Separatists in England had been imprisoned and executed for defying the government and the Church of England. As a result, some from the hamlet of Scrooby snuck, a few at a time, to Leyden, Holland. There, they had to work at unskilled and poorly-paid jobs and were concerned about the religious tolerance of the Dutch, which defeated their dreams of creating a close-knit Christian community. Thus, in 1620 they migrated to North America along the Mayflower.

The Pilgrims on Plymouth

The pilgrims were granted permission to settle in British America and arrived on Plymouth in November. After the settlers realized that Plymouth lied outside of their territory and that the pilgrims had no legal basis to settle there, forty-one male passengers signet the Mayflower Compact, which established a government and pledged allegiance to the king. On December 21, 1620, the pilgrims stepped ashore Plymouth Rock. The land they settled was cleared; it was an Indian village until diseases, probably brought by Europeans, swept throughout the region. During the pilgrims’ first winter, half of the colonists died. The colony managed to survive, however.

Like future English settlers, the pilgrims brought disease and new crops. Their demand for furs, skins, and meat depleted the number of wild animals around Plymouth, resulting in the desire to keep stocks of domestic animals such as horses, cattle, sheep, and dogs.

Relationship with the Natives

By the time the Pilgrims arrived, the numbers of natives had depleted so much that they decided to simply make peace with the English. Squanto and Samoset were two of the pilgrims‘ native friends. Squanto, who had been captured by English explorer and taken to England, helped the settlers form an alliance with the local Wampanoags. After their first harvest in 1621, the settlers invited the natives to celebrate with them in the first Thanksgiving, in October.

However, thirteen years after the Pilgrims’ arrival, a smallpox epidemic killed many of the natives around Plymouth.

Plymouth’s Economy

In 1622 Miles Standish established a semi-military regime to impose discipline on the settlers.

Plymouth chose William Bradford to be governor multiple times. He persuaded the Council for New England (Plymouth Company) to grant them legal rights to settle Plymouth in 1621, ended the communal labor plan, gave land to families, and paid off Plymouth’s debt to England. Though they were often poor, the Pilgrims hoped to serve as an example to the other colonies.

Adapted from Brinkley, Alan. 2014. American History: Connecting With the Past, AP Edition. E-book. 15th ed. McGraw-Hill Education. Pages 41–43