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The Mayflower My maternal family goes back to Governor Bradford of Plymouth. The flowing is from THIS DAY IN HISTORY sent to me by the History Channel ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 18: General Interest
1620 : Mayflower passengers come ashore at Plymouth Harbor
On December 18, 1620, passengers on the British ship Mayflower come
ashore at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, to begin their new
settlement, Plymouth Colony.
The famous Mayflower story began in 1606, when a group of
reform-minded Puritans in Nottinghamshire, England, founded their own
church, separate from the state-sanctioned Church of England. Accused
of treason, they were forced to leave the country and settle in the
more tolerant Netherlands. After 12 years of struggling to adapt and
make a decent living, the group sought financial backing from some
London merchants to set up a colony in America. On September 6, 1620,
102 passengers--dubbed Pilgrims by William Bradford, a passenger who
would become the first governor of Plymouth Colony--crowded on the
Mayflower to begin the long, hard journey to a new life in the New
World.
On November 11, 1620, the Mayflower anchored at what is now
Provincetown Harbor, Cape Cod. Before going ashore, 41 male
passengers--heads of families, single men and three male
servants--signed the famous Mayflower Compact, agreeing to submit to a
government chosen by common consent and to obey all laws made for the
good of the colony. Over the next month, several small scouting groups
were sent ashore to collect firewood and scout out a good place to
build a settlement. Around December 10, one of these groups found a
harbor they liked on the western side of Cape Cod Bay. They returned
to the Mayflower to tell the other passengers, but bad weather
prevented them reaching the harbor until December 16. Two days later,
the first group of Pilgrims went ashore.
After exploring the region, the settlers chose a cleared area
previously occupied by members of a local Native American tribe, the
Wampanoag. The tribe had abandoned the village several years earlier,
after an outbreak of European disease. That winter of 1620-21 was
brutal, as the Pilgrims struggled to build their settlement, find food
and ward off sickness. By spring, 50 of the original 102 Mayflower
passengers were dead. The remaining settlers made contact with
returning members of the Wampanoag tribe and in March they signed a
peace treaty with a tribal chief, Massasoit. Aided by the Wampanoag,
especially the English-speaking Squanto, the Pilgrims were able to
plant crops--especially corn and beans--that were vital to their
survival. The Mayflower and its crew left Plymouth to return to
England on April 5, 1621.
Over the next several decades, more and more settlers made the trek
across the Atlantic to Plymouth, which gradually grew into a
prosperous shipbuilding and fishing center. In 1691, Plymouth was
incorporated into the new Massachusetts Bay Association, ending its
history as an independent colony.
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