The First Winter
by David Gallagher
Originally published in Inside Cape Cod, January 2003
They had just completed a harrowing journey. 102 men, women, and children had braved the dangers of the sea for a new life. They were the first Europeans to form a permanent settlement in New England, and the story of their first winter is a tale of courage, perseverance, and hope.
It is story we know so well from Thanksgiving tradition. The Pilgrims fled England seeking religious freedom, and found the New World as a result. It is one of America’s first homegrown myths, and has been romanticized for centuries. The real story is much more interesting.
A TREACHEROUS CROSSING
The journey began with problems. The Pilgrims had intended to leave in July, but were delayed with legal issues and technical troubles -- they had to turn back twice when a second ship, the Speedwell, began to leak. The Mayflower -- without the Speedwell -- finally sailed from Plymouth, Devon on September 6th, 1620.
The voyage was hard on the Pilgrims. While the weather was initially good, many became seasick. Halfway through the crossing, fierce storms struck the Mayflower, cracking one of the main beams of the ship. The ship languished, continuing only after repairs could be made.
It is when the Pilgrims reach the New World that the myth starts to take shape. According to John Kemp, the Associate Director of Colonial Interpretation at Plimoth Plantation, the Pilgrim Myth was created for political reasons in the 18th Century.
“It was believed that America needed a heroic history,” States Kemp. “In some ways, the Pilgrims have become as mythical as King Arthur.”
The first facet of the Pilgrim myth is that they intended to land in Plymouth. In fact, many of the Pilgrims lived in Holland, and the group was trying to reach New Amsterdam.
On November 9th, the group finally saw land. It was the tip of Cape Cod. They turned south towards the Hudson River, but encountered treacherous shoals and breakers. Exhausted from their journey, and at order of the pilot of the Mayflower, the Pilgrims returned to Cape Cod and found refuge in what is now Provincetown Harbor.
It was a ragged group by the time they reached Cape Cod. William Bradford wrote of them:
...they had now no friends to welcome them nor inns to entertain or refresh their weather beaten bodies; no houses or much less town to repair to, to seek for succor... 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...
It was here that the Pilgrims wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact (see sidebar). While many have interpreted this famous document as the beginnings of representative government in the New World, the reality is quite different.
“The Compact did not establish democracy in America, but rather served to reassert royal authority,” explains Kemp. “In fact, the Jamestown Colony had set up a parliament in 1619, before the Pilgrims came to New England.”
It seems that the Compact was simply meant to quell rebellious feelings among the men on board the Mayflower. William Bradford wrote of is as:
...a combination made by them before they came ashore... occasioned partly by the discontented and mutinous speeches that some of the strangers amongst them had let fall... That when they came a shore they would use their own liberty; for none had power to command them...
EXPLORING THE LAND
The Pilgrims’ first priority, now that they had reached the New World, was to find a suitable location to build a town. Since they planned on planting crops and fishing the seas, they needed a safe harbor, good soil, and plenty of fresh water.
The first exploration of the area was undertaken on foot. Miles Standish and 16 men set out on November 16. After walking about a mile, the group spotted a small group of five or six Native Americans walking along the beach towards them. When the Native Americans saw them, they fled into the woods. Standish’s group later found fresh water and some corn that had been buried. They took the corn (which they later paid the Native American’s for), and returned to the Mayflower.
While the Mayflower remained in Provincetown Harbor, ten men set out in a shallop, a small boat that they had brought in pieces and assembled on the beach. These ten set out to explore the coastline, looking for a place for a permanent settlement.
The relationship with Native Americans is another facet of the Pilgrim myth, according to Kemp. Most often, the Native Americans fled from the Pilgrims.
“While the colonists were trying to be more sociable than previous Europeans, there was a level of arrogance in their actions,” states Kemp. “The Pilgrims’ own accounts tell how they ransacked the food stores and even the graves of natives. They also made the natives out to be the aggressors and the Pilgrims to be heroic defenders.”
The explorers engaged in a brief skirmish with Native Americans -- what has been called “First Encounter” -- at what is now called Nauset Beach in Eastham. They also found a few abandoned homes, but no suitable place to settle.
The shallop encountered more storms as the group continued to search. First their mast broke, then their rudder. They took shelter on a small island, and on the morning of December 11th, reached Plymouth Bay. They sounded the harbor to ensure that it was suitable for ships, and found the land dotted with cornfields that has been planted by the natives and abandoned. Several brooks supplied the area with water, and the group knew they had found their spot.
They returned to the Mayflower, and the entire party reached their new home on December 16th, 1620. Construction commenced on December 23rd.
A HARSH WINTER
While the Pilgrims struggled to build shelters on land, many continued to live aboard the Mayflower. Most were not accustomed to such harsh weather, and many grew ill from disease, cold, and malnutrition.
At its worst, there were only seven healthy people to care for all the sick. There had been four deaths during their stay at the tip of Cape Cod, and another 40 in Plymouth. By the end of the winter, nearly half of the group, Pilgrims and crew, would be dead.
There were other tragedies that befell the group. On January 14th, a fire destroyed the roof of the first structure to be completed. Fortunately none of the sick inside was injured.
Despite their unwelcoming environment, the Pilgrims persevered in building their homes. They built the town, and installed cannons on the hill overlooking the harbor. The group worked feverishly, but remained pious -- resting on the Sabbath.
Given the skirmishes encountered while they were exploring, the group was in constant fear of further attacks from the Native Americans. In fact, they could not understand why they had seen no natives in Plymouth, which had clearly been inhabited.
In February, the Pilgrims saw Native Americans at a distance, but they never approached the settlement. It wasn’t until March 16th that the two groups met. On that day, a Native American named Samoset simply walked into the village and said, quite clearly: “Welcome Englishmen.”
Samoset explained that he had learned English from English fishermen who came to New England to fish for cod. He also explained the ill will that the local Native Americans held for the English -- a group had been kidnapped by Captain Thomas Hunt years earlier and sold into slavery. He also explained how Plymouth had been abandoned since then, because a plague had wiped out all of the Native Americans that had lived there.
Later, Samoset returned to the village with Squanto, one of the Native Americans that had lived in the area, had been kidnapped by Hunt, sold into slavery, and escaped back to America. Squanto understood the ways of the Europeans, and acted as interpreter for the Pilgrims.
Some days later, Squanto returned with Massasoit, the regional leader among the Wampanoag. The two groups exchanged gifts, and agreed to a peace treaty that remained unbroken for over fifty years.
The terrible winter was nearing an end. The Pilgrims now had shelter. The Native Americans that had befriended them taught the colonists how to farm in the New England climate. They planted corn, peas, wheat, and barley.
The Mayflower left for England on April 5th, 1621. The Pilgrims remained home.
<<END>>
The Mayflower Compact:
IN THE name of God, Amen.
We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland king, defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.
In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domine 1620.
<END>
© David Gallagher 2005.
May not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without written permission of the author. For reprint inquiries, please contact the author. He won't bite.
