This was illegal in England, so Pilgrims were persecuted (like, properly persecuted– imprisoned or executed), and to escape persecution, the Pilgrims initially fled to Leiden, Holland. The Pilgrims (of Plymouth Rock fame) were a sect of Puritans who, instead of preoccupying themselves with purifying the Church of England, separated from the church and created their own congregation to meet their pious, spiritual standards. They sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, and they believed salvation or damnation was predetermined by God, so there was nothing a person could do in life to change that outcome.

If you’re not familiar, or if your history is a little rusty, the Puritans were Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries, who followed the teaching of John Calvin. Literature thanks to The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Crucible by Arthur Miller. It is a love that stretches all the way back to 10th grade U.S. Yet, here we are, caught ‘tween decks with 102 Mayflower passengers, sailing for months across 3,000 miles of the ocean toward a land unknown to most Europeans of the time. Mann, which presents evidence that the Indigenous peoples of the Americas were more numerous and more culturally and technologically sophisticated than is taught in school. Or better yet, I should have started with 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C.

In hindsight, I probably should have chosen a book about Jamestown, but I forgot that was the first English colony until several pages into Mayflower. It’s a nonfiction novel that explores the national myth of the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock and the first Thanksgiving, the relationship between Native Americans and English colonists that degraded over time, and inevitably the deadly wars such as the Pequot War and King Philip’s War. So, I started my journey with Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick. History and read nonfiction books from an array of perspectives. Then I was, at some point, struck with the desire to take a somewhat-chronological deep dive into U.S. Like many folks, or at least like the folks in my liberal echo chamber of the internet, I spent a fair amount of 2020 in lockdown unlearning everything I was taught in U.S.

The mayflower philbrick