Mayflower Myths

Mayflower Myths

MYTH: Mayflower passengers were Puritans.
TRUTH: Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England, while Separatists took a more extreme approach - desiring to separate entirely from it. Mayflower passengers (at least those passengers belonging to the Pilgrim's church in Leyden) are properly classified as Separatists. In general, Separatist views were not as extreme as Puritanical beliefs regarding social customs, but were more extreme when it came to separating ties with the established Church of England. There are also some significant differences between the Pilgrim and Puritan views regarding the relationship between Church and State. Both Puritanism and the Pilgrims' separatist movement, as well as Presbyterianism, descend from John Calvin and the Calvinists of the mid 1500s. Puritans came to America starting about 1629, and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony under the leadership of Governor John Winthrop. After the English civil war, Puritans and Pilgrim Separatist movements became indistinguishable, though they and their descendants tended to keep to separate Colonies even into the 1690s (primarily because of differing Church State views rather than differing theological views).

MYTH: The Pilgrims Landed on Plymouth Rock
TRUTH: According to historian George Willison, who devoted his life to the subject, the story about the rock is all malarkey, a public relations stunt pulled off by townsfolk to attract attention. What Willison found out is that the Plymouth Rock legend rests entirely on the dubious testimony of Thomas Faunce, a ninety-five year old man, who told the story more than a century after the Mayflower landed.

MYTH: The Pilgrims stole the land for their Colony from the Indians, and mistreated them.
TRUTH: The Pilgrims arrived and found a place to settle, called Plymouth on Captain John Smith's map of 1614. The native Indians called the area Patuxet. The Patuxet tribe had been completely wiped out in a 1618 plague (probably smallpox) and so there was at the time no tribe inhabiting or claiming the land the Pilgrims settled. The only Patuxet survivor of the plague was Tisquantum, more commonly called "Squanto" (who had been in England at the time of the plague). Squanto was accepted into the Plymouth Colony and acted as interpreter and negotiator with Chief Massasoit and the Wampanoag confederation of tribes, the Pilgrims nearest neighbors. The Wampanoag never overtly challenged the Pilgrims' right to live on the land until 75 years later. In fact it appears Massasoit liked the idea of having Englishmen neighbors and allies because it increased his own power within the region by keeping his enemies at bay.

MYTH: The Mayflower passengers always wore black and white clothes, without any color, and had big buckles.
TRUTH: Wearing only colorless clothing was occasionally a Puritan extreme, but not a Separatist extreme. When a Mayflower passenger died, an inventory of the person's estate was taken by the Court, for purposes of probate. These inventories show that John Howland had two red waistcoats. William Bradford had a green gown, violet cloak, lead colored suit with silver buttons and a red waistcoat. And William Brewster had green drawers, a red cap, and a violet coat. Black, white, gray and brown were by far the most common colors worn by the Pilgrims, but were definitely not the only colors. The Pilgrims did not have buckles on their clothing, shoes, or hats. Buckles did not come into fashion until the late 1600s, more appropriate for the Salem Witchcraft trials time period than for the Pilgrims time period.

MYTH: The Mayflower made a second voyage to America.
TRUTH: The Mayflower that brought the Pilgrims to America was never used again as a passenger ship. From its return in April 1621 until the death of its master Christopher Jones in March 1621, it resumed its former occupation as a trading vessel. After Christopher Jones' death, the ship sat in harbor slowly decaying while it was in probate. Christopher Jones gave his part of the ship to his widow, Josian. In 1624 an inventory of the Mayflower was taken. It is described as being "in ruins" and valued at 128 pounds (a ship of its size should have been worth about 1000 pounds). Ships in this condition were always broken up and sold for scrap wood, an extremely valuable commodity in England at the time.

MYTH: The Mayflower was headed for Virginia, but due to a gross navigational error they ended up making landfall at Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
TRUTH: This myth is caused by a failure to elaborate on the facts, rather than a misrepresentation of them. The Pilgrims in their writings and documents (including the Mayflower Compact itself) refer a place called "Northern Virginia." However, students are often left to assume that "Northern Virginia" is relative to the modern day State of Virginia, thus suggesting the Mayflower was off course by almost 500 miles. This misconception that the Mayflower was drastically off course has even found its way into some otherwise decent documentaries and histories. In fact, the Virginia Company (and thus the "state" of Virginia at the time) had rights to almost the entire eastern seaboard of America. When the Pilgrims say "Northern Virginia," they are referring to a region which on modern maps would be roughly southern New York State.

MYTH: The Pilgrims celebrated Thanksgiving every year.
TRUTH: The Pilgrims had the "first" Thanksgiving, but it was never made into an annual event. When William Bradford's History Of Plymouth Plantation was rediscovered in 1854, it brought a lot of interest and attention to the Pilgrims history. Encouraged by the lobbying of Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale, President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863.