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Five myths about the Pilgrims
Milwuakee Journal Sentinel ^ | 11-29-13 | Robert Tracy Mckenzie

Posted on 11/29/2013 10:32:19 AM PST by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Education; History
KEYWORDS: americanhistory; myths; pilgrims; plymouthcolony; socialism; thanksgiving
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To: RatRipper
Except for a small spelling change, I bear his last name.

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

41 posted on 11/29/2013 3:00:36 PM PST by Colorado Doug (Now I know how the Indians felt to be sold out for a few beads and trinkets)
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To: Sparky1776

I doubt they let anyone touch it.


42 posted on 11/29/2013 3:14:02 PM PST by TurboZamboni (Marx smelled bad & lived with his parents most his life.)
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To: Colorado Doug

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.


43 posted on 11/29/2013 3:39:23 PM PST by RatRipper (The political left are utterly evil and corrupt)
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To: RatRipper

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


44 posted on 11/29/2013 4:23:44 PM PST by Colorado Doug (Now I know how the Indians felt to be sold out for a few beads and trinkets)
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To: Pecos

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.


45 posted on 11/29/2013 5:08:47 PM PST by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; me = independent conservative)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
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).


46 posted on 11/29/2013 5:39:57 PM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: Billthedrill

lol

dimwitted writer


47 posted on 11/29/2013 5:42:23 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: cripplecreek

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.


48 posted on 11/29/2013 5:44:32 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: Sparky1776
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.

49 posted on 11/30/2013 12:25:28 PM PST by wideawake
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To: Cvengr
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.

50 posted on 11/30/2013 12:44:00 PM PST by wideawake
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To: wideawake

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


51 posted on 11/30/2013 3:25:12 PM PST by Cvengr (Adversity in life and death is inevitable. Thru faith in Christ, stress is optional.)
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