Five myths about the Pilgrims

Milwuakee Journal Sentinel ^ | 11-29-13 | Robert Tracy Mckenzie

[afraidfortherepublic]

When it comes to historical memory, the old saying that you can't choose your relatives is just plain wrong. Americans have chosen the Pilgrims as honorary ancestors, and we tend to see their story as inseparable from the story of our nation, "land of the Pilgrims' pride." We imagine these honorary founders as model immigrants, pacifists and pioneers in the democratic experiment. We have burdened them with values they wouldn't have recognized and shrouded their story with myth.

The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

If you visit Plymouth today, you'll find a distinctive rock about the size of your living-room sofa embedded in the sandy beach, sheltered by a classical Greek portico and labeled with a sign erected by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts proclaiming, "Plymouth Rock: Landing Place of the Pilgrims." It's not hard to picture simple English folk huddled on that rock, envisioning through eyes of faith the great nation that would spring from their humble beginning.

Except that's probably not what happened.

We "know" the location of the Pilgrims' landing because in 1741 —121 years after they arrived — a young boy overheard 95-year-old Thomas Faunce relate that his father, who came to Plymouth three years after the Mayflower, told him that he'd heard from unnamed people that the landing occurred there.

Curiously, William Bradford never mentioned Plymouth Rock in his history, "Of Plymouth Plantation," and if the expedition landed there, he seems not to have noticed.

The Pilgrims came to America in search of religious freedom.

[Colorado Doug]

Except for a small spelling change, I bear his last name.

So he didn't spell it " R i p p e r ? "

[TurboZamboni]

I doubt they let anyone touch it.

[RatRipper]

My paternal last name does hail from England, but, to my knowledge, I am not any relation to Jack (the)Ripper. LOL. My surname is Weathersby, but it was Weathersbee when we got off the boat.

[Colorado Doug]

Well, it doesn’t get more english than Weathersby! and here I thought Rat Ripper was your real name. ;)

[Jack Hydrazine]

Well, they did set up Plymouth Plantation as a collectivized agricultural settlement in the beginning causing much misery, starvation, and the like.

But they learned fast and William Bradford put them on the fast track to private property and free enterprise capitalism.

[familyop]

The author of the piece is misinformed or dishonest. There were meetings in Holland that included other Protestants--not only Puritans. Protestant families of Europe, after fighting many battles against kingdoms and their religious edicts, went to America for religious freedom and other freedoms. See the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Also, to get to the heart of the recent attempts at revisionism from a few with more European inclinations (not all, as most are and have been great Americans),...

From the first federal census of 1790, Catholics comprised only about 6/10ths of a percent (0.6%) of the population of the thirteen original colonies (about 25,000 out of 3,939,000).

The number, 25,000 (Catholics), is from John Carroll (bishop), 1785.
First federal census:
http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/1790.html
"The six inquiries in 1790 called for the name of the head of the family and the number of persons in each household..." (Census Bureau).

[GeronL]

lol

dimwitted writer

[GeronL]

Plymouth Colony had more freedom and more liberty for women than London did.

Yes, you heard me right.

Women were more liberated in Plymouth Colony at the time than women in London were.

[wideawake]

Your repeated joke is even more devilishly clever the second time, but it does not change the irrefutable historical fact that the Brownist Separatists who became the Plymouth Colony Pilgrims were simply one part of a larger Puritan movement.

If they were not part of the Puritan movement, then you would be able to explain what distinguished them. But you apparently cannot.

[wideawake]

Bloody Mary killed off as many heretics in 5 years in the early 1500s as Queen Elizabeth’s Church of England over about the next 30 years.

Not actually true.

Puritan, ...to free all religious worship from Roman Ritual was hardly dire.

Puritanism was about more than liturgical radicalism, it was about changing church polity, moral priorities and also economic priorities.

And, of course, you cannot rid your worship of the Mass unless you also rid it of the Scriptures and of preaching. The Puritans were unsuccessful in reaching that level of radicalism, but the Quakers were.

reported the American Puritans consumed more alcohol than modern day Americans per capita.

I'm sure they did. Ale was generally much more sanitary than water, and whisky is a much more efficient way of storing harvest value than granaries.

One thing I notice about generic Evangelicalism is that its adherents like to project their values and attitudes backward onto those they consider their historical forbears.

Evangelicalism and teetotalism did not really become linked until the late 1800s - so from that point on Evangelical teetotalers naturally made the Pilgrims out to be just like themselves in this regard.

The Pilgrims did not spend much time worrying about Demon Rum.

[Cvengr]

What numbers do you use when comparing Bloody Mary with QEI.