Thanksgiving and the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower's arrival

A happy Thanksgiving 2020 to all and sundry. Ours was immediate family only, with one away at school; our nearest extended family were elsewhere today, and many more of our extended family are of advanced age. So four of us did all the cooking, eating, and cleaning. We intended to have lunch at 2, but everything was finally ready at 4.

My wife did an excellent job on the turkey, using a Nesco roaster and some herbs from her garden. My daughter made a treat that is a tradition from early-Thanksgiving gatherings at my aunt's house: peanut butter between Ritz crackers, dipped in chocolate or vanilla almond bark. Habit forming. For sides we made sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry fluff. The Mediterranean watermelon salad included a watermelon we grew (planted late and harvested in late October). I made the giblet gravy, which turned out nicely even though I got carried away adding flour; additional pan juice from the turkey saved the day.

Not everything was from scratch: We had jellied cranberry sauce (shaped like the can) and Stove Top stuffing. In memory of my mother, we had bread but forgot to put it in the oven. There was a Tippins pumpkin pie, but we were all too stuffed to eat it.

In this month of the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower's arrival in Cape Cod Bay, it's a good time to re-read (or read for the first time) the account of William Bradford, long-time governor of Plymouth Colony. At lunch today, I read the 9th chapter, which recounts the two-month voyage from Plymouth, Devonshire, to the New World. Here is the conclusion of that chapter. I have modernized the spelling and punctuation for readability:

Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element. And no marvel if they were thus joyful, seeing wise Seneca was so affected with sailing a few miles on the coast of his own Italy; as he affirmed that he had rather remain twenty years on his way by land, then pass by sea to any place in a short time, so tedious and dreadful was the same unto him.

But here I cannot but stay and make a pause and stand half amazed at this poor people's present condition, and so I think will the reader too, when he well considers the same. Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as may be remembered by that which went before), they had now no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain or refresh their weatherbeaten bodies, no houses or much less towns to repair to, to seek for succour. It is recorded in scripture, as a mercy to the apostle and his shipwrecked company, that the barbarians showed them no small kindness in refreshing them, but these savage barbarians, when they met with them (as after will appear) were readier to fill their sides full of arrows then otherwise.

And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search an unknown coast. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men? And what multitudes there might be of them they knew not. Neither could they, as it were, go up to the top of Pisgah, to view from this wilderness a more goodly country to feed their hopes, for which way so ever they turned their eyes (save upward to the heavens) they could have little solace or content in respect of any outward objects. For summer being done, all things stand upon them with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hue.

If they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar and gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of the world. If it be said they had a ship to succour them, it is true, but what heard they daily from the master and company, but that with speed they should look out a place with their shallop, where they would be at some near distance, for the season was such as he would not stir from thence till a safe harbor was discovered by them where they would be, and he might go without danger, and that victuals consumed apace, but he must and would keep sufficient for themselves and their return. Yea, it was muttered by some, that if they got not a place in time, they would turn them and their goods ashore and leave them.

Let it also be considered what weak hopes of supply and succour they left behind them, that might bear up their minds in this sad condition and trials they were under, and they could not but be very small. It is true, indeed, the affections and love of their brethren at Leyden was cordial and entire towards them, but they had little power to help them, or themselves, and how the case stood between them and the merchants at their coming away, hath already been declared.

What could now sustain them but the spirit of God and his grace? May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean and were ready to perish in this wilderness, but they cried unto the Lord, and he heard their voice, and looked on their adversity, etc. Let them therefore praise the Lord, because he is good, and his mercies endure for ever. Yea, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, show how he hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord his loving-kindness and his wonderful works before the sons of men.

Bradford's ninth chapter covers the sea voyage; the first eight chapters recount the reasons that the community we now know as the Pilgrims wanted to leave England, their decision to become exiles in the religiously tolerant Netherlands, the misadventures of their illegal attempts to escape England, the economic hardships and theological divisions they experienced in Holland, the alienation of their children by Dutch culture, the decision to settle in the New World, the manipulations of their Merchant Adventurer investors, and the two abortive attempts to start for America before abandoning the leaky Speedwell in Plymouth, England.

Chapter 10, the final chapter of Bradford's first book, tells of the expeditions from the Mayflower in search of a harbor and a place to build a settlement. It wasn't until December 8, nearly a month after reaching Cape Cod, that they found Plymouth Harbor. On December 16, the Mayflower entered Plymouth Harbor, and on December 25 they began to construct the common house, but the passengers continued to live on the Mayflower during that winter while homes were being built.

Bradford's second book goes year by year, filling in a few details from the journey (including the Mayflower Compact) and continuing the story with the first fatal winter that killed half of the passengers and crew and the appearance of a native, Samoset, speaking broken English, in March, followed by Squanto, who had lived in London and spoke fluent English. The account for 1621 includes the first marriage, which was conducted by the civil magistrate in accordance with the custom of the Low Countries, and the Pilgrims various encounters with neighboring native communities.

After dinner our family watched an interesting hour-long video from Ian Cooper of Worldwide Christian Travel which surveys the history of the Pilgrim community over the entire 17th century, from the Puritan disillusionment with newly crowned King James of England, through the sojourn in Holland, the Mayflower voyage, the establishment of Plymouth Colony, and the conflict between settlers and natives known as King Philip's War. The video is not lavishly produced, but we all learned new and surprising facts, and it contains enough specifics to serve as a foundation for further study.

The account of the first Thanksgiving feast comes from a December 1621 letter from Edward Winslow to a friend back in England, part of a larger account published as Mourt's Relation:

You shall understand, that in this little time, that a few of us have been here, we have built seven dwelling-houses, and four for the use of the plantation, and have made preparation for divers others. We set the last spring some twenty acres of Indian corn, and sowed some six acres of barley and peas, and according to the manner of the Indians, we manured our ground with herrings or rather shads, which we have in great abundance, and take with great ease at our doors. Our corn did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown, they came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom.

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after have a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the company almost a week, at which time amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

Caleb Johnson, who produced the above transcription into modern spelling, has a large collection of primary source texts on his Mayflower History website. His blog recounts a 2017 journey to Pilgrim-associated sites in England, and he has just published a complete transcription of William Bradford's manuscript, which includes a great deal of material beyond Bradford's narrative of Plymouth. Johnson has also begun producing documentaries tracing the histories of individual Mayflower passengers, beginning with George Soule.