Nathaniel Philbrick's "Mayflower"

Our oldest national myths are often vulnerable to the mists of nostalgia. The Pilgrims' 1620 landing in New England is one such story. Although I am generally curious about history, I realized that I was ignorant of the full historical context of that event. Nathaniel Philbrick's book, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, provides a rich picture of the world that the Pilgrims (and their eventual Indigenous neighbors) were navigating at the time of Plymouth's founding. The decades following the "First Thanksgiving" were mostly glossed over in my history classes. Philbrick skillfully describes the most important characters—both English and Native—and the complicated politics all parties had to manage as they each faced cataclysm.

Map of New England as it was around the time of King Philip's War

Philbrick walks the reader through events ranging from before the Mayflower's voyage to the end of King Philip's War in the late 1670s. Below are a few of the facts and ideas that were most revelatory to me.

The Pilgrims were unique among European settlers

The group that became known as the Pilgrims originated in England, and their religious ideas were becoming increasingly dangerous there. They escaped to the Dutch city of Leiden, but longed for the opportunity to build a community where they could replicate their English way of life while also being free to worship in the manner of their choosing. Their plan to settle in North America was highly audacious and fraught from the start. They suffered several betrayals, delays, and a faulty ship that didn't even make it into the open ocean (they had to settle for a single ship instead of two). They arrived on the coast of Cape Cod in November just as winter was setting in.

The Pilgrims were different from other English settlers because their group of 102 people included mostly average farmers, their wives, and their children. They shared a commitment to their faith and community that allowed them to weather an atrocious ocean passage and the brutal timing of their arrival. Their resilience was in contrast to the English settlement at Jamestown, where profiteering single men often failed to work together when it mattered. Another nearby English settlement (Wessagusset) was so dysfunctional that it nearly brought Plymouth down with it. But even though about half of the Pilgrims did not survive the first winter, the Pilgrims showed a unique ability to work together and hang on.

"The Great Dying" had a profound impact on the region

At the time of the Pilgrims' landing, the Native populations of New England had just experienced a three-year-long epidemic. A disease (likely leptospirosis, probably brought to the continent by European traders) had wiped out up to 90% of some groups, and the social structure of the region was in disarray. The site of Plymouth had been a Wampanoag settlement called Patuxet. When the Pilgrims arrived, it was empty, having been completely wiped out by the epidemic. Eerily, the Pilgrims found unburied skeletons throughout the area.

The Wampanoag sachem Massasoit had lost most of his people to disease and was newly vulnerable to groups further inland (especially the Narragansetts) who were less impacted by the epidemic. The "First Thanksgiving" was actually a result of a treaty between Massasoit and the Pilgrims. Massasoit saw the English—and their firearms—as a possible lifeline for his people. The Pilgrims were sensible enough to know that they couldn't feed themselves and fend off attacks from every Native group in the area without the help of an ally. The mutual respect between Massasoit and Pilgrim Governor William Bradford kept the area in relative peace for decades, allowing the colony at Plymouth to thrive.

The Pilgrims had proactive and vigorous leadership—and a savvy counterpart

In the first decades of the Plymouth settlement, the Pilgrims benefited from strong leadership in William Bradford and Edward Winslow, who not only had to manage the day-to-day survival of the Pilgrims but also relationships with the varied Indigenous communities that surrounded their settlement. Again and again, Philbrick describes how the Pilgrims responded vigorously to even the rumor of a threat. They sought out Native intelligence and contacts even if it meant a dangerous 20-mile journey through the wilderness. They also didn't openly antagonize their Indigenous neighbors (aside from stealing from a corn cache out of desperation, an act which they later made restitution for). Another nearby English colony called Wessagusset was such an irritant to the nearby Massachusetts people that they resolved to destroy all the English, including the Plymouth settlement. With support from their shrewd Wampanoag ally Massasoit, Plymouth men undertook a successful preemptive assault, killing several Massachusetts leaders. The failed Wessagusset settlement soon disbanded. Through actions like this, the Plymouth colony solidified its loyalty to its Wampanoag allies and demonstrated its ability to protect its interests with force.

New England enjoyed about 50 years of relative peace after the Pilgrims landed. Although there were plenty of tense moments and minor conflicts, the leadership of the Plymouth colony (Bradford and Winslow especially) and their ongoing alliance with Massasoit kept violence to a minimum and allowed both populations to prosper.

King Philip's War was especially deadly and set New England on a new, darker path

The second and third generation Pilgrims were not nearly as invested in positive relations with Native peoples as their forefathers. They were also less skilled at managing and de-escalating inevitable conflicts. One of the new Pilgrim leaders, Josiah Winslow (Edward's son), grew to have personal animosity for Massasoit's son Philip, who had himself risen to a leadership role among the Wampanoag people.

Indigenous leaders were under pressure because the booming pelt trade with the English that had fueled prosperity since the Pilgrims' landing was cratering due to scarcity of game. Native people had grown used to English conveniences, and increasingly the only thing they had to trade was their land. Although some land negotiations with the English were conducted in good faith, others were definitely unfair to the Indigenous parties. Indigenous people felt threatened by the expansion of the English who showed disrespect for their sovereignty (especially in a murder trial where three Wampanoags were executed by an English court). Philip seemed to vacillate between warmongering and finding a way to avoid violence. Ultimately, he probably felt he had to act in order to appease Wampanoag warriors who were agitating for violence.

The fourteen months of total war were some of the most devastating ever to take place in North America. The fight was not strictly between Native peoples and the English. Philip briefly tried to align himself with the French and the English found growing success fighting alongside allied Indigenous groups. Plymouth Colony lost eight percent of its male population (for the American Civil War, the figure is between four and five percent). Numerous Plymouth settlements were completely destroyed. Indigenous tribes lost a staggering 60% to 80% of their populations, succumbing not only to violence, but to starvation. When the conflict finally concluded, the economy of the entire region took a century to return to its previous level of prosperity. Without the buffer of well-functioning and consolidated Indigenous neighbors, the English were faced with ongoing violent conflict with myriad Indigenous groups throughout New England and beyond.

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The opening chapters of Mayflower read like a survival epic, as the Pilgrim population dwindled in the face of illness and lack of food. Their previous trials in Europe and unique commitment to their community proved to be an advantage that other settler groups lacked. But as inward-focused as they could be, leaders like William Bradford and Edward Winslow knew that survival also depended on the colony's ability to cultivate relationships with the Indigenous population. In the years leading up to King Philip's War, and in the decades afterward, the English in North America eschewed this approach in favor of total war, suppression of all resistance, and even the enslavement of their enemies. In the concluding chapter, Philbrick hints at what we might try to learn from the events of Mayflower:

For peace and for survival, others must be accommodated. The moment any of them gave up on the difficult work of living with their neighbors—and all the compromise, frustration, and delay that inevitably entailed—they risked losing everything. It was a lesson that Bradford and Massosoit had learned over the course of more than three long decades. That it could be so quickly forgotten by their children remains a lesson for us today.