Plymouth Colony

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Plymouth Colony was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 until 1691. At its height, the colony occupied most of the southeastern portion of the modern state of Massachusetts.

Founded by a group of Separatists known as the Pilgrims, the colony was, along with Jamestown, Virginia, one of the earliest significant colonies to be founded by the English in North America, and the first sizable permanent English settlement in the region known as New England. With the aid of an Indian named Squanto, the colony established a treaty with Massasoit, the local supreme chief, that helped insure the colony's success. The colony played a central role in King Phillip's War, one of the earliest and most bloody of the Indian Wars. The colony missed most of the population growth that occurred in the rest of New England during a period known as Great Migration, and it was quickly overshadowed by its neighbors of Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The colony was ultimately absorbed by Massachusetts in 1692.

Many of the people and events surrounding the colony and its history have become part of a greater American mythology. Many American traditions and myths, from the first Thanksgiving to Plymouth Rock, are closely tied to the colony, and despite its short history, it has become a profound influence on American culture.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Origins 1.2 Mayflower voyage 1.3 Landings at Provincetown and Plymouth 1.4 First winter 1.5 Early relations with the Indians 1.6 The "First Thanksgiving" 1.7 Growth of Plymouth 1.8 Military History 1.8.1 Pequot War 1.8.2 King Philip's War 1.9 The last years 2 Government 2.1 Official Seal 3 Geography 3.1 Boundaries of Plymouth Colony 3.2 Counties and towns 4 People 4.1 English 4.2 Indians 5 Legacy 5.1 Art, literature and film 5.2 Thanksgiving 5.3 Plymouth Rock 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Origins

See also: Pilgrims

The colony was founded by a group of people commonly known as the "Pilgrims", of which about 40% of the adults (and 56% of the family groupings) were English religious Separatists.^[1] The core group was a congregation of Separatists from the town of Scrooby in Nottinghamshire, England. Leaders of this church included pastor John Robinson, church elder William Brewster and a young William Bradford, later governor of Plymouth Colony. After the Hampton Court Conference, when King James I declared Puritans and Separatists to be undesirables, the congregation began to feel the pressures of religious persecution. After the Bishop of York raided and imprisoned several members of the church in 1607, they left England and settled in Leiden, The Netherlands.^[2]

In Leiden, the congregation found the freedom to worship as they chose, but they adapted poorly to life in the Netherlands. Scrooby had been an agricultural community, whereas Leiden was a thriving industrial center. The pace of life in Leiden was harsh on the Pilgrims. Additionally, though the community remained close-knit, the children of the congregation, some of whom had no memories of England, began adopting Dutch customs and language. Despite being in a foreign country, they were not free from the persecutions of the English Crown. When William Brewster published highly critical commentaries against the English King and the Anglican Church in 1618, English authorities came to Leiden to arrest him. Though he escaped arrest by going into hiding, the event sparked the need to move the congregation even farther from England.^[3]

The Pilgrims obtained a land patent from the London Virginia Company in June, 1619 to settle at the mouth of the Hudson River. To finance their expedition, they looked to a group known as the Merchant Adventurers, a group of Puritan businessmen who looked to colonization as a means of both spreading their religion and making a profit. Upon arrival in America, the Pilgrims would then work off their debt. Due to hardships experienced during the early years of the settlement, as well as corruption and mismanagement by their representatives, the debt was not actually paid off until 1648^[4]

Using the financing secured from the Merchant Adventurers, the Pilgrims provisioned themselves and obtained passage on two ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell. Though they had intended to leave in the spring of 1620, difficulties in dealing with the Merchant Adventurers, including several changes in plans for the voyage and in financing, resulted in a delay of several months. The Pilgrims finally boarded the Speedwell in July, 1620 from the Dutch port of Delfshaven.^[5]

[edit] Mayflower voyage

See also: List of passengers on the Mayflower

The Mayflower arrived in Southampton, England to rendezvous with the Speedwell and to pick up supplies and additional passengers. Among the passengers to join the group in Southampton were several Pilgrims including William Brewster, who had been in hiding for the better part of a year, and a group of passengers known to the Pilgrims as "The Strangers". These were largely made up of passengers recruited by the Merchant Adventurers to provide governance for the colony, as well as additional hands to work in the colony's ventures. Among the Strangers were Miles Standish, who would be the colony's military leader, Christopher Martin, who had been designated by the Merchant Adventurers as Governor for the duration of the trans-Atlantic trip, and Stephen Hopkins, a veteran of a failed colonial venture to Bermuda that had been the inspiration for William Shakespeare's The Tempest.^[6]

The departure of the Mayflower and Speedwell for America was beset by delays. Further disagreements with the Merchant Adventurers held them up in Southampton. When they departed Southampton, the Speedwell experienced massive leaks, which required the ships to put in at Dartmouth on August 17. After repairs were completed and another delay waiting for favorable winds, the two ships made it 200 miles beyond Land's End before another major leak in the Speedwell forced the expedition to return again to England, this time to the port of Plymouth. The "Speedwell" was determined to be unseaworthy, and some passengers abandoned their attempt to emigrate, while others joined the original "Mayflower" passengers, crowding the already heavily burdened ship. It was later speculated that the master of the Speedwell had intentionally sabotaged his ship to avoid having to make the treacherous trans-Atlantic voyage. After the departure of the Mayflower, the Speedwell continued, in the words of William Bradford, to "[make] many voyages...to the great profit of her owners."^[7][8]

The Mayflower, carrying 102 settlers, left Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620, without her sister ship the Speedwell, and sailed for the New World with a land patent in the Virginia Colony, specifically to settle at the mouth of the Hudson River. The voyage took almost two months, as it was delayed by having to fight against strong westerly winds and the Gulf Stream. Land was sighted on November 9 off the coast of Cape Cod. The Mayflower made an attempt to sail south to the designated landing site at the mouth of the Hudson, but ran into trouble in the region of Pollack Rip, a shallow area of shoals between Cape Cod and Nantucket Island. With winter approaching and provisions running dangerously low, the passengers decided to return north and abandon their original landing plans.^[9]

[edit] Landings at Provincetown and Plymouth

They anchored at Provincetown Harbor on November 11, 1620. Having landed without a patent for that area, some settlers wanted to abandon their obligations. Therefore, the first governing document of the colony, the Mayflower Compact, was drafted and ratified by the group of colonists aboard the ship, as it lay off-shore upon arrival. They remained onboard the ship through the next day, a Sunday, for prayer and worship. The immigrants finally set foot on land at Provincetown on November 13. The first task was to rebuild a "shallop", a shallow draft boat brought along to remain for the Pilgrims' use after the Mayflower would return to England. On November 15, Captain Miles Standish led a party of sixteen men on an exploratory mission. While exploring the area, the party robbed some Indian graves and located a buried cache of Indian corn. The shallop was finished on November 27, and a second expedition was undertaken using it, under the direction of Mayflower master Christopher Jones, who was eager to see the Pilgrims settled so that he could return to England. Thirty-four men were taken this time, and the expedition was beset by bad weather. The only positive result was that they found the previously discovered cache of corn and raided it to provide for the colony. A third expedition along Cape Cod left on December 6; it resulted in a skirmish with local Indians in an event known as the "First Encounter" in the region of modern Eastham, Massachusetts. Having failed to secure a proper site for their settlement, and fearing that they had angered the local Indians by robbing their corn stores and firing upon them, the Mayflower left Provinctown Harbor bound for Plymouth Harbor.^[10]

They made anchor in the Plymouth Harbor on December 17, and spent three days surveying for a settlement site. They rejected a site on Clark's Island, as well as one near the mouth of the Jones River in favor of the site of a recently abandoned Indian settlement named Patuxet. The area had been explored in 1605 by Samuel Champlain, who reported a thriving village at the site. However, smallpox and other diseases brought by English fisherman to the area had completely wiped out the population in the intervening 15 years. Plymouth Rock is celebrated as the point where the colonists first set foot on their permanent settlement, though there are no contemporary accounts to verify the accuracy of the legend. The location was chosen largely for its defensibility. The settlement would be centered on two hills: Cole's Hill, where the village would be built, and Fort Hill, where defensive cannon would be stationed.^[11]

[edit] First winter

The first landing party arrived at the site of what would become the settlement of Plymouth on December 21, 1620 with plans to begin building houses. However, weather proved so stormy that actual construction could not begin until December 23. During the building phase, twenty men remained ashore for security purposes, while the rest of the work crews returned to the Mayflower each night. Women, children, and the infirm remained on the Mayflower, many had not left the ship since it departed Delfshaven over six months prior. The first structure completed took two weeks in the harsh New England winter, it was a "common house" of wattle and daub construction. In the coming weeks, the rest of the settlement slowly took shape. The living and working structures were built on the relatively flat top of Cole's Hill and a wooden platform was constructed to support the cannon that would defend the settlement from the nearby Fort Hill. As many of the able-bodied men began to die off, or became too infirm to work, only seven residences (of a planned nineteen) and four common houses were ultimately constructed.^[12]

By the end of January, enough of the settlement had been built to begin unloading supplies and provisions from the Mayflower. In mid-February, after several tense encounters with local Indians, the male residents of the settlement were organized into military orders, with Miles Standish designated as the commanding officer. By the end of the month, the five cannon that the Pilgrims intended to use for defense had been positioned on Fort Hill.^[13]

On March 16, the first formal contact with the Indians occurred. An Indian named Samoset, originally from Pemaquid Point in modern Maine, walked boldly into the midst of the settlement and proclaimed "Welcome, Englishmen!" He had learned some English from fishermen who worked off the coast of Maine, and gave them a brief introduction to the region's history and geography. It was during this meeting that the Pilgrims that the previous residents of the Indian village (Patuxet) upon which Plymouth had been built had all died of a disease, presumed to be smallpox. They also learned that the supreme leader of the region was a Pokanoket Indian sachem (chief) by the name of Massasoit, and that in residence with Massasoit was an Indian named Squanto, who had been originally from Patuxet, but who had also spent time in Europe and spoke English quite well. Samoset spent the night in Plymouth, and left for Pokanoket to arrange a meeting with some of Massasoit's men.^[14]

Massasoit and Squanto were understandably apprehensive about the Pilgrims. Massasoit's first contact with the English had been when several of his men had been killed in an unprovoked attack by English sailors. He also knew of the Pilgrims' theft of the corn stores and grave goods that had occurred on Cape Cod when they arrived. Squanto had been abducted in 1614 by the English explorer Thomas Hunt and spent the better part of five years being toured around Europe as a curiosity. He had only recently been returned to his homeland, and then only because Massasoit and his men had massacred the crew of the English ship Squanto had been acting as a guide for.^[15]

Samoset returned to Plymouth on March 22, with a delegation from Massasoit that included Squanto. Massasoit himself joined them shortly thereafter. After an exchange of gifts, Governor John Carver, who had been elected to replace Governor Martin once the expedition established their settlement, and Massasoit established a formal treaty of peace that among other things, ensured that each people would not bring harm to the other, that Massasoit would send his allies to make peaceful negotiations with Plymouth as well, and established that they would come to each other's aid in a time of war.^[16]

On April 5, 1621, after being anchored for almost four months in Plymouth Harbour, the Mayflower set sail for England. It would arrive back in England and work as a merchant vessel for another year or so, before falling into disuse and being sold for scrap in 1624.^[17]

The first winter had been especially harsh on the Pilgrims. According to William Bradford, "Of these one hundred persons who came over in this first ship together, the greatest half died in the general mortality, and most of them in two or three months' time". Of the 102 original settlers, two returned with the Mayflower, one, Oceanus Hopkins, had been born at sea, and one, James Chilton, had died aboard the Mayflower as it sailed between Provincetown and Plymouth. 51 of the remaining 100 settlers perished during the first winter.^[18]

[edit] Early relations with the Indians

After the departure of Massasoit and his men, Squanto would remain in Plymouth colony to teach the Pilgrims how to survive in New England. Among his lessons were the use of dead fish to fertilize the poor soil in order that corn may grow. Shortly after the departure of the Mayflower, Governor Carver complained of a headache, he soon lapsed into a coma and died suddenly. William Bradford was elected Governor in his place, and he would go on to lead the colony through much of its formative years.^[19]

Edward Winslow and Susanna White, each of who lost their spouses during the harsh winter of 1620-1621, became the first couple to be married in Plymouth. Adopting a custom from their time in Leiden, the Pilgrims decided that marriage would be a civil ceremony and not a religious one, and so Governor Bradford presided over the union.^[20]

Throughout the summer, as promised by Massasoit, numerous Indians arrived at Plymouth with pledges of peace. On July 2, a party of Pilgrims, led by Edward Winslow, (who would himself become the equivalent of the chief diplomat of the colony) set out for Pokanoket to further negotiate with their Indian friend. The delegation included Squanto, who would act as a translator. After several days travel, they arrived at the Massasoit's capital, the village of Sowams near Narragansett Bay. After meals and an exchange of gifts, Massasoit agreed to an exclusive trading pact with the English, and thus the French, who were also frequent traders in the area, were no longer welcome. As well, it was decided that Squanto would remain in Pokanokets, and travel the area to establish trading relations.^[21]

In late July, a boy by the name of John Billington became lost in the woods and went missing for some time. He was later found to be among the Nauset, the same group of Indians on Cape Cod that the Pilgrams had stolen corn seed from the prior autumn upon their first explorations. A party was organized to return the Billington to Plymouth. After negotiating with the Nauset sachem Aspinet, it was determined that the Pilgrims would reimburse the tribe for the stolen goods, and the Billington boy would be returned to them. This equitable trade would do much to secure further peace with the Indians in the area.^[22]

During their negotiations with the Nausets over the release of John Billington, the Pilgrims learned of troubles that Massasoit was experiencing. Massasoit had been temporarily captured by the Narragansett Indians. During his capture, one of the lesser Sachems of the Pokanoket, a man by the name of Corbitant from the village of Mattapoisett was using the opportunity to usurp Massasoits position as supreme sachem. Squanto, who had recently returned from his trade missions, was sent with another Indian to investigate. Shortly after leaving, the Pilgrims received word that Squanto had been captured by Corbitant and was feared dead.^[23]

A party of ten men, under the leadership of Miles Standish, and guided by an Indian named Hobbamock, who had brought news of Squanto's capture, set out to seek out and execute Corbitant as a traitor. Upon arriving in the village of Nemasket, where Squanto had been captured, where they learned that Squanto had survived his ordeal, but also that Corbitant had fled for his home village of Mattapoisett. Several Indians had been injured in the raid and were offered medical attention in Plymouth. They were treated for their wounds and returned to their village. Though they had failed to capture Corbitant, the show of force by Standish had gained much respect for the Pilgrims, and as a result nine of the most powerful sachems in the area, including Massasoit and Corbitant, signed a treaty in September that pledged their loyalty to King James.^[24]

[edit] The "First Thanksgiving"

What has come to be known through American Folklore as "The First Thanksgiving" was not known as such to the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims did recognize a celebration known as a "Thanksgiving", though it was reserved for a solemn ceremony of praise to God for a congregation's good fortune. The first such Thanksgiving as the Pilgrims would have called it did not occur until 1623, in response to the good news of additional colonists and supplies arriving from England. That event probably occurred in July, and consisted of a full day of prayer and worship and probably very little reverie.^[25]

The event now commemorated by the United States at the end of November each year was more properly termed a "harvest festival". The event was held probably in early October, and was celebrated by the 51 surviving Pilgrims, along with Massasoit and 90 of his men. Two contemporary accounts of the event survive, being part of Of Plimoth Plantation by William Bradford as well as Mourt's Relation by Edward Winslow. The celebration lasted three days, and featured a feast that included numerous types of waterfowl, wild turkeys and fish procured by the colonists, as well as five deer worth of venison brought by the Indians.^[26]

[edit] Growth of Plymouth

In November, 1621, almost exactly one year after the Pilgrims first set foot in New England, a second ship sent by the Merchant Adventurers arrived. Named the Fortune, it arrived with 37 new settlers for Plymouth. However, as the ship had arrived unexpectedly, and also without much supplies, the additional settlers put strain on the resources of the colony. Among the passengers on the Fortune were several additional members of the original Leiden congregation, including William Brewster's son Jonathan, Edward Winslow's brother John, and Philip de la Noye, (later corrupted to Delano) who was an ancestor of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The Fortune also carried a letter from the Merchant Adventurers chastising the colony for failure to return goods with the Mayflower that had been promised in return for their support. The Fortune began its return to England laden with ₤500 worth of goods, more than enough to keep the colonists on schedule for repayment of their debt, however the Fortune was captured by the French before she could deliver her cargo to England, creating an even larger deficit for the colony.^[27]

Historical populations[28]
Date	Pop.
December, 1620	99
April, 1621	50
November, 1621	85
July, 1623	180
May, 1627	156
January, 1630	almost 300
1643	approx. 2000
1691	approx. 7000

In May, 1622 a vessel named the Sparrow arrived carrying seven men from the Merchant Adventurers whose purpose was to seek out a site for a new settlement in the area. Two ships followed shortly thereafter carrying sixty settlers, all men. They spent July and August in Plymouth before moving north to settle in modern Weymouth, Massachusetts at a settlement named Wessagussett.^[28] Wessagussett would prove to be a total failure, as it was under constant threat of attack from a nearby village of Massachusett Indians. The men that settled there had little experience with agriculture, and lacked the discipline of the Pilgrims as well as the knowledge of local farming practices that had been taught them by Squanto.^[29] Within a short time, the settlement was disbanded, and the survivors were rescued by Standish and integrated into the town of Plymouth.^[28]

Though short lived, the settlement of Wessagussett would provide the spark for an event that would dramatically change the political landscape between the local Indian tribes and the English settlers. Responding to reports of a military threat to Wessagussett, Miles Standish organized a war party and marched north. When he arrived, he found that there had been no attack, but he decided to perform a pre-emptive strike anyway. In an event called by historian Nathan Philbrick "Standish's raid", he lured two prominent Massachusett pneises (military leaders) named Witawamut and Pecksuot into a house at Wessagussett under the pretense of sharing a meal and making negotiations. With the Indian's guard down, Standish and his men stabbed and killed the two Indians, then attacked several more, and hanged, stabbed, or shot them. The local sachem, named Obtakiest, was pursued by Standish and his men but escaped with three English prisoners from Wessagusset, who he then executed.^[30]

Word quickly spread among the Indian tribes of Standish's attack, and many villages were abandoned by the Indians, who fled the settlement area. As noted by Philbrick: "Standish's raid had irreparably damaged the human ecology of the region... It was some time before a new equilibrium came to the region." Without local Indians to trade with for furs, the Pilgrims lost their main source of income for paying off their debts to the Merchant Adventurers. Rather than strengthening their position, Standish's raid would have disastrous consequences for the colony, a fact noted by William Bradford, who in a letter to the Merchant Adventurers noted "[W]e had much damaged our trade, for there where we had [the] most skins the Indians are run away from their habitations..." The only positive effect of Standish's raid seemed to be the increased power of the Pokanokets, Massasoit's people, and the Pilgrim's closest ally in the region.^[31]

In July 1623, two more ships arrived, carrying 90 new settlers, among them Leideners, including William Bradford's future wife, Alice. Some of the settlers were unprepared for frontier life, and returned to England the next year. In September, 1623, another ship carrying settlers destined to refound the failed colony at Weymouth arrived, and temporarily stayed at Plymouth. In March, 1624, a ship bearing a few additional settlers and the first cattle arrived. A 1627 division of cattle lists 156 colonists divided into twelve lots of thirteen colonists each.^[32] Another ship also named the Mayflower arrived in August, 1629 with 35 additional members of the Leiden congregation. Ships arrived periodically throughout 1629-1630 carrying unknown numbers of passengers, though contemporary documents claim that by January 1630, the colony had almost 300 people. By 1643 the colony had an estimated 600 males fit for military service, implying a total population of about 2000. By 1690, on the eve of the dissolution of the colony, the estimated total population of Plymouth County, the most populous, was 3055 people.^[28] It is estimated that the entire population of the colony at the point of its dissolution was around 7000.^[33] For comparison it is estimated that between 1630-1640, a period known as the Great Migration, over 20,000 settlers had arrived in Massachusetts Bay Colony alone, and by 1678 the English population of all of New England was estimated to be in the range of 60,000. It is clear from these numbers that though Plymouth was the first colony in the region, by the time of its absorption, it was much smaller than Massachusetts Bay Colony in terms of population.^[34]

[edit] Military History

From the beginning, Miles Standish had been intended to be the military leader of Plymouth Colony. He organized and led the first party to set foot in New England, an exploratory expedition of Cape Cod upon arrival in Provincetown Harbor. On the third expedition, which he also led, Standish fired the first recorded shot by the Pilgrim settlers, in an event known as the First Encounter. When the finally arrived at the Plymouth, it was Standish, with training in Military Engineering from the University of Leiden, who decided the layout of the settlement for its defensibility. Standish also organized the able bodied men into military orders in February of the first winter. During the second winter, he helped design and organize the construction of a large palisade wall surrounding the settlement. Standish would lead two early military raids on Indian villages: the unsuccessful raid to find and punish Corbitant for his attempted coup, and the brutal massacre at Wessagussett called "Standish's raid". The former had the desired effect of gaining the respect of the local Indians, the latter only served to frighten and scatter them, resulting in loss of trade and income.^[35]

[edit] Pequot War

Main article: Pequot War

The first full scale war in New England was the Pequot War of 1637. The War's roots go back to 1632, when a dispute over control Connecticut River Valley near modern Hartford, Connecticut arose between Dutch fur traders and Plymouth officials. Representatives from the Dutch East India Company and Plymouth Colony both had deeds that claimed they had rightfully puchased the land from the Pequot Indians. A sort of land rush occurred, as settlers from Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies tried to beat the Dutch in settling the area, the influx of English settlers threatened the Pequot. Other confederations in the area, including the Narragansett and Mohegan Indians were the natural enemies of the Pequot, and sided with the English. The event that sparked the start of formal hostilities was the capture of a boat and the murder of its captain, John Oldham, in 1636, an event blamed on allies of the Pequots. In April, 1637, a raid on a Pequot village by John Endicott led to the retaliatory raid by Pequot warriors on the town of Wethersfield, Connecticut where some 30 English settlers were killed. This led to a further retaliation, where a raid led by Captain John Underhill and Captain John Mason burned a Pequot village near modern Mystic, Connecticut to the ground, killing 300 Pequots. Plymouth Colony had little to do with the actual fighting in the war.^[36]

In the wake of the Pequot War, four of the New England colonies (Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, New Haven, and Plymouth) formed a defensive compact known as the United Colonies of New England. Edward Winslow, already known for his diplomatic skills, was the chief architect of the United Colonies. His experience in the United Provinces of the Netherlands during the Leiden years would be used for the model in organizing the confederation; John Quincy Adams considered the United Colonies to be the prototype model for the Articles of Confederation, which itself was the first attempt at a national United States government.^[37]

[edit] King Philip's War

Main article: King Philip's War

Also known as Metacomet and other variations on that name, King Philip was the younger son of Massasoit, and the heir of Massasoit's position as sachem of the Pokanoket and supreme leader of the Wampanoag. He became sachem upon the sudden death of his older brother Alexander in 1662.^[38].

The roots of the war stem from the increasing numbers of English colonists and their demand for land. As more land was purchased from the Indians, they were restricted to smaller territories for themselves. Indian leaders such as King Philip resented the loss of land, and looked for a means to slow or reverse it.^[39]

The proximate cause of the conflict was the death of a Praying Indian named John Sassamon in 1675. Accused in the murder of Sassamon were some of Philip's most senior lieutenants. A jury of twelve Englishmen and six Praying Indians found the Indians guilty of murder and sentenced them to death.^[40]

Philip had already begun war preparations at his home base near Mount Hope where he started raiding English farms and pillaging their property. In response, Governor Josiah Winslow called out the militia, and they organized and began to move on Philip's position. The war had started.^[41]

King Philip systematically attacked unarmed women and children. One such attack resulted in the capture of Mary Rowlandson and the murder of her small children. The memoirs of her capture would provide historians with much information on Indian culture during this time period.^[42]

The war continued through the rest of 1675 and into the next year. The English were constantly frustrated by the Indians refusal to meet them in pitched battle. The Indians employed a form of guerilla warfare that confounded the English. Benjamin Church continuously campaigned to enlist the help of friendly Indians to help learn how to fight on even footing with Philip's troops, he was constantly rebuffed by the Plymouth leadership, who mistrusted all Indians as potential enemies. Eventually, faced with difficulty in meeting the Indians on their terms, Governor Winslow and Plymouth military commander Major William Bradford (son of the late Governor William Bradford) relented and gave Church permission to organize a combined force of English and Indians. After securing the alliance of the Sakonnet Indians, he led his combined force in pursuit of Philip, who had thus far avoided any major battles in the war that bears his name. Throughout July, 1676, Church's band of Englishmen and Indians would capture hundreds of Indian troops, often without much of a fight, though Philip eluded him. After Church was given permission to grant amnesty to any captured Indians who would agree to join the English side his force grew immensely.^[43] Philip was killeed by a Pocasset Indian; the war soon ended as an overwhelming English victory.^[44]

Eight percent of the English adult male population is estimated to have died during the war, a rather large percentage by most standards. The impact on the Indian population was far higher, however. So many were killed, fled, or shipped off as slaves that their population fell by 60-80 percent.^[45]

[edit] The last years

In 1686, the entire region was reorganized under a single government known as the Dominion of New England, including the colonies of Plymouth, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. New York, West Jersey, East Jersey were added in 1688. The President of the Dominion, Edmund Andros was highly unpopular, and the union did not last. Plymouth Colony revolted, and withdrew from the Dominion in April, 1688; the entire union was gone by 1689.^[46][47]

The return of self-rule for Plymouth Colony was short lived, however. In 1691, England decided to reorganize the region again. Along with the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, which had been officially part of New York, Plymouth Colony was absorbed into Massachusetts Bay Colony. The official date of the proclamation ending the existence of Plymouth Colony was October 17, 1691, though it was not put into force until the arrival of William Phips on May 14, 1692 with the new charter. The last official meeting of the Plymouth General Court occurred on June 8, 1692.^[47]

[edit] Government

Governors of Plymouth Colony[48]
Dates	Governor
1620	John Carver
1621-1632	William Bradford
1633	Edward Winslow
1634	Thomas Prence
1635	William Bradford
1636	Edward Winslow
1637	William Bradford
1638	Thomas Prence
1639-1643	William Bradford
1644	Edward Winslow
1645-1656	William Bradford
1657-1672	Thomas Prence
1673-1679	Josiah Winslow
1680-1692	Thomas Hinckley

Plymouth Colony did not have a royal charter authorizing them to form any government. Still, some means of government was needed, and the first document to establish one was the Mayflower Compact, signed by the 41 able-bodied men aboard the Mayflower upon their arrival in Provincetown Harbor on November 21, 1620. It stayed in effect as the primary governing document until the first formal codification of laws in 1636. Before that time, and indeed for the life of the colony, the laws of Plymouth were based on a hybrid form of English Common Law and religious law as laid out in the Bible.^[49]

The colony recognized all "freemen" as full citizens of the colony with full rights and privilages in voting and holding office. The original group of freemen were the original adult male settlers from the Mayflower. Later adult males were made freemen by sponsorship of an existing freemen and acceptance by the General Court. Later restriction enabled a one-year waiting period between nomination and acceptance of freemen status, and also placed religious restrictions, specifically preventing Quakers from becoming freemen.^[49]

The colony's main executive was the Governor, who originally was elected by the freemen, but later was appointed by the General Court in an annual election. The General Court also elected 7 "Assistants" to form a cabinet. The Governor and Assistants then appointed "Constables", who would serve as the chief administrators for the towns, and "Messengers", who were the main civil servants of the colony. They were responsible for publishing announcements, performing land surveys, carrying out executions, and a host of other duties.^[49]

The General Court was both the chief legislative and judicial body of the colony. It was elected from the freemen from among their own number, and met regularly in Plymouth, the capital town of the colony. In acting in its judicial duties, it would periodically call a "Grand Enquest", which was a grand jury of sorts, elected from the freemen, who would hear complaints and swear out indictments for credible accusations. The General Court, and later lesser town and county courts, would preside over trials of accused criminals and over civil matters, with the decisions made by a jury of freemen.^[49]

As a legislative body, the General Court would make proclamations of law periodically as needed. In the early years, these laws were not formally compiled anywhere. In 1636 the first organization of these laws was realized in the 1636 Book of Laws. The book was reissued in 1658, 1672, and 1685.^[49]

[edit] Official Seal

Still used by the town of Plymouth, the seal of the Plymouth Colony was designed in 1629. It depicts four figures within a shield bearing St George's Cross, apparently in Native style clothing, each carrying the burning heart symbol of John Calvin. The seal was also used by the County of Plymouth until 1931.^[50]

[edit] Geography

[edit] Boundaries of Plymouth Colony

Without a clear land patent for the area they landed in, and without a charter to form a government, it was often, in the early years, unclear as to what land was under their jurisdiction. The issue was partially resolved in 1630, in a document known as the "Warwick Patent", which granted William Bradford sole proprietorship of the entire territory of Plymouth Colony. While it made it clear that Bradford (and by extension Plymouth Colony) now had official jurisdiction over its own territory, it was unclear as to exactly what territory that included. The two significant borders of Plymouth Colony over the coming years would be its northern border (that with Massachusetts Bay Colony) and its western border (that with Rhode Island). Bradford could have used the new patent to claim complete ownership of the entire colony; he prudently did not. However, he did reserve all rights to three tracts of land along the eastern shore of the Narragansett Bay, which would in the future bring Plymouth into conflict with Rhode Island over the governance of these lands.^[51]

In 1639 and 1640, Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth worked out their differences on their mutual boundary with the exception of the Narragansett Bay region. As Bradford maintained personal ownership of the region, it was largely unavailable for settling by Plymouth residents, as paradoxically by allowing Plymouth Settlers free reign to settle the area would imply that he had relinquished his title to it. Since Massachusetts Bay claimed this area, this would give them the legal ability to enforce its claim (since the area would be free and clear without any patent). As part of a deal to resolve the issue, Bradford surrendered his patent rights to the area to the Plymouth Colony, and Massachusetts Bay agreed to recognize the rights of Plymouth Colony to include the area along the eastern shore of Narragansett Bay and along the east side of the Pawtucket River for a mile or so.^[51] In 1644, "The Old Colony Line", which had been surveyed in 1639, was formally accepted as the boundary between Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth.^[52]

The situation became further complicated with the arrival of Roger Williams, who in 1636 settled in the area of Rehoboth, near modern Pawtucket. He was forcebly evicted to maintain Plymouth's claim to the area; Williams would move to the west side of the river to found the settlement of Providence, the nucleus for the colony of Rhode Island, which was formally established with the "Providence Plantations Patent" of 1644. As various settlers from both Rhode Island and Plymouth began to settle along the area, the exact nature of the western boundary of Plymouth became more and more confused.^[51] The issue was not fully resolved until 1740, long after the dissolution of Plymouth Colony itself. Rhode Island had received a patent for the area in 1693, which had been disputed by Massachusetts Bay Colony. Rhode Island successfully defended the patent, and they absorbed the land along the eastern shore of the Narragansett Bay, including the mainland portion of Newport County and all of modern Bristol County, Rhode Island.^[53]

[edit] Counties and towns

Plymouth Colony was not formally divided into counties until June 2, 1685, during the reorganization that would lead to the formation of the Dominion of New England. Three counties were formed, composed of the following towns:

Barnstable County on Cape Cod:^[54]

• Barnstable, the shire town (county seat) of the county, first settled in 1639 and incorporated 1650.^[55]
• Eastham, site of the "First Encounter", first settled 1644 and incorporated as the town of Nauset in 1646, name changed to Eastham in 1651.^[56]
• Sandwich, first settled in 1637 and incorporated in 1639.^[57]
• Yarmouth, incorporated 1639.^[58]

Bristol County along the shores of Buzzard's Bay and Narragansett Bay, part of this county would later be ceded to Rhode Island:^[59]

• Taunton, the shire town of the county, incorporated 1639.^[60]
• Dartmouth, incorporated 1664. Dartmouth was the site of a significant massacre by the Indian forces during King Philip's War. It was also the location of a surrender of a group of some 160 of Philip's forces who were later sold into slavery.^[61]
• Freetown, incorporated 1683, originally known as "Freemen's Land" by its first settlers.^[62]
• Rehoboth, first settled 1644 and incorporated 1645. Nearby to, but distinct from the Rehoboth settlement of Roger Williams, that settlement is the modern town of Pawtucket, Rhode Island.^[63]
• Swansea, founded as the township of Wannamoiset in 1667, incorporated as town of Swansea in 1668. It was here that the first English casualty of King Philip's War occurred.^[64]

Plymouth County, located along the western shores of Cape Cod Bay:^[65]

• Plymouth, the shire town of the county and capital city of the colony. This was the original 1620 settlement of the Mayflower Pilgrims, and continued as the largest and most significant settlement in the colony until its dissolution in 1691.^[66]
• Bridgewater, purchased from Massasoit by Miles Standish, and originally named Duxburrow New Plantation, it was incorporated as Bridgewater in 1656.^[67]
• Duxbury, founded by Miles Standish, it was incorporated in 1637. Other notable residents of Duxbury included John Alden, William Brewster, and Governor Thomas Prence.^[68]
• Hingham, incorporated 1635.^[69]
• Hull, incorporated 1644.^[70]
• Marshfield, incorporated 1640. Home to Josiah Winslow, governor of the colony during King Philip's War.^[71]
• Middleborough, incorporated 1669 as Middleberry. Named for its location as the halfway point on the journe from Plymouth to Mount Hope, the Pokanoket capital.^[72]
• Scituate, settled 1628 and incorporated 1636. The town was the site of a major attack by King Philip's forces in 1676.^[73]

[edit] People

The relationships between the English and the native Indians has often been oversimplified by historians. When the first Pilgrims arrived in New England, they entered an area long settled by a group of people that had their own politics and relationships. Furthermore, the English settlers were far from a homogeneous group themselves. Relations varied over time between mutual cooperation, tolerance or war.

[edit] English

The English in Plymouth Colony fit broadly into three categories. The Pilgrims were a group of religious separatists. Like the Puritans that would later found Massachusetts Bay Colony to the north, they were a Protestant group that closely followed the teachings of John Calvin. However, unlike the Puritans, who wished to reform the Anglican church from within, the Pilgrims saw it as a morally defunct organization, and sought to remove themselves from it.^[74] Besides the Pilgrims and Puritans, there was a group called by the Mayflower settlers the "Strangers". This group included the non-Pilgrim settlers placed on the Mayflower by the Merchant Adventurers, as well as later settlers who would come for a host of reasons throughout the history of the colony, and who did not necessarily adhere to the Pilgrim religious ideal.^[75].^[76] The presence of the Strangers was a considerable annoyance to the Pilgrims, and would continue to be for many years to come. As early as 1623, a conflict between the two groups broke out over the celebration of Christmas, a day the Pilgrims attached no particular significance. As well, when a group of Strangers arrived to found the nearby settlement of Wessagusset, the Pilgrims were highly strained, both emotionally and in terms of resources, by the perceived lack of discipline that they displayed. They looked at the eventual failure of the Wessagusset settlement as Divine Providence against a sinful people.^[77]

[edit] Indians

The native Indians were organized into loose tribal confederations sometimes called "nations". Among these confederations were the Nipmucks, the Massachusett, the Narragansett, the Niantics, the Mohegan, and the Wampanoag, whose own history is so closely tied to that of Plymouth Colony.^[36] Several significant events would dramatically alter the demographics of the Indian population in the region. The first was "Standish's raid" on Wessagusset, which drastically frightened Indian leaders so that many took to hiding, abandoned their settlements, and lost much of their population to starvation and disease as a result.^[31] The Pequot War would result in the dissolution of its namesake tribe, and a major shift in local power structure.^[36] King Philip's War would come to have the most dramatic effect, resulting in the death or displacement of as much as 80% of the total Indian population of southern New England, as well as the enslavement and removal of thousands of Indians to the Caribbean and other locales.^[45]

[edit] Legacy

Despite its short history, less than 72 years, the events surrounding the founding and history of Plymouth Colony have had a lasting effect on the art, traditions, and mythology of the United States of America.

[edit] Art, literature and film

The earliest artistic depiction of the Pilgrims was actually done before their arrival in America, as Dutch painter Adam Willaerts painted a portrait of their departure from Delfshaven in 1620.^[78] The same scene was recreated by Robert Walter Weir in 1844, and hangs in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol building. Numerous other paintings have been created memorializing various scenes from the life of Pilgrim Colony, including their landing and the "First Thanksgiving", many of which have been collected by Pilgrim Hall, a museum and historical society founded in 1824 to preserve the history of Plymouth Colony.^[79]

Several contemporary accounts of life in Plymouth Colony have become both vital primary historical documents and literary classics. Of Plimoth Plantation by William Bradford and Mourt's Relation by Bradford, Edward Winslow, and others and published by George Morton are both accounts written by Mayflower passangers which provide much of the information we have today regarding the trans-Atlantic voyage and early years of the settlement. Benjamin Church wrote several accounts of King Philip's War, including Entertaining Passages Relating to Philip's War, which remained popular through the Revolutionary War period. An edition of the work was illustrated by Paul Revere in 1772. Another work, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, provides an account of King Philip's War from the perspective of Mary Rowlandson, an Englishwoman who was captured and spent some time in the company of Indians during the war.^[80] Later works, such as "The Courtship of Miles Standish" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, have provided a romantic and partially fictionalized account of life in Plymouth Colony.^[81]

Films about the Pilgrims have also been numerous, including the several filmed versions of "The Courtship of Miles Standish",^[82], the 1952 film Plymouth Adventure starring Spencer Tracy, and,^[83] and the 2006 History Channel produced TV documentary "Desperate Crossings:The True Story of the Mayflower".^[84]

[edit] Thanksgiving

Main article: Thanksgiving (United States)

Annually, the United States recognizes a holiday known as Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. It is a recognized Federal Holiday,^[85] and frequently celebrated as a large feast with family and friends. The holiday is meant to honor the "First Thanksgiving", which was a harvest feast held in Plymouth in 1621. Periodically, the U.S. government would declare a national day of Thanksgiving, but these were one-off declarations meant to celebrate a significant event, such as victory in a battle. The modern Thanksgiving Holiday is largely the work of a single woman, Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of Boston's Ladies' Magazine, who in 1827 wrote her first in a series of editorials calling for a national, annual day of Thanksgiving to commemorate the Pilgrim's first harvest feast. It took almost 40 years, but in 1863, Abraham Lincoln declared the first modern Thanksgiving to fall on the last Thursday in November. It was moved by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the next-to-last Thursday in November. In 1941, the holiday was recognized by Congress as an official federal holiday, to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November.^[86][87]

[edit] Plymouth Rock

Main article: Plymouth Rock

One of the enduring symbols of the landing of the Pilgrims is Plymouth Rock, a large granite outcropping of rock that was near their landing site at Plymouth, and which would have certainly been a significant landmark in the area. However, none of the contemporary accounts of the actual landing makes any mention that the Rock was the specific place of landing. The Pilgrims chose the site for their landing not for the rock, but for a small brook nearby that was a source of fresh water and fish.^[88]

The first identification of Plymouth Rock as the actual landing site was in 1741 by 90-year old Thomas Faunce, himself the son of a settler who had arrived in Plymouth in 1623, three years after the supposed event. The rock was later covered by a solid-fill pier. In 1774, an attempt was made to excavate the Rock, but it broke in two. The severed piece was placed in the Town Square at the center of Plymouth. In 1880, the intact half of the rock was excavated from the pier, and the broken piece was reattached to it. Over the years, souvenir hunters have removed chunks from the rock, but the remains are now protected as part of the complex of living museums that includes the Mayflower II, a recreation of the original ship, Plimoth Plantation, an historical reenactment of the original 1620 settlement, and the Wampanoag Homesite, which recreates a 17th century Indian village.^[89]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• European colonization of the Americas
• British colonization of the Americas
• British Empire
• Colonial America
• Thanksgiving
• List of Mayflower passengers who died in the winter of 1620 - 1621
• Plimoth Plantation, a re-enactment of the original Plymouth plantation.
• Plantation (settlement or colony)

[edit] External links

• Timeline of Plymouth Colony
• Colonial America:Plymouth Colony 1620 A short history of Plymouth Colony hosted at U-S-History.com, includes a map of all of the New England colonies.
• The Plymouth Colony Archive Project a collection of primary sources documents and secondary source analysis related to Plymouth Colony.