Essay:William Bradford the Governor

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William Bradford Papers, first governor of Plymouth Colony The beginning of right wing WASP America

A very small group of very extreme people, who believed the way you carried yourself was important What follows is from the preface of the Bradford history of Plymouth Colony

Such as it is, the book is put forth that the public may know what manner of men the Pilgrims were, through what perils and vicissitudes they passed, and how much we of today owe to their devotion and determination

. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek another country, a better country. They sought a heavenly one, wherein God was not ashamed to be called their God

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The Mayflower, and its captain/part owner Christoropher Jones, and the journey

In addition to wine and wool, with [Christopher] Jones as captain, the Mayflour had transported hats, hemp, Spanish salt, hops and vinegar to Norway. Jones may have taken the ship whaling in the North Atlantic and traveled to Mediterranean Sea ports, being then, equal part owner with Nichols, Robert Child, and Thomas Short. In 1620 Capt. Jones and Robert Child still owned their respective quarter shares in the ship, and it was from them that the entrepreneur and swindler Thomas Weston chartered her in the summer of 1620 for the Pilgrim voyage.

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The British Empire had been a dismal failure at establishing a viable colony in the Americas. Jamestrown was pretty much of a flop. Jamestown est1607 Plymouth est1620.

The British Empire did not "send" the pilgrims, they just went, as naive as they were. They sort-a did not know what they were doing,

The ship left England way to late in the year for a safe passage. The ship was over-crowded.

What was going on the head of Christopher Jones, an experienced sea captain, who likely knew the North Atlantic dangers, and about scurvy, if not it's cause? No answers here, desperate financially?.

Scurvy led to the majority of deaths among the Mayflower passengers their first 1620-1621 winter in New England when half of the 102 died. As scurvy progressed, the settlers become too weak to walk. “With scurvy, there is weakening of collagenous structures in bones, cartilage, teeth and connective tissue; swollen bleeding gums, with loss of teeth; fatigue and lethargy; rheumatic pain in legs; and degeneration of muscles and skin hemorrhaging. Old healed wounds and scars can suddenly break open, and fresh wounds and sores show no tendency to heal.” Some of the Mayflower deaths were a direct result of scurvy, “while other deaths may have resulted from an indirect effect of scurvy, with the lack of vitamin C resulting in a lower resistance and greater susceptibility to disease organisms (e.g. pneumonia).”

Suffering, God exits in only foxholes

Mayflower Compact Nov 11 1620, 41men (90% of those on board) ; consent of the governed

Hurray! The most un-cultish thing they ever did.

After their arrival 200 miles north of intended destination in Cape Cod

The comers begin to build shelter in late December at Patuxet, the western shore of the bay, half die by springtime.

Clueless of the weather on the coast of Massachusetts in December and January? Ughh! pneumococcal pneumonia dysentary tuberculosis hypothermia body lice born typhus? "God, oh God why have thou forsaken me?" "Why art thou so far from helping me?" What would you have done?

There was failure of a non pilgrim trading post 25 miles north of Plymouth - drunks and thieves, from the american Indian perspective: "Mr. Weston's colony (at the Wessagusset trading post), by their evil and debauched carriage, so exasperated the Indians among them that they (the Indians) plotted their overthrow"

Invading young feral white men get their come-up-ance

Puritan World View

They wanted a place where they would not be persecuted for believing, acting as if, the words in the bible, as they read and understood them were true

A people misled, by a book of wisdom mixed with advocated cruelty, then persecuted for their state of being misled. Should humans be ridiculed for untrue belief when they, they do not behave badly?.

Actually wanted to live good lives and be good people

Many non puritans really do also

Members have no intercessory priest

Sounds pretty good

Puritans try to live separate from a world of iniquity and corruption

CULT, you decide

Puritans do not dance because it is too much for most

More room on the dance floor at least

With these Puritans, it was pretty much their way or the doorway

There exists parse evidence, if any, that the 'comers' abused each other under William Bradford's leadership. They were utterly brutal against perceived enemies among native Americans. under the tutelage and direction of Miles Standish, who they had hired to advise them in military matters back in Denmark.

Puritan's do not like witches.

There exits a powerful portrayal by Winona Ryder as the cunning, and vengeful teenager (ie. brutalized as a child) "Abigail" in Nicholas Hyntner's film based on the Arthur Miller play "The Crucible"