him news of the deaths of two important figures in
the colony's early history: Pastor John Robinson and Robert
Cushman. Isaac Allerton was sent from Plymouth Colony to
continue negotiations with the London
investors, with orders not to make any final decisions.
Meanwhile, trade at Plymouth continued at a healthy pace,
boosted by surplus corn from a series of good harvests.

Book 2, A.D. 1627

Allerton returned in early 1627, having raised funds, procured
supplies, and drawn up a preliminary settlement with the
London "venturers" ("adventurers" or investors). According to
the settlement, the investors were to relinquish any stake in the
colony in exchange for £1,800 to be paid back over time. The
colony approved the settlement, and a group of leading
colonists, including Bradford, agreed to become liable for the
debt in exchange for a temporary monopoly on colonial trade.
Ownership of colonial assets, including land, was divided by
household.

A group of shipwrecked settlers bound for Virginia spent the

winter at Plymouth Colony before continuing to their
destination. Friendly relations were established with the nearby
Dutch colony, and Allerton was sent back to England to ratify
the agreement with the investors.

Book 2, A.D. 1628

Under Allerton's supervision, the agreement with the investors
was finalized, and agents were appointed to manage the
colony's affairs in England. Two of these agents, James
Sherley and John Beauchamp, were given power of attorney to
act on the colony's behalf in matters of trade and finance. Back
in New England, a trading house was built at Kennebec, and
trade with the Dutch continued to flourish. Having learned of the
value of wampum (seashell beads) to the inland Native
American tribes, the various European colonists began dealing
in this commodity.
Through these trades, to Bradford's dismay, the Native
Americans began to acquire firearms and ammunition in
significant quantities. Because trading guns to the Native
Americans was illegal under English law, the New Plymouth
colonists led an expedition to arrest the Englishmen
responsible for doing so. They arrested the ringleader and sent
him back to England to stand trial. He escaped and returned to
New England not
long after.

Analysis
These chapters are unusually dense, even for Bradford. The
many letters to and from England contain several important
points buried among all the legalese. For one thing, the
repayment schedule for the colony's debts seems fairly steep at
£400 a year. Larger amounts of trade revenue are frequently
mentioned in later years, however, so it may seem that £400
was not a huge amount. It must be remembered this was the
amount to be paid over and above the colony's ordinary
expenses, such as the supplies they imported from England or
bought from other settlers. Moreover, the colony did not ship
currency back to England. Rather, they shipped commodities:
primarily furs and skins but also clapboard (timber for houses).
After these were shipped back to England, the colonists had no
control over the prices at which their products were sold. With
an ocean separating them from their colonial partners, the
agents in England could sell the goods at whatever price they
saw fit and then apply the amount to the colony's debts.

Ultimately, Bradford and the other colonists would not be

completely free of their debt until 1648. Several more
agreements ("settlements" or "compositions") would be made in
the interim, some of them included in later chapters of
Bradford's history. Allerton, the chief troublemaker as far as the
colony's finances go, remained authorized as an agent of the
colony until 1630, when Sherley and Beauchamp effectively
took over. In later years, Allerton went well beyond the scope of
his intended authority, though arguably not of his legal authority.
He was eventually dismissed after buying two ships and
allowing them to be charged to the colony's account.

By this time, however, Allerton had run up thousands of pounds

in debt on the colony's behalf. In principle, he could be held
liable for some of these actions if they exceeded his
commission as agent. In practice, few serious attempts were
made to recover any loss from Allerton personally, and the
English agents instead looked to Bradford and company for
repayment. The continuing dispute over the colony's debts is
pushed into
the background of later chapters as other, more urgent
developments—wars and plagues, for example—claim page
space. Still, most chapters after 1630 contain at least a passing
mention of the colony's difficulties in reaching an agreement
with its English creditors.

Book 2, A.D. 1629–30 | Summary

Summary
Book 2, A.D. 1629
The "Leyden people" (the remaining Separatists at Leyden)
arrived in New Plymouth in early 1629, with Isaac Allerton—the
colony's representative in England—returning on a later ship.
While in London, Allerton was able to conclude the agreement
between the colonists and the English investors. He was also
tasked with obtaining enlarged patents (grants of land) for New
Plymouth and the Kennebec trading house but failed to do so
before returning. Details of these negotiations are reprinted in a
series of letters from James Sherley, an English investor who
agreed to represent the colony's interests. Sherley's letters also
introduce Edward Ashley, a young trader sent to the colony this
year. A distrustful Bradford deemed Ashley "a very profane
young man." Letters from other New England colonies tell of a
disease outbreak at Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Book 2, A.D. 1630

By early 1630 Bradford had even less reason to trust Ashley,
who had incurred debts at the colony while somehow finding
the means to send trading goods back to England. To satisfy
their and Ashley's mutual business partners, however, the New
Plymouth colonists were forced to keep dealing with Ashley on
favorable terms. Colonial leaders also grew dubious about how
well Allerton was advocating for them in England. They sent
Edward Winslow to check on him and, if necessary, relieve him
of his duties. Two ships—the fishing ship Friendship and the
trading ship White Angel—arrived later that year.
The Friendship had been fitted
out at the colony's expense despite no order being made for
such a ship. For Bradford, this unauthorized dealing was a
further sign Allerton "played his own game" and did not put the
colony's interests first. Ultimately, Allerton was stripped of his
authority for this and other lapses in judgment. Ashley,
meanwhile, was arrested for dealing arms to the Native
Americans and sent back to England as a prisoner.

Analysis
From this point onward, New Plymouth's relations with other
English colonies will play an important part in its history. The
Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded in 1629, quickly became
Plymouth's most important colonial neighbor. Like Plymouth, it
was envisioned as a religious colony, but the Puritans at
Massachusetts Bay were by and large not Separatists. The
leadership at Massachusetts also tended to be stricter on
matters of public morality and quicker to prosecute religious
offenses as crimes. They cooperated with New Plymouth,
although reluctantly, in matters of mutual defense, but the two
colonies often failed to see eye to eye in religious matters.
Moreover, the overlapping territorial claims of the colonies
weakened trust between Massachusetts and New Plymouth.
The founding governor of Massachusetts Bay, John Winthrop
(1588–1649), is a frequent correspondent of Bradford in
subsequent chapters, as is his successor John Endecott
(1600–65). Massachusetts Bay's major settlements lay at
Salem, Charlestown, and Boston, all of which are referenced in
Bradford's writings. The Salem mentioned by Bradford is,
incidentally, the same one later made famous by the witch trials
of 1692. In addition, the "Dutch" colony is New Amsterdam, or
what is now New York.

Subsequent colonies in New England included Connecticut,

founded in 1633, and New Haven, founded in 1638. These two
colonies later merged in 1665. Joining New Plymouth and
Massachusetts, the four became the United Colonies of New
England, or New England Confederation, in 1643. Before this
merger, however, there were a number of unsuccessful
attempts to establish some kind of body to allow the colonies to
coordinate their defenses and settle boundary disputes.
Intercolonial relations remained informal and ad hoc in
character for a long time even
as the New England region grew more crowded. This confusion
was worsened by a lingering uncertainty as to how independent
exactly the colonies were from England.

Book 2, A.D. 1631–32 | Summary

Summary
Book 2, A.D. 1631
Edward Winslow returned from England with a large
consignment of goods. While there, he attempted to relieve the
colony of any responsibility for the two ships purchased without
their authorization, but unfortunately both the Friendship and
the White Angel ended up charged to the colony's general
account. Letters from James Sherley, one of New Plymouth's
remaining agents in London, unsuccessfully attempted to paint
the situation as a mere misunderstanding. Bradford's own
commentary on the Friendship/White Angel affair follows. In it,
he blames Isaac Allerton for acting rashly in procuring the
boats. Though he stops short of accusing Allerton of fraud,
Bradford does suggest Allerton abused his status as agent,
though not necessarily maliciously.

Meanwhile, in New England the French robbed the Penobscot

trading house, incurring losses as high as hundreds of pounds.
The final episode recorded for the year is the arrival, arrest, and
deportation of Sir Christopher Gardiner, an Englishman
accused of "misbehavior" at Massachusetts Bay Colony. The
chapter concludes with several letters concerning Gardiner and
his fate.

Book 2, A.D. 1632

After further difficulties with Allerton, Sherley sold the White
Angel to him outright on extremely favorable terms. Allerton's
creditors gradually attempted to pin his debts on the colony, but
the colonial leaders were for the most part successful in
disavowing Allerton's actions as unauthorized. Agriculture and
trade within the colony continued to
flourish, and a boom in livestock led the colonists to seek out
larger tracts of land farther from the original New Plymouth
settlement. Bradford reports this development with regret, as it
had led to the gradual dispersal and decline of the New
Plymouth church. An English ship, the Lion, brought over an
assortment of goods and returned with a shipment of furs. At
the request of the colony's London partners, a copy of Allerton's
accounts was also sent over.

Analysis
How did Allerton manage to pin such a huge debt on the colony
—thousands of pounds, all told—and get away with it for so
long? There are a few circumstances to consider. First, Allerton
was the son-in-law of William Brewster, an immensely
respected elder within the congregation that founded New
Plymouth. Bradford is likely restraining himself in these reports,
partly out of respect for Brewster and his family. Yet at times, as
Bradford recounts, Allerton presumed on much more than the
good name of his father-in-law. At one point, Bradford
recollects, Allerton brought over £200 in "gifts" for Brewster—
then charged them to Brewster's account as if they had been a
purchase.

Another consideration is distance. Allerton was conducting the

colony's trade and other negotiations at a distance of more than
3,000 miles from New Plymouth. News traveled slowly by ship:
the Mayflower's transatlantic crossing, which took 66 days, was
actually relatively fast by the standards of the time. Moreover,
ships made the crossing to New England only a few times a
year, which is why records of shipping (and the associated
letters) tend to appear at the beginning or the end of Bradford's
yearly chronicles. The slow pace of communication meant
Allerton could count on any compromising information about his
activities reaching the colony late, if at all.
A final consideration is the complicated nature of the legal
system at the time. New Plymouth and its sister colonies were
nominally under English law, and they sometimes proactively
enforced laws from the mother country. For example, Bradford
strictly enforced the law when he sent deputies to arrest other
English colonists for arms dealing with the Native
population. Nonetheless, the colonies were in some respects a
kind of no-man's-land, with overlapping charters and patents
sometimes giving the same rights to multiple colonies.
Confusion over jurisdictions could hinder or sometimes
completely halt the legal process.

Bradford was well aware of the "friction" between English and

colonial legal systems. In Of Plymouth Plantation, he
repeatedly reports cases in which English agents seek to
enforce the law in the colonies but are bogged down by
dealings with local courts and magistrates. Colonial agents
traveling to England to press a legal claim were at even greater
risk. They could find themselves not only denied but also
imprisoned if they ran afoul of the wrong English courtiers.
(Edward Winslow, for example, met this fate in 1635, when the
Archbishop of Canterbury accused him of unauthorized
preaching.) For all these reasons, trying to get Allerton to repay
his debts might have seemed more trouble than it was worth.

Book 2, A.D. 1633–35 | Summary

Summary
Book 2, A.D. 1633
This chapter opens with two letters from James Sherley, one of
the London investors in the colony. Sherley complains
to Bradford of the ways in which Isaac Allerton, the former
colonial agent, has cheated them both out of a considerable
amount of money and almost ruined Sherley in the process.
Remarking on the letters, Bradford holds little hope that Sherley
would help him recover any of the missing money.

The major events of the year include the arrival of Roger

Williams, a Puritan minister, and the establishment of an ill-
fated trading post on the Connecticut River. The trading post,
Bradford reports, was poorly received by the Dutch, who had
claimed control of that territory. Back at New Plymouth, an
outbreak of fever claimed 20 lives, and a "plague of flies"
visited the region.
Book 2, A.D. 1634
This year brought "one of the saddest things" to befall the New
England colonists: the death of two colonists in a dispute over
trade. New Plymouth had been granted rights to keep a trading
house at Kennebec, but John Hocking, a colonist from another
settlement, planned to circumvent them by establishing his own
trading outpost farther upriver. When the colonists at Kennebec
tried to stop Hocking, he shot one of them and was in turn shot
dead. News of Hocking's death reached England, and a dispute
arose among the New England colonies as to who was
responsible. Ultimately the survivors of the skirmish were
acquitted and the guilt assigned to Hocking. Edward Winslow, a
New Plymouth leader, returned to England with a large cargo of
trade goods. An outbreak of smallpox drastically reduced the
Native American population along the Connecticut River.

Book 2, A.D. 1635

In England, Edward Winslow was at first optimistic about his
ability to resolve all the colony's accounts, returning with a clear
understanding of who owed what to whom. He also hoped to
petition the English government for permission to defend the
colony against the Dutch and the French. In the course of
making this petition, however, Winslow was arrested and
imprisoned on orders of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who
viewed him as a heretic. Meanwhile, James Sherley and the
colony's other English partners continued to resist efforts to
bring the accounts current or to settle debts relating to
the White Angel. Back in New England, the French seized the
Penobscot trading post, and an attempt to recover it failed
completely. The New Plymouth colonists attempted to form a
mutual defense pact with the Massachusetts Bay Colony but
were bogged down in a border dispute.
Analysis
Roger Williams is a relatively minor figure in New Plymouth
history, much
better known for what he accomplished after leaving the colony.
Born in London about 1603, Williams studied at Cambridge
before moving to North America in 1631. A religious
nonconformist, Williams believed people should be free to
worship as their consciences dictated. He also held unorthodox
political ideas for an Englishman of his time, arguing the Native
Americans should be paid for lands settled by English colonists.
After living briefly in Boston, he lived in Massachusetts Bay
Colony, but did not join the church there. Instead he proceeded
to New Plymouth, as Bradford describes, and then returned to
Massachusetts Bay to take up a pastorship in Salem. His views
on the separation of church and state led to his banishment
from Massachusetts Bay. However, this time, rather than
traveling to another established colony, he founded his own on
the shores of Narragansett Bay. Established in 1636, Rhode
Island became noted for its tolerance of religious diversity,
attracting Quakers, Baptists, and others persecuted for their
beliefs.

The "flies" Bradford mentions at the end of 1633 are cicadas,

which emerge from the ground every 13 or 17 years depending
on the species. The loud songs and large numbers of the
swarm made an impression on Bradford, who described them
in almost biblical terms. His description here is the first known
European account of a periodical cicada swarm. Bradford is
probably mistaken about the cicadas "eating the verdure,"
because adult cicadas emerge from the ground only to mate
and deposit their eggs. The grubs, living underground for
upward of a decade, do eat plants but feed on the sap of the
roots, not the leaves.

As the colonies grew in size, territorial conflicts like those

occurring in 1634 and 1635 became inevitable. Each of the
colonies had a patchwork of official documents authorizing its
residents to build and settle in different parts of New England.
However, owing partly to political wrangling in England and
partly to Europeans' limited knowledge of New England
geography, these territorial grants often overlapped. This
situation led to clashes, sometimes fatal, as in the Hocking
incident. In other cases, nonviolent resolutions were reached
but only after much time and effort were expended drawing and
redrawing borders. Even then, the colonists were ultimately at
the mercy of the many powerful Englishmen—merchants,
politicians, and churchmen—who might petition the King and
his counselors to repartition the territory. According to
Bradford, this is one reason William Laud, Archbishop of
Canterbury, was so hostile to Winslow and the New Plymouth
project in general. Laud and his political allies, Bradford says,
wanted to seize the colony and transform it into an outpost of
High Church Anglicanism.

Book 2, A.D. 1636–38 | Summary

Summary
Book 2, A.D. 1636
Having returned from England after a few months in prison,
Edward Winslow was elected governor of New Plymouth. The
colonists continued to send large shipments of fur to England,
though a plague outbreak prevented their agent, James
Sherley, from disposing of those profitably. Letters from the
other English agents, Andrews and Beauchamp, led the
colonists to suspect Sherley was not dealing honestly with
them. A conflict began to brew between the Pequots and the
Narragansetts, with both tribes seeking the help of English
colonists in Massachusetts.

Book 2, A.D. 1637

The Pequot/Narragansett conflict—known as the Pequot War—
soon grew to include raids on English colonists in Connecticut.
The Pequot mounted these attacks to discourage the English in
their alliance with the Narragansetts. The tactic backfired,
however, as it drew the New England colonies together into a
joint expedition. A group of militia from New Plymouth,
Massachusetts, and Connecticut proceeded to raze Pequot
villages, setting houses on fire and capturing or beheading
chiefs. Surviving able-bodied boys were shipped off to slavery
in the Caribbean. Thus ended the Pequot War, but the division
of lands and prisoners in the aftermath led to tensions among
the Narragansetts and the "Monhiggs" (Mohegans), another
neighboring tribe.

In England, meanwhile, the colony's three agents continued to

fight in
court for their share of colonial trade proceeds.

Book 2, A.D. 1638

The records for this year are succinct, describing three main
developments. Three men were tried and executed for their
murder of a Narragansett trader. A public execution was
deemed necessary to placate the Narragansetts and prevent
war. Cattle prices rose, to the benefit of New Plymouth, where
livestock had been raised for some time. In early June a "fearful
earthquake" briefly struck the colony. Bradford interprets this
event as a sign of God's judgment. Back in England, the three
agents spent another year wrangling over the colony's debts.

Analysis
The Pequot War was, in a sense, a spilling-over of an existing
conflict to include new participants. Since about the time the
Pilgrims first landed, the Pequot had been consolidating their
power in southern New England, establishing dominion over
numerous other Native American tribes. The English colonists,
who in the mid-1630s included not only those at New Plymouth
but also those at Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut, provided
those smaller tribes with another potential ally in the region. As
the English made inroads into the politics and economy of
southern New England, the Pequot faced dwindling
opportunities to expand their own sphere of influence.

Although the Pequot were evidently the aggressors at the war's

outbreak, the English colonists responded with a force and
thoroughness that is hard to justify. They razed Pequot villages
and burned fields of crops, rationalizing these acts partly as a
deterrent to future attacks and partly as divinely sanctioned
vengeance. In one particularly grisly passage from
1637, Bradford speaks of the victims of one such raid—the so-
called Mistick Massacre—"frying" alive in the fires set by
English militiamen. He professes to be disgusted by the blood
and burning bodies, but then he invokes the language of Old
Testament burnt offerings by calling the victory a "sweet
sacrifice" to God.
Arguably worse was the behavior of the English after they had
defeated the Pequot in battle. According to John Winthrop's
letters, the surviving Pequot were taken prisoner, and their
subsequent fate depended on age and gender. Men of fighting
age were killed, women and girls were "distributed through the
towns" as slaves, and boys were sold off to plantations in
Bermuda. The sheer ruthlessness of the English colonists is
likely a major reason it took so long—almost 40 years—for
open war to rekindle between Native and colonial forces.

Book 2, A.D. 1639–42 | Summary

Summary
Book 2, A.D. 1639–40
In these years, New Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay made a
joint effort to redraw their boundaries to prevent further
territorial disputes. Much of this chapter describes the minutiae
of boundary drawing, complete with a copy of the final
agreement between the two colonies. Meanwhile, efforts to
wind up the colony's accounts with their English creditors
reached an impasse when the colonists refused to send
anyone to England to oversee the process. Their reluctance
was based in large part on the ill treatment Edward Winslow
had received when he was in England. Cattle prices fell
sharply, making it that much harder for the colonists to manage
their debts.

Book 2, A.D. 1641

At last, James Sherley (one of the colony's agents in England)
proposed the accounts be settled with the help of some
intermediaries living in New England. The chapter consists
mainly of the text of this final agreement, which values the
colonists' outstanding debts at £2,400 and establishes a new
payment schedule. The other main development this year was
the departure of the Reverend Charles Chauncey as the
colony's
minister. His opinions differed sharply from those of the
congregation on some basic points, such as the proper way of
performing baptisms. The differences became irreconcilable,
and after three years at Plymouth Colony, Chauncey found
another position at a church in nearby Scituate, Massachusetts.

Book 2, A.D. 1642

This year's chapter is very short and consists almost entirely of
James Sherley's reply to the agreement proposed in 1641.
Sherley's letter, sent in June 1642, expresses approval of the
settlement and further specifies the terms on which the debt
should be repaid. Andrews, one of the two other English
investors, went along with the same terms stipulated by
Sherley. Beauchamp, the third investor, was less cooperative,
and separate arrangements had to be made with him.

Analysis
It was important for Plymouth Colony to settle accounts with its
English partners, not least to protect its reputation as a safe
place for trade and future investment. Nevertheless, it's not
surprising that none of the colonists wanted to return to
England in person, given the way Edward Winslow had been
treated in 1635. Bradford explicitly mentions the possibility of
another run-in with Archbishop Laud and questions the wisdom
of sending a representative, "as things then were over there."
This remark suggests a significant gap in Bradford's knowledge
of the current state of religious politics in England.

In 1640 "things" were changing rapidly for the English Church.

Archbishop Laud, who had instigated the harassment and
imprisonment of Winslow, was now past the height of his
power. He had never been liked by the public, who saw him as
an oppressive extremist who wanted to take the Church back to
the Middle Ages. As opposition to Laud's policies mounted
among the gentry and nobility as well, the archbishop quickly
transformed from predator to prey. He was imprisoned at the
end of the year, tried for treason and other crimes in 1644, and
executed in 1645.
Ultimately, Sherley, not Bradford, was able to read the situation
in England correctly. This is not surprising, because Sherley
was in London and Bradford thousands of miles away. Sherley
gets it essentially right when he says in 1641 that "our bishops
were never so near a downfall as now." A year after those
words were written, the English Civil War would break out,
ushering in more than a decade of Puritan rule. Bishops had no
place within the new system, and their offices were abolished in
1646.

Book 2, A.D. 1643–46 | Summary

Summary
Book 2, A.D. 1643
William Brewster, the spiritual leader of the New Plymouth
congregation, died in April 1643. Bradford commemorates his
friend with some brief notes on Brewster's life, career, and
character, describing him as wise, discreet, well spoken,
cheerful, and modest. He also seizes the occasion to remark on
the surprising longevity of the Pilgrims, many of whom have
lived into their 60s and 70s.

Violence was mounting between the Narragansett and

Mohegan tribes (the latter Bradford calls the "Monhiggs").
Faced with the possibility of armed conflict on multiple fronts,
New Plymouth banded together with Massachusetts Bay,
Connecticut, and New Haven to form the United Colonies of
New England. When the Narragansett chief Miantinomo was
captured, the colonists sanctioned his execution.

Book 2, A.D. 1644

The original New Plymouth community continued to disperse to
outlying towns during this year to Bradford's disappointment.
War between the Narragansetts and the Mohegans reached its
height and then ceased when the United Colonies arranged a
truce.
Book 2, A.D. 1645
The truce, however, was short lived, and the United Colonies
prepared to enter the war, levying a force of 300 men. Once the
Narragansetts became aware of the English colonists' plans to
intervene, they quickly concluded a peace treaty, agreeing to
pay a tribute in the form of wampum.

Book 2, A.D. 1646

This extremely succinct chapter tells of Thomas Cromwell, a
ship captain, who came ashore with a group of hard-drinking,
"very unruly" sailors. In attempting to break up a fight among
his men, Cromwell accidentally killed one of them but was
acquitted of any crime. He subsequently died in a horse-riding
accident. The final event mentioned in the chronicle is Edward
Winslow's return to England to address the "many slanders"
being uttered about New Plymouth. As of 1650, when Bradford
stopped writing, Winslow had not yet returned.

Analysis
Bradford's writings leave off in 1646, just over a third of the way
through the formal existence of Plymouth Colony. During those
26 years, the colony grew and changed considerably,
undergoing cycles of prosperity and scarcity, war and peace. In
1620 New England had virtually no Englishmen, but it did have
a thriving Native American population. By 1646 thousands of
English colonists populated the region, and war and disease
had eaten away at the Native communities.

Several trends attested in Of Plymouth Plantation continued in

the latter half of the 17th century. Initially, New Plymouth had
been a close-knit religious community whose members knew
one another and settled in a small, fortified village. By the
1640s, however, several towns had split from the original New
Plymouth settlement, many of them with their own churches. At
the time Bradford stopped writing, the religious and political ties
holding Plymouth Colony together had weakened considerably.
Although the United Colonies were able to prevent the
rekindling of the Narragansett/Mohegan war, tensions between
colonists and Native peoples erupted dramatically in the later
Great Narragansett War (1675–76), also known as King Philip's
War.

Throughout its 70-year history, Plymouth Colony petitioned for

various forms of official recognition, including patents to
establish trading posts in the region. Some of these requests
were granted, but some—through malice, delay, or mere
politicking—were denied. The colony never received a royal
charter, which would have marked the Crown's permanent legal
recognition of New Plymouth as a territorial entity. In 1691 the
Massachusetts Bay Colony had its own charter extended to
include the New Plymouth territory, and New Plymouth ceased
to exist as a separate colony.

Of plymouth Plantation Characters

William Bradford
Bradford was born in Bristol, England in 1590. After becoming
part of a Puritan group which came to view the Anglican Church
as increasingly and irredeemably corrupt, he became a leader
in their movement first to separate from the church and then, to
escape persecution, flee from England. This flight took Bradford
first to Holland and then to the New World where he would
become a thirty-term governor of the Pilgrim colony at
Plymouth. Bradford is the author and a central figure either by
participation or observation. Though he died in 1657, his
account would not be published for another two centuries.

Squanto
While most of the leading figures in the account are Pilgrims
and other Puritans and Britons, one of the most familiar figures
for Americans (at least toward the end of November) is
Squanto. One of the accounts in the text which differs
significantly from the mythology of colonial America
which Bradford recounts is the first Thanksgiving, at which
Squanto has gone down in history as a major player. In reality,
Squanto was truly a monumental figure of importance whose
role in Bradford’s history situates him as much more than
merely the dinner guest for which he is best known.

Thomas Morton
Thomas Morton was an Anglican leader of the Merry Mount
colony which came to be viewed as a rival and potential threat
to the Puritans of Plymouth. Merry Mount would eventually
evolve into the town of Quincy which produced two of the first
six American Presidents: John Adams and his son, John
Quincy Adams. In his own account of the times, Morton's
portrayal is significantly at odds with that of Bradford's more
severe interpretation of his followers.

John Alden and Myles Standish

Arguably the two most famous names from the Plymouth
colony both show up in Bradford’s text. Thanks primarily to a
poem by Longfellow, Alden and Standish are today mostly
famous for their rivalry for the affections of a woman named
Priscilla which gave rise to the famous line “Speak for yourself,
John Alden.” Alden is, indeed, mentioned in relation to Priscilla,
but barely merits mention. By contrast, Myles Standish is a
fairly major character. The most noteworthy thing about them
for the reader familiar only with the myth may well be that
neither were actually members of the Separatist Puritan group
which has become the most distinctive characteristic of the
Pilgrim colony at Plymouth.

John Winthrop
Another very influential figure who shows up in Bradford’s
account is the future Governor of Massachusetts and good
friend John Winthrop. Unlike Alden and Standish, Winthrop’s
significance is most assuredly related to his standing as a
Puritan. Like Bradford, he would become of one the figures
from the Plymouth colony to become an essential figure in the
development of colonial America as a direct result of his
managerial skills.

Of Plymouth Plantation Glossary

shroudly
With wicked intent; over time the word has evolved into the
modern term shrewdly

sundry
A variety of options

loath
expressing an unwillingness or reluctance to do something

covenant
primarily used--and exclusively in this case--to refer to an
agreement between faithful worshipers and God

barbarous
without moral qualms and acting in boorish or violent manner

deliberation
carefully considered before taking any action

homely
In this instance, synonymous with domestic concerns rather
than an
aesthetic opinion

lusty
while often associated with sexual desire, used in literature of
this time to mean done with a vigorously healthy intent

cozen
to cheat or deceive

victuals
the food eaten at a usually simple and simply prepared meal

brethren
referencing a group of brothers, but intended to mean any
group of closely bonded people sharing a common purpose

floud
a kind of hybrid term meaning a tide high enough to result in
flooding

fain
obligated to carry through with something

procure
the process of gathering or collecting items
pilfer
to steal, generally referring to taking small amounts of individual
items from a much larger supply

recompense
payment for services rendered

carriage
a rather formal term indicating one's character through their
outward behavior

zeal
excitement about accomplishing a task

sober
not so much having to do with staying away from alcohol as
much as the manifestation of control associated with those who
abstain

pilgrim
a person who embarks upon a journey (often fraught with
potential danger) to a place or for a reason considered sacred

Of Plymouth Plantation Themes

Religious Persecution
William Bradford commenced a two-decade process of writing
his history of the Plymouth colony in 1630. The year was a high
water mark for Plymouth and many scholars have analyzed this
decision as insight into
the mind of the author. Plymouth was not to just some exercise
in exploration, but a religious pilgrimage to a land that the
Puritans firmly believe would one day come to be seen as
every bit as sacred as the Holy Land. The entire expedition was
prompted by what Bradford and other members of the
Separatist Church saw as persecution from two opposing sides:
Catholicism and the protestant Anglican Church. These
Puritans truly felt—and not without some reason—that they had
no safe haven in England after first going into exile in Holland,
the New Land across the ocean was not just a place to escape
to, but calling from God. Two years after beginning his history,
the devastating effects of a hurricane had flooded that high
water feeling of optimism with desperation.

The Seeds of Revolution

Bradford’s account comes to a close 130 years before the
Revolutionary War. Nevertheless, contained within it is a
running theme of Puritan defiance, independence, and, most
clearly, dissent from established norms. The modern of view of
Puritans is unfortunately inextricably linked to the madness of
the Salem witch trials and all the attendant negative aspects of
character linked to it. Beneath the admitted judgmental self-
assurance of their own superiority, however, can be found
within the daily struggles of the Plymouth colony described by
Bradford the seeds of revolution. In a way, the story of the
Separatists and the Mayflower foresees the American
Revolution in miniature: a committed group of people pushed to
the edge by the effects of authoritarian persecution.

Culture Clash
Clash may perhaps be less than appropriate. Much of what is
known about how the early settlers—and the Puritans
specifically—dealt with the significant cultural differences
between the British and the indigenous tribes already calling
the New Land their old home can be discovered between the
pages of Bradford’s book. One of the most enduring characters
is Squanto; made famous during the first Thanksgiving. What
stands out most remarkably is the truly breathtaking chasm
existing
between how the early settlers treated Native Americans and
how their generation offspring and later arrivals would treat
them. The difference, of course, is starkly clear: the Pilgrims
needed to cooperate and collaborate with existing tribes for the
purposes of survival; those who came later did not.

Of Plymouth Plantation Imagery

Images of Plymouth Rock
There are images of the actual Plymouth Rock, and they depict
that the real Plymouth rock doesn’t involve the arrival of
Mayflower. It was a small ship which didn’t include any women
and the crew was not greeted by Indians.

Religious imagery
There are images of the Church of England and of people
practicing their religious rites. There are also the images of
Protestants who denied the authority of the Church of England
and left England in order to practice their religious views. The
images of Moses moving to the promised land are also present
in the book.

Plant imagery
There are several images of plants in the book. For example,
the title of the novel also alludes towards plantation. There are
images of watering the plants and cutting them off the ground.
The beginning of revolution has been indicated by the ‘seeds of
revolution’. There are images of planting corn seeds and they
refer to the providence of God.
Images of Pilgrimage
In the novel, there are several images of pilgrimage and
pilgrims. The
puritans moved to America as pilgrims and they used to believe
that they would turn that land into a Holy land and there they
would offer the pilgrimage. The entire journey of the pilgrims
was propagated by Bradford.

Of Plymouth Plantation Metaphors

and Similes
Why the Mayflower Voyage?
The reasons for embarking upon the Mayflower in a perilous
voyage across the ocean to establish Plymouth Plantation in
the first place is laid out in metaphorical terms by Bradford
through quoting another man of referred to only once and
simply as Mr. Perkins, a holy man. Bradford writes that Perkins
preached words that daily experience for Pilgrims confirmed to
be true:

“Religion has been amongst us these thirty-five years; but the

more it is disseminated, the more it is condemned by many.
Thus, not profanity or wickedness, but Religion itself is itself
byword, a mocking stock, and a matter of reproach; so that
in England at this day the man or woman who begins to
profess religion and to serve God, must resolve within
himself to sustain mocks and injuries as though he lived
among the enemies of religion.”

Pilgrims
The very concept of being a Pilgrim is situated entirely within
metaphorical terms. The harrowing journey across the sea to a
New World is placed within an entirely religious reckoning and
outside the non-sacred boundaries of mere exploration:
“So they left that good and pleasant city, which had been
their resting place for nearly twelve years; but they knew
they were pilgrims, and lifted up their eyes to the heavens,
their dearest country, and quieted their spirits.”
Traveling Condition
The conditions by which people traveled from England and
back again are given horrifically literal reality through
metaphorical description by Bradford:

“There were so many that they were packed together like

herrings.”

Imagine spending months aboard a ship on a cruise that made

you feel more like a tiny slimy fish packed tightly into a
container and you begin to get an idea of just how much
freedom from religious persecution—whether real or merely
perceived—meant to the Pilgrims.

Religious Persecution
Of course, it is important—profoundly important—to realize that
the Pilgrims were not just on the receiving end of persecution,
whether real or merely perceived. They could give as well as
they got, as indicated by Bradford’s less than subtle conception
of Catholicism:

“Satan has seemed to follow a like method in these later

times, ever since the truth began to spring and spread after the
great defection of that man of sin, the Papal Antichrist.”

The problem here, of course, is that Bradford may not actually

have intended this statement to be entirely metaphorical.

Biblical Metaphors
It should likely come as little surprise that a great deal of the
metaphorical language engaged by the author is filled with
allusions to scripture and stories and events of the Bible,
especially stories of events involving a pilgrimage of one sort or
another. The reader who is familiar with Bible stories is certainly
going to enjoy an advantage over the reader for whom these
references will require consultation of footnotes or
independent study:

“And thus, like Gideon's army, this small number was

divided, as if the Lord thought these few too many for the
great work He had to do.”

Of Plymouth Plantation Quotes

First I will unfold the causes that led to the foundation of the
New Plymouth Settlement, and the motives of those concerned
in it. In order that I may give an accurate account of the project,
I must begin at the very root and rise of it; and this I shall
endeavour to do in a plain style and with singular regard to the
truth,—at least as near as my slender judgment can attain to it.

Author/Narrator

The opening lines of Bradford’s history of the Plymouth

settlement should not be discounted. While the story’s “meat” is
an eyewitness accounting of some of the earliest myths (as
they would later become and not due to Bradford’s
straightforward account) of America, the story most assuredly
begins well before the Mayflower arrived on the shores of the
New Land. Without understanding the why behind the
departure of the Pilgrims, it almost impossible to fully grasp the
significance of anything that follows the arrival of the Pilgrims.

But it pleased God, before they came half seas over, to smite
the young man with a grievous disease, of which he died in a
desperate manner, and so was himself the first to be thrown
overboard.

Author/Narrator

Bradford here is basically celebrating the fact that a sailor was

stricken with disease, died miserably and was unceremoniously
tossed into the ocean. Remember, not everybody aboard the
Mayflower was a Pilgrim; in addition to Puritans there was
decidedly non-Puritan seamen. But what
might sins might this young sailor have committed to make him
deserving of such seemingly non-Christian sentiments? He was
given to profane manifestations of insolence toward the
Puritans aboard , cursing and, indeed, letting it be known he
would not lose sleep were they to find themselves tossed
overboard. One may draw from the parallel exhibited here
whatever lesson one so desires.

After this he returned to his place, called Sowams, some forty

miles off, but Squanto stayed with them, and was their
interpreter, and became a special instrument sent of God for
their good, beyond their expectation.

Author/Narrator

Notice the language—the precise word choice—that Bradford

uses here to describe the “Indian” Squanto. He is an interpreter
because he learned English and this, in turn, makes him a
“special instrument.” One might well accuse Bradford of a little
bit of subtle racism and prejudice here were it not for the fact
that there’s nothing subtle about. Squanto learned to speak the
language of the strangers to his country, not the other way
around. But that’s not where the racial component. Not only is
Bradford overlooking the fact that it was the “Indian” who made
the effort rather than the other way around, but he won’t even
give him credit for it! It was God who allowed Squanto to learn
the language of these strange and mysterious invaders; not
Squanto himself using his own clearly advanced intellect.

 The ... reformers endeavored to establish the right worship of

God ... according to the simplicity of the gospel and without the
mixture of men's inventions. 

William Bradford, Book 1, Chapter 1

Much of the first chapter deals with the religious and cultural
context of the New Plymouth experiment. Bradford, a self-
confessed Puritan, describes the Protestant Reformation as
incomplete and the English Church as in need of further reform.
In his view, this reform would involve "simplifying" the liturgy
and church hierarchy and ridding it of the ritual "inventions"
introduced by medieval Catholicism.
2.

 Those vast and unpeopled countries of America ... [were] ...

devoid of all civilized inhabitants and given over to savages ...
differing little from the wild beasts themselves. 

William Bradford, Book 1, Chapter 4

If North America has "savages" in it and is yet "unpeopled,"

then it follows that the so-called "savages" are not people. This
conclusion, unfortunately, seems to have been acted on by the
New Plymouth settlers, who often treated the Native Americans
they encountered as subhuman. Their friendship with Squanto,
Massasoit, and other prominent individuals belies—or gives a
false impression of—their treatment of less powerful Native
Americans, such as the hundreds of Pequot they sold into
slavery following the Pequot War.

3.

 All great and honorable actions are accompanied with great

difficulties, and must be both met and overcome with
answerable courage. 

William Bradford, Book 1, Chapter 4

The New Plymouth settlers faced "great difficulties" not only

upon arriving in North America but also in getting there.
Financial troubles, double-dealing by merchants and investors,
and a leaky ship all threatened to prevent the voyage from
taking place. Once they landed, about half of
the Mayflower passengers died during the first winter of
disease, starvation, or cold. Writing retrospectively about this
time, Bradford praises the courage of those who took immense
risks and sustained great losses.
4.

 Charity has its life in disasters, not in ventures. 

Robert Cushman, Book 1, Chapter 6

Cushman drew heavy criticism from his fellow Separatists for

altering the terms of their agreement with the London
merchants. The conditions approved by Cushman essentially
made all property in the colony communal for the first seven
years. Cushman defended this change in a long and somewhat
testy letter to the Separatists in Leyden. There, he said allowing
people to cultivate private lands would benefit the poor but not
the colony as a whole.

5.

 Friend, if ever we establish a colony, God works a miracle. 

Robert Cushman, Book 1, Chapter 8

Robert Cushman had a complicated relationship with Plymouth

Colony. A member of the Separatist congregation at Leyden, he
originally intended to join the initial voyage to North America. A
leaky ship, however, led him and several other would-be
colonists to postpone the journey. At the time he wrote these
lines, Cushman was pessimistic about the New Plymouth
venture. He believed infighting and mismanagement would
destroy the colony soon after the settlers disembarked. His
attitude toward the project eventually changed, however, and
he came to New Plymouth aboard the Fortune in November
1621.

What, then, could now sustain them but the spirit of God, and
His grace? 

William Bradford, Book 1, Chapter 9

Though he may have had his doubts at the time, Bradford in his
chronicles presents himself as nearly the opposite of the
pessimistic Cushman. He recognizes that outwardly, things look
grim for the New Plymouth settlers from the moment they make
landfall. Having the benefit of hindsight, however, he is naturally
much more confident in the "miracle" of the colony's survival
and growth.
7.

 We ... covenant and combine ourselves into a civil body politic,
for our better ordering and preservation. 

William Bradford, Book 2, A.D. 1620

Bradford is citing these words from the Mayflower Compact, the

agreement drafted in Cape Cod Harbor and signed by 41 of the
New Plymouth settlers before disembarking. In this document,
the colonists provide for majority rule, elected government, and
the establishment of laws and regulations. The Compact, jointly
authored and democratic in spirit, has often been upheld as a
precursor of such founding American texts as the Declaration of
Independence.

8.

 The failure of this experiment of communal service ... proves

the emptiness of the theory ... that the taking away of private
property ... would make a state happy and flourishing. 

William Bradford, Book 2, A.D. 1623

Bradford here refers to the original terms of the agreement

between the New Plymouth colonists and their investors.
According to the agreement, the colonists would hold all
property in common for the first seven years, at which time it
would be divided up by household. The colonists soon voted to
reject this provision, and Bradford approves of their choice. In
his view, people cannot be trusted to work hard unless they or
their families directly benefit from their labor.

9.

 Let it not grieve you that you have been instruments to break
the ice for others, who come after with less difficulty; the honor
shall be yours to the world's end. 

English adventurers, Book 2, A.D. 1623

These words come from a letter sent by the English
adventurers, or investors, to the New Plymouth settlers. The
message is, frankly, flattery, designed to get the colonists to
calmly accept the arrival of other settlers who will surely
piggyback off their achievements. New Plymouth's
"icebreaking" efforts would indeed be critical to later English
colonial ventures in the region. The adventurers, or investors,
were right, too, about the enduring fame the settlers would win
for their efforts.

10.

 Consilium capere in arena. 

John Robinson, Book 2, A.D. 1624

Latin phrases occur only rarely in Of Plymouth Plantation. This

one, written in one of John Robinson's letters to William
Brewster, literally means "to make a plan in the arena." The
image is one of a gladiator who is coming up with a battle plan
after having already entered the arena. Thus, Robinson is
urging his colleague to be adaptable and think on his feet—
something the New Plymouth settlers had to do quite often.

11.

 To the astonishment of many and almost to the wonder of the

world ... from so small a beginning such great things should
ensue. 

William Bradford, Book 2, A.D. 1629

By the end of the 1620s, New Plymouth's success was widely

known in England and indeed throughout Europe. Recognition
that a European colony could thrive in this part of North
America led to several more colonial expeditions both from
England and from its continental rivals. Among these were the
founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who arrived in
1630 and proceeded to eclipse New Plymouth in political and
economic influence.

12.
 By the marvelous goodness and providence of God not one of
the English was so much as ill, or in the least degree tainted
with the disease. 

William Bradford, Book 2, A.D. 1634

It must indeed have seemed miraculous to Bradford that the

English settlers were spared from the smallpox that ravaged
their Native American neighbors. This is just one of many
instances in colonial history of a disease ravaging a native
population with minimal effects on the colonial population. A
modern explanation is that European colonists, who lived in
cultures where cattle and sheep were widely raised, were
exposed to livestock diseases similar to smallpox and thus built
up a resistance. Native American communities had no chance
to acquire such immunity and were thus more vulnerable to
epidemics.

13.

 The victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave praise to

God Who had wrought so wonderfully for them. 

William Bradford, Book 2, A.D. 1637

Bradford is describing the aftermath of the Mistick Massacre, in

which English militiamen torched a Pequot village, and half the
residents burned to death. The phrase "sweet sacrifice" is as
unlikely as it looks: it evokes the burnt offerings of the Old
Testament, which are described as having a "sweet savor unto
the Lord." This likening of slain human beings to sacrificial
animals circles back to the colonists' earliest attitudes toward
the Native American population.

14.
 I now come to the conclusion of the long and tedious business
between the partners here and those in England. 

William Bradford, Book 2, A.D. 1642

"Conclusion" here means Bradford will stop writing about the
"tedious business" of settling the colony's accounts—not that
the accounts themselves have been settled. Bradford's
weariness in these final chapters is palpable: he has witnessed
all manner of deception and stonewalling over the past several
years and is ready for some clarity. Although the new
"composition" between the colonial and English partners has
brought some closure, it would be six more years before the
debts are paid off in full.

15.

 Thus she who had made many rich, herself became poor. 

William Bradford, Book 2, A.D. 1644

Here, Bradford laments the decline in the population and wealth

of New Plymouth, whose residents moved away in large
numbers during the early 1640s. The colonists who left for
other towns were still culturally and economically tied to New
Plymouth. Bradford likens them to children, with New Plymouth
as the mother. Still, like children who grow up and move away,
these outlying towns were not as close-knit as the colony had
been in the 1620s and 1630s. Characteristically, Bradford is
most concerned about church unity and sees the fragmentation
of the Plymouth congregation as the real tragedy.

The Land PatentSymbol Analysis

Of Plymouth Plantation is written in a spare, unadorned voice
known as “the plain style.” As a result, there are few symbols in
the text: instead, William Bradford opts for a direct, more
“honest” form of writing. One exception, however, is the land
patent (i.e., legal claim to land) that the English Crown grants to
the Plymouth branch of the Virginia Company. After years of
hard work, the patent is taken out in the name of one
man, John Pierce—but John Pierce eventually decides not to
go to America at all, meaning that the land patent is effectively
useless for the Pilgrims. Thus, Bradford writes, the patent
symbolizes the futility of human existence, and all the
“uncertain things of this world.”
Why does Bradford write ‘Of Plymouth Plantation’ in plain
style?

Bradford vows to write in a straightforward, "plain" style, without

bunches of expound literary devices or sentence
developments. Accordingly, Of Plymouth Plantation is genuinely
simple for 21st century individuals to peruse, at least contrasted
with different writings from the 1600s. Bradford describes the
plain style as an augmentation of the Pilgrim ethos such as
simple, spare and honest.

Why did reformers leave Holland to America?

As indicated by Bradford, the decision to leave Holland was

inspired by a desire to rehearse Christianity to the best of the
reformers’ capacities. Notice that Bradford discusses the
“English reformers” as if they are one monolithic gathering.
Numerous European historians have proposed that, truth be
told, it was Bradford and other more elite reformers who
pushed the gathering to leave Holland, while the vast majority
of the congregation needed to remain in their new home.

The reformers’ religious strict enthusiasm rouses them to make

a trip across the ocean to find a new home: they acknowledge
that, even if they die, they will have died for the sake of their
strict convictions — or if nothing else that is what their leaders
want them to acknowledge, and what Bradford wants his
perusers to trust.

Why do English reformers decide to sail to Virginia than

Guyana?

The important task for the English reformers is to decide which

portion of America to sail for. Some suggest sailing to Guyana
(present-day Venezuela), while others bolster Virginia. Guyana
is considered to be fertile and warm, while Virginia has benefit
of previously having an English populace. Some of the
reformers contend that Guyana will foster disease. Others point
out that settling in Virginia, where there are other English
pioneers, nullifies the purpose of cruising to another land. At
last, the reformers conclude that they will survive as a different
colony under
the government of Virginia, and that they will attempt to
persuade King James I to enable them to worship in their own
particular manner.

What is so significant about Of Plymouth Plantation by

William Bradford?

Of Plymouth Plantation, begun in 1630, is significant because it

is one of the first histories of the Puritans who voyaged to
America. Though it goes back to record facts about the group's
time in the Netherlands, much of it is a first-person account of
what life was like in America in the earliest days of the young
colony. Historians find it a useful corrective to later myths that
arose about these first settlers.

The plain and simple language of the narrative reflects the

emphasis the Puritans placed on plain and simple lives.
Bradford, first governor of the colony, believed in plain living, for
he feared that too much material prosperity would divert
people's attention from God. We learn that the Puritans were a
deeply religious people who believed that God's providence
kept them alive at crucial junctures, and that God would
intervene to punish people who were proud and profane. At the
same time, the book is written not entirely as a religious
narrative but as a historical account of the group's move to the
New World.

The Puritans and especially Bradford, come across as having

gentle and humane personalities, and as less punitive and
judgmental than their counterparts in the Massachusetts Bay
Colony. For example, when Roger Williams was exiled for his
religious believes, Bradford wrote:

He is to be pitied and prayed for; and so I shall leave the matter

and desire the Lord to show him his errors and reduce him into
the way of truth. 
What theme the author Of "Of Plymouth Plantation tried to
convey?
One of the major themes of the History of Plymouth
Plantation is, in fact, God's divine Providence. Throughout the
book, Bradford interprets every event that occurs, both good
and bad for the Pilgrims, as God's will, and connected to some
divine purpose that was usually impossible for human beings to
understand. On the voyage to Plymouth, for example, a very
profane young man, who was given to blasphemy and insulting
the
pious Pilgrims, got very sick and died. Bradford reflects that this
was surely God's way of chastening the people, reminding
them of proper behavior for a Christian:

Thus his curses light on his own head, and it was an

astonishment to all his fellows for they noted it to be the just
hand of God upon him.

Bradford believed that whatever successes the Plymouth

settlement experienced were the result of God's mercy and
Providence, which would be extended to them only as long as
they maintained their faith in God. Almost every event, good or
bad, is prefaced by the phrase "it pleased God." "It pleased
God," for example, "to visit them this year with an infectious
fever," or to "send home a great quantity of beaver." Everything
that happened to and around the Pilgrims portrayed by William
Bradford was an example of God's will. So essentially, the main
theme of the book is in fact God's providence.

Bradford's use of allusions in Of Plymouth Plantation.

William Bradford's A History of Plymouth Plantation is full of

biblical allusions. A major purpose in writing the history was to
illustrate the important role played by God in the survival and
establishment of the Pilgrims' colony at Plymouth. One example
of this is very early in the account, when Bradford describes the
landing near Cape Cod:

Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land,

they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who
had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and
delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof.

In Chapter three of Of Plymouth Plantation, Bradford makes a

biblical allusion when he compares the Puritans leaving the
Netherlands to the Israelites leaving Egypt. The Puritans are
like:

Moses and the Israelites when they went out of Egypt.

This is a reference to the Israelites being led by God out of

slavery in
Egypt in the biblical book of Exodus. Bradford is making the
point that the Puritans were not driven out of the Netherlands,
as their critics claimed, but left because God led them to go,
just as the Israelites were not "driven" out by the Egyptians but
left because they were obedient to God. However, beyond the
narrow context of the allusion, Bradford is positioning the
Puritans as in a special relationship with God and as specially
protected by God—just like the Israelites. Over and over again
in the history, Bradford will imply that the Puritans were
miraculously saved from destruction because they were faithful
to God.

One example of God's special providence to the Puritans

comes through an allusion to the Biblical book of Numbers in
chapter 2 of Book II of Bradford's work. On a mission to find
food, a party of Puritans:

like the men from Eshcol, carried with them of the fruits of the
land and showed their brethren ...

In this instance, the men have obtained corn from the Indians,
another sign of God's grace. Bradford likens this to Israelites
going to the Valley of Eschol and coming home with grapes for
the people. This corn makes the Puritan people "glad" and
gives them encouragement because they know God is
providing for them.

Throughout his book, Bradford frames the Puritan experience

through a Biblical lens as a continuation of God's leading the
faithful Israelites to the Promised Land. Now the Israelites are
the Puritans and the Promised Land is North America: this
asserts a very strong right to ownership of a land that is
palpably already occupied by native peoples.

What message Bradford tried to convey in Of Plymouth

Plantation?
William Bradford explains his purposes for writing the History of
Plymouth Plantation in Chapter 6 of the text. He begins by
saying that he recorded the information so that the
descendants of the Pilgrims will appreciate the hardships their
forefathers faced as they searched for a place to worship their
religion freely.

I have been the larger in these things, and so shall crave leave
in some
like passages following, (though in other things I shall labour to
be more contract) that their children may see with what
difficulties their fathers wrestled in going through these things in
their first beginnings...

In addition to appreciating the hardships of their ancestors,

Bradford desired the future inhabitants of Plymouth to know
that they did not persevere through these hardships by their
own strength alone; rather, God had provided the strength and
help they needed to endure every struggle. Thus he described
numerous instances in which he believed God had helped
them.

and how God brought them along notwithstanding all

their weaknesses and infirmities.

Finally, Bradford hoped his detailed record of life in Plymouth

could be an example for future people facing similar
predicaments.

As also that some use may be made hereof in after times by

others in such like weighty employments; and herewith I will
end this chapter.

How are native americans represented in William

Bradford's work?
In his description of the Pilgrims' first encounter with Native
Americans, William Bradford writes:

It is recorded in scripture as a mercy to ye apostle and his

shipwrecked company, yt the barbarians showed them no small
kindness in refreshing them, but these savage barbarians,
when they met with them (as after will appear) were readier to
fill their sides full of arrows then otherwise.

When William Bradford initially describes the Native Americans

in Of Plymouth Plantation, he speaks of them as barbaric
savages. He describes them as violent and wild, saying that,
unlike the welcoming reception provided by the natives of Malta
for the apostle Paul, the Pilgrims, when met by the "savage
barbarians" of the New World, found that they "were readier to
fill [our] sides full of arrows than otherwise." Clearly, Bradford
really does not think of them as people, as they seem more like
wild animals than men to him.
Bradford describes the Pilgrims' first encounter with the Native
Americans as an actual attack on the part of the Indians. One
of the Pilgrims came running to tell the others of the attack, and
"withal, their arrows came flying amongst [us]. [Our] men ran
with all speed to recover [our] arms, as by the good providence
of God [we] did." The colonists were victorious and fought off
the Indians, but Bradford describes their cry as "dreadful." The
whole incident only adds to the feeling that he does not think of
the natives as people—people from whom the Pilgrims had
actually taken corn and beans (though they later paid the
natives back, Bradford says)—but rather as some hellish
adversary in the frightening wilderness.

The first winter in Massachusetts was a deadly one for the

Pilgrims; they lost half their numbers to cold, disease, and
hunger. Bradford describes their "low and sick condition"
pitifully. He says that, during this time, they would sometimes
see Indians "aloof off," but whenever they tried to approach the
Indians, "they would run away." Once, the Indians even stole
their tools. However, one day, an Indian man named Samoset
came, and "he became profitable to [us] in acquainting [us] with
many things concerning the state of the country in the east
parts where he lived, which was afterwards profitable unto [us]."
Samoset introduced the Pilgrims to Squanto, whose English
was better than Samoset's, and a sort of peace treaty was
struck.

[Squanto] directed them how to set their corn, where to take

fish, and to procure other commodities, and was also their pilot
to bring them to unknown places for their profit, and never left
them till he died.

From this point on, although Bradford is not friendly in his

descriptions of the Native Americans, his word choice lacks the
same level of ignorance and biting prejudice that characterized
his earlier descriptions. Once the Indians help ensure that the
Pilgrims will not continue to die of starvation, Bradford takes a
somewhat less caustic tone with them.

Accroading to William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation

what troubles did the pilgrims face abroad the mayflower
and in Plymouth?
Bradford is disarmingly frank about the "hard and difficult
beginnings"
which the pilgrims endured. In the space of just two or three
months, he tells us, half of the original company had died, due
mainly to a combination of extreme cold and the ravages of
scurvy. The disease had originated on board the ship and was
quite common among mariners at that time. Worse still, there
was no known cure. Once the pilgrims finally set foot on dry
land, things didn't get any better. Without proper shelter, they
succumbed to the harshness of winter, many of them
undoubtedly dying due to exposure.

The pilgrims were also hampered by their inability to grow

crops on American soil. They had no experience with the kind
of conditions they now needed to deal with. Fortunately, the
local indigenous people were on hand to provide them with
advice on how to grow crops, which is somewhat ironic
considering the deep mutual antagonism that would develop
between the English settlers and Native Americans in due
course.

Bradford's history details many of the hardships the Pilgrims

endured, especially during their voyage and first winter at
Plymouth. Making their way across the Atlantic in
the Mayflower, which was a very small ship by today's
standards, they experienced terrible storms, "furious seas," and
many rounds of seasickness. When one of the main beams in
the ship "bowed and cracked," they lived in fear of even
completing their voyage. Additionally, throughout these great
difficulties, the Pilgrims had to endure the taunts and abuse of
the Mayflower's crew, sailors who showed contempt and
deliberate cruelty toward them. One of their group, John
Howland, was swept overboard during a storm; he was saved,
but the experience left him sometimes ill. Another of their
group, William Butten, died during the voyage. 

Because their passage took far longer than expected, the

Pilgrims landed during the dead of the New England winter,
their supplies mostly depleted. Bradford called this, appropriate,
"The Starving Time." The Pilgrims suffered and died,
"sometimes two or three of a day." Bradford reported that of
more than one-hundred, barely fifty survived. During the worst
of this suffering, only six or seven of the Pilgrims remained
unafflicted and worked night and day to care for the sick. 
In establishing their colony at Plymouth, the Pilgrims faced
enormous odds, as Bradford recounted:

. . . they had now no friends to welcome them nor inns to

entertain or refresh their weather-beaten bodies; no houses or
much less towns to repair to, to seek for succor . . . . what could
they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild
beasts and wild men--and what multitudes there might be of
them they knew not.

In spite of these hardships, however, the Pilgrim's endured.

With the special help of Squanto, their Native-American gide
whom they considered an agent of God, their colony survived.

What is Bradford's attitute towards Pequot Massacre?

Bradford celebrates the brutal massacre of the Pequot, which
he describes in pretty gruesome detail. It's clear from his
description of the Pequot that he regards them as nothing more
than heathen savages; somewhat less than human. In his eyes,
that gives the Plymouth settlers the—literally—God-given right
to wipe them out.

Bradford believes that the Almighty has set aside this blessed
plot of land aside for his chosen people, the Puritans, to
establish a godly kingdom on earth. That being so, it's
frighteningly easy for him to portray those who range
themselves against the Puritans—such as the Pequot—as
being agents of the Devil, instruments of satanic will.

Once an entire group of people has been dehumanized in such

a way, the next logical step is physical extermination. One only
has to look at the example of how the Nazis treated the Jews to
see this. But whereas any right-thinking person now regards
the Nazis and their racist ideology as the epitome of evil,
Bradford's hatred for Native Americans was widely held at the
time to be morally justified. As the Puritans believed they had
God on their side, then it logically followed that anyone who
was against them in any way was defying the will of God. And
in the seventeenth century, there was only one punishment for
those who defied the Almighty: death.

What were Bradford's values and attitudes in his book?

In Book I Chapter 9 of History of Plymouth Plantation, William
Bradford details the Mayflower's journey to Cape Cod. In the
chapter, he describes one "proud & very profane yonge man"
who curses excessively and complains the entire time about
the sick people on the boat, wishing to throw them all
overboard. However in a twist of fate the man contracts a
disease that quickly kills him. Ironically, he is the first to be
thrown overboard as a smite from God because of his brash
attitude. Bradford believes that "his curses light on his owne
head."

Once they have arrived in Cape Cod, the pilgrims fear the
wildlife and the people of the land. Bradford refers to the local
people as "savage barbarians" who would rather "fill their
sid[e]s full of arrows" than to greet them with shelter and food.
Chapter 9 is a great example of Bradford's attitudes toward the
native people of America: he is racist and assumes the worst of
them. There is also a theme of religion that is highlighted by
this chapter. Throughout the voyage, Bradford regularly refers
to the "will of God" as the only deciding factor on the voyage's
success, and on whether the pilgrims would live or die.

As with the rest of the text, Book I Chapter 9 outlines Bradford's

value in Christianity; leaving everything up to the "will of God"
and his racist and ignorant attitude toward the people native to
Cape Cod.

Themes of Plymouth Plantation

Aboard the Mayflower in 1620, William Bradford was
responsible for recording the tenets of the “Mayflower
Compact.” These principles would serve as the guidelines in
the soon-to-be new community of Plymouth, in what would one
day become the state of Massachusetts.

The document espoused, in part, the following:

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of

the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage
to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by
these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God,
and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together
into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation
and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to
enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws,
ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time,
as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general
good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission
and obedience.

In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at

Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our
Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland,
the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620

From 1630 until 1647, Bradford recorded the hopes and

dreams, successes and failures of the colony. Here are a few of
the themes that emerged over the seventeen years of
Bradford’s meticulous documentation.

God’s Justice:

In Book I, Chapter IX, Bradford tells the tale of two men who
made the Atlantic crossing on the Mayflower. One, he recalls,
was a “very proud and very profane young man… who would
always be contemning the poor people in their sickness, and
cursing them daily with grievous execrations.”

God was not indifferent to the young man’s abuses. “It pleased
God,” Bradford recounts, “to smithe this young man with a
grievous disease, of which he died in a desperate manner, and
was so himself the first that was thrown overboard...[The
people] noted it to be the just hand of God upon him.

God Rewards Endurance of Trials:

Bradford goes through a long discourse of the suffering the first

Puritan colonists but is careful to give thanks to God, who
smiles on his people for their faith. For example, in Book I,
Chapter X, Bradford describes an attack by the Indians, but the
men were able to recover their arms and survive the melee.
“Afterwards,” he writes, “they gave God solemn thanks and
praise for their deliverance.”

Dangers of Prosperity:
In Book XXIII, he addresses concerns about prosperity. In
Bradford’s estimation, nothing good could come from the
community becoming too materially successful. Money and
goods, he believed, would lead people away from God. Within
the boundaries of Plymouth, the people policed the morals of
one another; if geographically apart, he warned, the community
would fray: Should this happen, “the church must also be
divided, and those that had lived so long together in Christian
and comfortable fellowship must now part and suffer many
divisions.”