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Feature
- The Composer John Coprario, Pilgrim in Leiden?
- Pilgrim 400 — Immingham Celebrates the Quadricentennial of the Scrooby Separatist Escape to Holland
- Morrell's Poem on New England
- The Untold Story – a review of "Desperate Crossing"
- Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower
- The Pilgrims, Leiden, and the Early Years of Plymouth Plantation - Preface
- The Pilgrims, Leiden, and the Early Years of Plymouth Plantation - Chapter 1, page 1
- The Pilgrims, Leiden, and the Early Years of Plymouth Plantation - Chapter 1, page 2
- The Pilgrims, Leiden, and the Early Years of Plymouth Plantation - Chapter 1, page 3
- The Pilgrims, Leiden, and the Early Years of Plymouth Plantation - Chapter 2, page 1
- The Pilgrims, Leiden, and the Early Years of Plymouth Plantation - Chapter 2, page 2
- Theocracy in New England
- A Level Look at Land Allotments, 1623
- Thanksgiving on the Net: Roast Bull with Cranberry Sauce Part 1
- Thanksgiving on the Net: Roast Bull with Cranberry Sauce Part 2
- Thanksgiving on the Net: Roast Bull with Cranberry Sauce Part 3
- Comparing Plymouth and Jamestown
- 1621: A Historian Looks Anew at Thanksgiving
- Pilgrim Trades
- Pilgrims and Wampanoag: The Prudence of Bradford and Massasoit
- The Pilgrims Contribution to America
- The Wright Brothers and William Brewster
- The Mayflower at Sea — 1620
- Not Everybody Signed the Mayflower Compact
- What Is a Mayflower?
- The Good Ship Mayflower
- The Pilgrims Gave Us More Than Thanksgiving
- After the First Thanksgiving
- The Continued Meaning of the Mayflower Compact
- Where Bees Make No Honey
- The Magnificent Seven
- Our Pilgrim Heritage
- The Pilgrims and Election
- Purloined, Found and Recovered: The History of Bradford's History
- Pilgrim Clothing
- Pilgrims In Art
- Keeping Time In 1627 Plymouth Colony
- Natural Disasters Hit New Plymouth
- A Radical Call to Choose Life
- Pilgrims and Puritans in 17th Century New England
- Shall There Be a Day of Thanksgiving?
- The Reasons & Causes of Leaving Leiden, Holland
The Pilgrims Contribution to America
by Robert Jennings Heinsohn, Ph.D., SMDPAWhy do Pilgrims occupy such an enduring part in the American imagination? Jamestown was settled earlier than Plymouth, was larger and its settlers suffered physical conditions as grim as the Pilgrims experienced. The answer is that the Jamestown settlers were quite different than the Pilgrims and the political conditions under which Jamestown was settled were quite different than for Plymouth.
The Pilgrims were men, women and children who subscribed to a covenant in which they agreed to abide by doctrines of religious faith and to govern themselves as a political community. The covenant sustained the families as religious separatists in England who were persecuted for their religious beliefs and after fleeing England, sustained them as exiles in Holland for nearly two decades. The covenant sustained the families during the frightening voyage of the Mayflower and the first horrific year in Plymouth when half of them died. After landing in Plymouth their covenant was expressed as the Mayflower Compact that established the first fully representational government in America.
The Pilgrims found solace in Holland with the tolerant Dutch who allowed them to practice their religion as they wished and to pursue productive lives in the textile trades. Tolerance shown Pilgrims in Holland was absorbed by them and influenced their relationship with the neighboring Wampanoag Indians in Massachusetts. The Pilgrims negotiated a peace treaty with the Wampanoag that satisfied the needs of both communities. Both parties accommodated each other from time to time to preserve peace that lasted over forty years.
In addition to inaugurating the feast of Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims ought to be remembered because they laid the foundation of representational government and because they demonstrated that tolerance and accommodation were sustainable policies for peace. Their story needs retelling so that it becomes a national memory and part of our national identity.