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Why the Pilgrims Still Matter

A conversation with Mayflower author Nathaniel Philbrick

by Ian Aldrich

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Why We Should Care About the Pilgrims

The Pilgrims were America's first illegal immigrants. Their patent did not apply that far north, and yet they said, "We're going to go our way and the heck with you guys." We think of them as always having been here, but it's interesting to see them when everything was new and strange.

The fact that 10 percent of the American population [roughly 35 million people] are Mayflower descendants does mean it's not an exclusive club. But it also means we're living the legacy every day. There's a very significant population that would not be here if the Mayflower hadn't come over.

What the Pilgrims Can Teach Us About the World Today

Here are two very different groups of people -- English and Indian -- yet for 50 years they made it work. It wasn't easy; they didn't necessarily understand each other or like each other, but they worked at it because the alternative was a war that could des-troy everything. And, boy, the world is a lot like that now, with different nations and faiths and ethnic groups that are operating through a lot of shared ignorance. Yet if we give up on this really frustrating and difficult work of making it work, the alternatives are really horrendous.

I got this sense of sadness in doing this book and in seeing the kinds of things we're dealing with now that have been going for a long time. But when you're in the moment -- for example, those in the middle of King Philip's War -- it's terrifying and you're not thinking clearly and it's easy to let your fear and anger take over. It's also easy in hindsight to say, "Why were they doing this?" Yet, when all of us are gripped with something approaching that kind of terror, we're prone to the same emotions. It gives me sympathy for every time that's been lived and a sense of caution when it comes to beating up people in the past for what they did. We're all prone to it. None of us are any better. Hopefully we learn.

The War We've Forgotten

I had always thought of the Pilgrims as this boring story with these comical guys with buckles on their shoes. But so much of what will be a recurrent part of American history unfolds in this 56-year period, from when the Pilgrims arrive through King Philip's War. Like slavery. I didn't see that coming. And yet, it's an important part of the story. There's the African American history, but the process of enslaving natives and shipping them out is not something a lot of Americans think about.

What we learn in elementary school is just a wonderful story for kids. Then the next event in American history is the Revolution, 155 years later, which is a war for liberty. The darkness is saved for the 19th century, with the winning of the West. That's the Indian story. So, if that's your blueprint for American history, King Philip's War doesn't fit. It messes with your sense of that inspirational beginning by undercutting this idealistic view of the Revolution.

How we view this period was set by the greatest spin doctor on earth -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with "The Courtship of Miles Standish." It's powerful -- the beginning we all wish we had.

For me, King Philip's War is the great what-if? What if there hadn't been a war of annihilation with the native peoples of New England 100 years before the Revolution? Would there have been a different attitude, at least in New England, when it came to the Revolution?

On Writing Maritime History

The book changed how I view my home. You drive Route 128 or 495 [in Massachusetts] and there's Medfield, site of one of the bloodiest battles. Or you have Taunton. I had been there but ne ver saw it as anything but a town that was not in its best years. But the whole Taunton River -- that was a revelation, to see how the rivers provided a real highway through the country.

These kinds of books are not easy to write because you have to go into somebody else's voice, figure out what happened, and then recast it for a modern audience. It's easy to quote from something and just dump it in there and say that's what happened. The harder thing is to try and internalize that and yet be truthful. Some of the language of that time is wonderfully evocative and needs to be part of the story, but it's finding that line between keeping the voice of the book while keeping an authentic resonance with the voices of the past.

I relate to the past through the people. I don't think anyone can truly begin to understand the past unless there's an emotional connection to what happened and the people who lived through it. One reason we love survival tales is because we all say, "What would I have done?" I know I was asking, What would I have done that first winter? And I don't know. I do know that when I'm hit with a cold, it really nails me, so I probably wouldn't have made it past January.

A Pilgrim Primer

English Separatists, a wing of the new Puritan movement, had fled oppression at home and found refuge in the Netherlands around 1607. In 1620, part of the congregation decided to build a new life in the New World. Their pastor, John Robinson, stayed behind and did not live to join his flock in America.

The Mayflower carried 102 passengers, 20 to 30 crew members, and two dogs. Approximately half of the passengers were Separatists (Pilgrims, or "Saints"), and half were "Strangers" (non-Separatist settlers recruited by the voyage's backers).

Two babies were born before the Mayflower reached Plymouth: Oceanus Hopkins (at sea) and Peregrine White (at anchor in Provincetown Harbor).

The Mayflower's destination was the mouth of the Hudson River, but poor weather and unfavorable winds made a Cape Cod landing more expedient.

The Mayflower was 65 days at sea before the crew sighted land.

Between November 1620 and March 1621, 52 passengers perished of disease, starvation, and exhaustion.

America's Bloodiest War

In 1600, southern New England was home to approximately 90,000 Indians. Approximately 12,000 were Pokanokets, a tribe living at the head of Narragansett Bay.

From 1616 to 1619, bubonic plague, introduced by European fishermen in Maine, killed up to 90 percent of the Indians in some areas along the New England coastline.

Massasoit, sachem (leader) of the Pokanokets, was succeeded by two of his sons: Wamsutta, who changed his name to Alexander, and Metacom, whose English name was Philip. Thirteen years after becoming sachem, Philip initiated a regionwide attack by several tribes on English settlements in southern New England and coastal Maine. Called King Philip's War, it lasted 14 months, from June 1675 through August 1676.

Before King Philip's War, the overall population of southern New England was approximately 70,000: 50,000 English settlers and 20,000 Indians. By the end of the war, 5,000 to 6,000 people were dead.

Some 800 English men, women, and children perished in King Philip's War; Plymouth Colony alone lost 8 percent of its adult male population in 14 months. (By comparison, adult male casualties were 4 to 5 percent during the four years of the Civil War.)

Among the Indians, 2,000 died of battle wounds, 3,000 died of disease or starvation, 1,000 were sold into slavery (500 from Plymouth alone), and 2,000 fled west or north.

By the end of the war, one-third of New England's approximately 100 English towns had been burned and abandoned.

Source: Mayflower (Viking, $29.95), by Nathaniel Philbrick