They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty

460 Pages·2020·5.498 MB·English

by  John G. Turner

t h e y k n e w t h e y w e r e p i l g r i m s
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THEY KNEW
THEY WERE
PILGRIMS
Plymouth Colony and the Contest
for American Liberty
J O H N G . T U R N E R
New Haven and London
Published with assistance from the Ronald and Betty Miller Turner
Publication Fund, and from the foundation established in memory of
Amasa Stone Mather of the Class of 1907, Yale College.
Copyright © 2020 by John G. Turner.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including
illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections
107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for
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Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for
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Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019948863
ISBN 978-0-300-22550-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Notes on the Text ix
introduction 1
1. The Lord’s Free People 7
2. Leiden 27
3. Mayflower 47
4. Thanksgiving 62
5. Good News 85
6. Sacraments 105
7. The Lord of Misrule 120
8. Out of Small Beginnings 136
9. Soul Liberty 145
10. Hope 155
11. Freemen and Freedom 177
12. Salamanders 192
13. Friends 216
14. Subjection 243
15. War 270
16. Cannibals 288
vi Contents
17. Children of Life and Death 299
18. Bitter Cups 321
19. Taxation and Representation 338
conclusion 362
List of Abbreviations 367
Notes 373
Index 427
Acknowledgments
Even when a book bears a single name, scholarship is by its nature
a collaborative enterprise, building on the work of women and men
from the distant past and relying on the help of archivists, librarians,
and colleagues. Over the course of this project, many institutions
made their documents and photographs available to me. I am espe-
cially grateful to Carolle Morini of the Boston Athenæum; Jay
Moschella of the Boston Public Library; Lisa Lucassen of the Leiden
Regional Archives; Marjory O’Toole of the Little Compton Histor-
ical Society; Elaine Heavey, Anna Clutterbuck-Cook, and Daniel
Hinchen of the Massachusetts Historical Society; Mark Proknik of
the New Bedford Whaling Museum; Donna Curtin of Pilgrim Hall;
John R. Buckley of the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds; Doug-
las Mayo of the Rockefeller Library at Colonial Williamsburg; and
Danielle Kovacs of the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) Spe-
cial Collections.
Many individuals gamely read drafts or partial drafts of this
book: Sue Allan, Jim Baker, Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs, Alex Beam,
Margaret Bendroth, Charlotte Carrington-Farmer, David Hall, Mack
Holt, David Lupher, John McWilliams, Lincoln Mullen, Michael
Paulick, Paula Peters, Adrian Weimer, and Michael Winship. Other
people who provided invaluable advice and assistance include Fran-
cis Bremer, Jeff Cooper, John Craig, Jaap Jacobs, Thomas Kidd,
Merja Kytö, Andrew Lipman, Jo Loosemore, Vicki Oman, Richard
Pickering, Jenny Pulsipher, Anne Reilly, David Silverman, Baird Tip-
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viii Acknowledgments
son, and Walter Powell. Andrew C. Smith patiently worked through
many iterations of the maps with me.
One of the best parts of researching any subject is the chance
to meet knowledgeable and fascinating people, both in person and
remotely. One particular pleasure in working on this book was the
opportunity to interact with Jeremy Bangs, the director of the Lei-
den American Pilgrim Museum and the foremost expert on the Pil-
grims and the colony they founded. This project was made easier by
Jeremy’s many publications, including his transcriptions of Plym-
outh Colony records. Also, Jeremy patiently fielded queries, deci-
phered difficult handwriting, and was willing to push back against
some of my interpretive judgments. I also enjoyed a delightful tour
of Scrooby, Gainsborough, and other locations with Sue Allan, who
generously shared advice, documents, and transcriptions. Michael
Paulick likewise shared many transcriptions and documents pertain-
ing to Robert Cushman’s years in Canterbury.
The British Association of American Studies and the Eccles
Centre for American Studies provided me with a fellowship that
enabled a month’s research at the British Library and other London
repositories. I am also grateful for a grant received from George
Mason University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. The
completion of this book in time for the four-hundredth anniversary
of the Mayflower crossing was made possible by a Public Scholar
fellowship from the National Endowment of the Humanities. Any
views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this
book do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment of
the Humanities.
Two individuals supported this project at an early stage: my
agent, Giles Anderson; and my editor, Jennifer Banks. I am thankful
to both of them.
John Robinson, the Leiden pastor to the Pilgrims, once sug-
gested that “wiving and thriving” go hand in hand. He was correct.
For her patience with this project, and for our lives together, I am
grateful to my wife, Elissa, the best of wives and the best of readers.
Notes on the Text
Two partly anachronistic terms feature prominently in this
book. The Mayflower passengers and the other early English settlers
of Plymouth Colony did not understand themselves as the Pilgrims.
That label emerged around the turn of the nineteenth century. The
colonists, however, did think of themselves as “pilgrims.” For them,
as for many other Protestants, all Christians were “strangers and
pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13), a phrase that appears in the
colony’s first promotional tract. With these qualifications in mind,
for reasons of familiarity I refer to the early English settlers of Plym-
outh Colony as the Pilgrims.
Seventeenth-century sources most typically use place-specific
names such as Pokanoket, Nauset, and Patuxet for the Native com-
munities and peoples of present-day southeastern Massachusetts.
Although variations of the term Wampanoag appear in some sources,
only later did Wampanoag become the most common designation
for these communities and those on the islands to the south of Cape
Cod. Again, for reasons of familiarity, I use Wampanoag as a way to
discuss the Native communities that found themselves within Plym-
outh Colony’s patent.
For English names, as in the cases of John Myles and Myles
Standish, I have spelled names as individuals signed them (or signed
them most frequently) or as they appear most commonly in seven-
teenth-century documents. Few seventeenth-century Native men
and women left behind signatures. English records render their
names many different ways. I have selected a consistent spelling.
ix