The Plymouth Colony

When I was in elementary school, every November we had a session on the Pilgrims and their landing at Plymouth Rock. It was a prelude to the Thanksgiving holiday, which the teachers told us was started by the pilgrims to celebrate their good fortune. The fact that all agrarian cultures have a feast to celebrate the end of the harvest was never mentioned. Another thing that was rarely mentioned was the difficult time that the pilgrims had during their voyage across the Atlantic and the first year in America. Many died of disease and starvation and it would have been a simple matter for the Natives to exterminate them by simply having nothing to do with them. This book corrects many of those oversights; there is an emphasis on the good relations between the pilgrims and the Native Americans. Santella is also straightforward in describing the difficulties of the voyage and the problems of building shelter and finding food the first winter in America. Of particular interest is the mention that the Mayflower never intended to land in the Massachusetts area, their goal was to make landfall farther south in the area of New Jersey. Since King James I had only given them permission to land elsewhere, the establishment of their colony was an illegal act. There can be no true education in history without it being honest and factual. The struggles and losses of the pilgrims are accurately described, revealing a historical oddity. The hospitality and aid the Native Americans gave to the first European settlers aided in their own destruction.