A Book Review by Rebecca Cortright

March 2009

I chose to read the book Mayflower because I felt that I did not know much about the group of people we call the “Pilgrims”, other than the brief stories that I had heard and taught in my classroom. I found the book to be fascinating, not only because it exposes so many of the misconceptions that we have about this group of people, but also because it gives a vivid account of a period of time in American history that tends to be forgotten.

When most people think of the Pilgrims, they tend to think of them, as Philbrick writes, “(as) the Pilgrims (who) sailed to the New World in search of religious freedom: how after drawing up the Mayflower Compact, they landed at Plymouth Rock and befriended the local Wampanoags, who taught them how to plant corn and whose leader or sachem, Massasoit, helped them celebrate the First Thanksgiving.” (p.xi) Philbrick’s Pilgrims are not the stuff of wide-brimmed black hats and gold buckles whose story ended with the First Thanksgiving. Mayflower fills in the many holes that the old myths did not cover.

“In the American popular imagination, the nation’s history began with the Pilgrims and then leapfrogged more than 150 years to Lexington and Concord and the Revolution,” says Philbrick. (p. 355) Mayflower is the story of what happened from 1608, when the Pilgrims decided to leave England, to 1676, which was the end of “one of the deadliest wars ever fought on American soil” (p.xi). The history of Plymouth Colony is “rich, troubling, and complex. Instead of the story we already know, it becomes the story we need to know.”(p. xi)

The book is divided into 4 main parts. Each section of the book includes interesting details and facts that Philbrick uncovered during his research. The first, “Discovery”, tells of the first part of the Pilgrims’ journey – from England to Holland, from Holland to New England, and the expeditions that the group made in order to find the place to start the settlement. Philbrick includes details about: a possible plot by the Dutch and the master of the Speedwell to detain the Pilgrims in England because they wanted the Hudson River area for themselves; the fact that the group had approached John Smith for help, but decided not to hire him because he would be too powerful and worldly; the difficulties with navigating the Pollack Rip which caused them to abandon settling in the area that their patent named; the first encounters with Natives from whom they stole maize, and the first meeting with Squanto.

The second section, “Accommodations”, tells of some of the adaptations the Pilgrims had to make in order to survive in the New World – dealing with new arrivals from England who came to a village already strapped for food and supplies, and the constant threat of the Native American tribes who lived nearby. Philbrick writes of the agreement between Massasoit and the Pilgrims, which later causes the sachem to choose sides against his own people. There are also the fascinating stories of how Edward Winslow saves the life of Massasoit, and how Squanto possibly schemed to turn the Pilgrims against Massasoit and seize power for himself.

In “Community”, we read of the growth of New England and the fragile peace between the English and Native communities. Philbrick writes that “the Indians and English of Plymouth Colony did not live in a static idyll of mutual support. Instead it was fifty-four years of struggle and compromise – a dynamic, often harrowing process of give and take. As long as both sides recognized that they needed each other, there was peace.” (p. xiv)

In “War”, we find that the peace has been broken. “By the midpoint of the 17^th century…the attitudes of many of the Indians and English had begun to change. With only a fraction of their original homeland remaining, more and more young Pokanokets claimed it was time to rid themselves of the English. The Pilgrims’ children, on the other hand, coveted what territory the Pokanokets still possessed and were already anticipating the day when the Indians had, through the continued effects of disease and poverty, ceased to exist. Both sides had begun to envision a future that did not include the other.” (p. 347) With rumors of alliances flying, groups chose sides, and the “rebellion” that would later be called King Philip’s War began.

Philbrick notes that, “King Philip’s War lasted only 14 months, but it changed the face of New England…a third of the hundred or so towns in New England were burned and abandoned…There were approximately 70,000 in New England at the outbreak of hostilities. By the end of the war, somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 were dead with more than three-fourths of those losses suffered by the Native Americans. In terms of percentage of population killed, King Philip’s War was more than twice as bloody as the American Civil War and at least seven times more lethal than the American Revolution. Not counted in those statistics are the hundreds of Native Americans who….ended the war as slaves.” (p.xiii)

Philbrick’s historical account of the settlement of New England is captivating. The story that grew from a reference to Philip in the Nantucket Island town records (while Philbrick was researching the town’s history) has many twists and turns. Our mental picture of the simple, pious Pilgrims at the First Thanksgiving is so ingrained that it is difficult to believe that the Pilgrims in Mayflower, who do not hesitate to react with violence to get what they want, are the same Pilgrims. The account of King Philip’s War is bloody and violent, complete with severed heads, scalping, broken alliances, and the burning and looting of villages.

Philbrick has thoroughly researched his topic. His sources include works by Benjamin Church, Edward Winslow, William Bradford, and Mary Rowlandson – all primary figures in Plimouth Colony. His bibliography alone is twenty-eight pages long. In an appendix, he also includes interesting notes and further quotes for each chapter that refer the reader to other sources. (This section is fifty pages long.) It is obvious that Philbrick tries to find out as much as he can about his topic so that he can be sure that he is as close to the truth as possible. He does point out that while “in recent decades, archaeologists, anthropologist, and folklorists have significantly increased our understanding of Native American cultures of the time… most of what we know about 17^th century New England…must depend for the most part on contemporary narratives, histories, letters, documents, and poems written by English men and women.” (p.xv)

I would recommend Mayflower because it is a fascinating, vivid, truthful account of a little-known time in history. It is important to remember that there is not a huge gap in history between the First Thanksgiving and the American Revolution. The events that took place in this time helped to shape the future of the United States, and the people that lived during this time were not the perfect people that we portray them to be.