The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony: A Survival Story

Few public school students remain who remember the true story of the Pilgrimâ€™s first few years in Plymouth Colony. The historic record was at one time a valuable part of American education. Essential lessons were learned from the failure of our nationâ€™s first disastrous experiment with communism. The first settlerâ€™s failure actually birthed the implementation of free market economics in the new world.

The truth of much of Americaâ€™s history simply does not support the politically correct narrative of todayâ€™s textbook authors, so the truth has dwindled into obscurity over the many years of revision. J.R.R. Tolkien commented on how history can be lost when he wrote in â€œLord of the Ringsâ€, â€œHistory became legend. Legend became myth. [And after many years it] passed out of all knowledge.â€

Children are led to believe a myth that goes something like this: That first Thanksgiving of 1621, because the Pilgrims were incompetent farmers and hunters, they nearly starved to death in their new home. The following spring, the kindly local Indians showed them how to plant crops and hunt wild game. When the next harvest season came around, their crops were so bountiful that the Pilgrims held a celebration to thank the Indians for saving their lives. Aside from being factually inaccurate, this narrative leaves out some important information essential to understanding principles of liberty.

Plymouth Colony, founded in 1620, was governed by a pre-determined social contract. The original charter, mandated by the investors who financed the Pilgrimâ€™s endeavor, called for a system of communal property and labor. Much like today, this system was the popular prevailing political theory at the time in Europe and Britain.

In a Forbes 2012 article, Jerry Bowyer writes, â€œThe charter of the Plymouth Colony reflected the most...

The only situations were socialism in one form or another has any semblance of working is the Israeli kibbutzes, but even here, as an early Israeli settler described life on a kibbutz, "We're socialists, but by CHOICE. Also, unlike a socialist dictatorship, if one decides that lifestyle isn't for them they can leave. In a way, co-op apartments could be construed as a form of socialism. A governing board who makes the rules and regulations concerning the use of the grounds and to an extent each families apartments, or units. Oftentimes these boards overstep their authority, triggering lawsuits, but in a typical dictatorship no such recourse is available. Ironically some of the nastiest housing discrimination suits in NYC were filed against these type of boards.

The following essay was published in the 1980's as part of a series by the editors and publishers of Our Ageless Constitution, a Bicentennial Volume (1987), and is reprinted here in response to the current thread.

The Miracle of America
from
axes and hoes to high technology;
log cabins to air-conditioned condos;
horsedrawn wagons to autos, planes, and rockets;
scarcity to abundance; &
from tyrannical government rule to individual liberty
HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN?

Most of our history books don't tell us that, in the beginning, the pilgrims established a communal economic system. Each was to produce according to his ability and contribute his production to a common storehouse from which each was to draw according to his need.
The assurance that they would be fed from the common store, regardless of their contribution to it, had a peculiarly disabling effect on the colonists. Taking property away from some and giving it to others bred discontent and retarded employment. Human nature was the same then as now, and before long, there were more consumers than there were producers, and the pilgrims were near starvation. Governor Bradford, his advisors, and the colonists agreed that in order to increase their crops, each family would be allowed to do as it pleased with whatever it produced. In other words, a free market system was established. In Governor Bradford's own words:
"This had very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corne was planted than other waise would have bene by any means ye Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deall of trouble, and gave farr better contente. The women now wente willingly into ye field, and tooke their little-ons with them to set corne, which before would aledg weaknes, and inabilitie; whom to have compelled would have bene though great tiranie and oppression. . . . By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them plenty, and the face of things was changed. . . . and some of ye abler sort and more industrious had to spare, and sell to others, so as any generall wante or famine hath not been amongst them since this day . . . ." (Wm. Bradford, "Of Plimoth Plantation," original manuscript, Wright & Potter, Boston, 1901)
Those who, today, favor central government planning, common ownership and redistribution of the earnings of others are advocating a system that Americans tried and rejected over 350 years ago. Their wisdom gave birth to the great American miracle!

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