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 ...
It's fair to say that the Pilgrims left England mainly to find religious freedom, but that wasn't the primary motive that propelled them to North America.An excellent example of the cleverness and clear thinking of those who tap their keyboards for the MSM.
The author might have been better served - and more credible - by simply pointing out that the Pilgrims and the Puritans weren't the same thing.
My Mother had ancestors on the Mayflower.
By now many also have ancestors on the Mayflower.
My ancestor arrived in VA on First Supply — before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.
I’m a twelfer (Meaning twelfth generation). ;)
Just think if the Pilgrims had to see how we live today.
The Black Friday brawls, the abandonment of their principles on faith, marriage and social structure.
He is correct.
They did leave England in search of religious freedom.
However, the first place they went was not America, but Holland.
In Holland they found freedom of religion, but not prosperity.
They left Holland and headed toward America because they hoped to find in America the freedom of religion that Holland enjoyed coupled with prosperity.
The modern view of the puritans is pretty twisted as well. They were actually comparatively free spirits. Cotton Mather was a keen scientific observer who conducted early experiments with hybridization. He also argued in favor of variolation which was an early form of vaccination and argued that disease may not be a punishment from God.
It would be more accurate to say that the Separatists were a subset of the larger Puritan movement than to say that the Separatists were not Puritans.
Yeah....we kicked them out of MA and they founded Rhode Island.
They only lived there for 11 or 12 years before they decided to leave for America.
They weren't there long enough to become culturally Dutch.
The actor playing Bradford mentioned it in the movie "Mayflower Adventure" that I saw just the other day. So, who are you going to believe - Bradford, or Hollywood?
Funny, I always thought that was the calling card of modern Leftists.
Earlier this year, I found out I am 13th generation in this country of my paternal ggg. . .great grandfather who arrived in the Jamestown/Hampton Roads area in 1616. Very cool. Except for a small spelling change, I bear his last name.
“.........and they founded Rhode Island”
Proud descendant of Roger Williams and Pilgrims John Alden (10x ggrandfather), his wife Priscilla Mullins, her parents, and Peter Browne.
“There is no hard line between Separatists (i.e. the Pilgrims) and Puritans.”
Except they separated from the Puritans, ie, they no longer considered themselves Puritans.
The Pilgrims founded the Plimouth Colony, the Puritans the Mass Bay and Salem Colonies.
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