They Sailed on the Mayflower and Struggled to Build a Home: the Pilgrims By History.com, adapted by Newsela staff on 11.23.16 Word Count 987 Level 1210L -[ OPt Lan(ang ot tue grsns by MieneSt FMico Come, circa 1805. D:soiayco in tue White House. Courtesy of I he Whue House storca Association. BOTTOM: Scuantu, ate known as Tsqnanum, teaching toe Pymuu:u OOiuniSis to Tan corn usino fish as fertihoer, Drawing from the public domain. Some 100 people, many of them seeking religious freedom in the New World, set sail from England on the Mayflower in September 1 620. That November, the ship landed on the shores of Cape Cod, in present-day Massachusetts. A scouting party was sent out, and in late December the group landed at Plymouth Harbor, where they would form the first permanent settlement of Europeans in New England. It became the second successful English settlement in North America (after the founding of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607). These original settlers of Plymouth Colony are known as the Pilgrim Fathers, or simply as the Pilgrims. Puritans set sail on the Mayflower The group that set out from Plymouth, in southwestern England, in September 1620 included 35 members of a radical Puritan group known as the English Separatist Church. In 1607, after illegally breaking from the Church of England, the Separatists settled in the Netherlands, where they remained for the next decade. Due to economic difficulties, as well as fears that This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com.
they would lose their English language and heritage, they began to make plans to settle in the New World. Their intended destination was a region near the Hudson River, which at the time was thought to be part of the already established colony of Virginia. In 1620, the would-be settlers joined a London stock company that would finance their trip aboard the Mayflower, a three-masted merchant ship. Some of the most notable passengers on the Mayflower included Myles Standish, a professional soldier who would become the military leader of the new colony; and William Bradford, a leader of the Separatist congregation who wrote the still-classic account of the Mayflower voyage and the founding of Plymouth Colony. While still on board the ship, a group of 41 men signed the so-called Mayflower Compact, in which they agreed to join together in a civil body politic. This document would become the foundation of the new colony s government. Rough voyage, harsh winter take their toll Rough seas and storms prevented the Mayflowerfrom reaching their initial destination. After a voyage of 65 days the ship reached the shores of Cape Cod, anchoring on the site of Provincetown Harbor in mid-november. After sending an exploring party ashore, the Mayflower landed at what they would call Plymouth Harbor, on the western side of Cape Cod Bay, in mid-december. During the next several months, the settlers lived mostly on the Mayflower. They ferried back and forth from shore to build their new storage and living quarters. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https:llnewselacom. 2
NEW HAMPSHIRE C N Bay PQknkeNfl0Uth Pauxe I (, Bay tsomeer 1 More than half of the English settlers died during that first winter, as a result of poor nutrition and housing that proved inadequate in the harsh weather. Leaders such as Bradford, Standish, John Carver, William Brewster and Edward Winslow played important roles in keeping the remaining settlers together. John Carver was chosen to serve as the settlement s This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 3
first governor. In April 1 621, after his death, Bradford was unanimously chosen to replace him. Bradford would be re-elected 30 times and served as governor of Plymouth for all but five years until 1656. Squanto helps the newcomers The native inhabitants of the region around Plymouth Colony were the various tribes of the Wampanoag people. They had lived there for some 10,000 years before the Europeans arrived. Soon after the Pilgrims built their settlement, they came into contact with Tisquantum, also known as Squanto, an English-speaking Native American. Squanto was a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been seized by the explorer John Smith s men in 1614-15. Meant for slavery, he somehow managed to escape to England, and returned to his native land to find most of his tribe had died of plague. In addition to interpreting and mediating between the colonial leaders and Native American chiefs, Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn, as well as where to fish and hunt beaver. In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims famously shared a harvest feast with the Pokanokets; the meal is now considered the basis for the Thanksgiving holiday. War breaks out / 4 Other tribes, such as the Massachusetts and Narragansetts, were not so well disposed towards European settlers. The Pokanokets alliance with the Pilgrims disrupted relations among Native American peoples in the region. Over the next decades, relations between This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 4
settlers and Native Americans deteriorated as the former group occupied more and more land. By the time William Bradford died in 1657, he had already expressed anxiety that New England would soon be torn apart by violence. In 1675, Bradford s predictions came true, in the form of King Philip s War. That conflict left some 5,000 inhabitants of New England dead, three-quarters of those Native Americans. More English Puritans flee to the New World Repressive policies toward religious nonconformists in England drove many men and women to follow the Pilgrims path to the New World. In 1630, a group of some 1,000 Puritan refugees under Governor John Winthrop settled in Massachusetts. Winthrop soon established Boston as the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which would become the largest and most prosperous colony in the region. Compared with later groups who founded colonies in New England, such as the Puritans, the Pilgrims of Plymouth failed to achieve lasting economic success. After the early 1630s, some prominent members of the original group left the colony to found their own communities. The cost of fighting King Philip s War further damaged the colony s struggling economy. Less than a decade after the war King James II appointed a colonial governor to rule over New England. In 1692, Plymouth was absorbed into the larger Province of Massachusetts Bay. Bradford and the other Plymouth settlers were not originally known as Pilgrims, but as Old Comers. This changed after the discovery of a manuscript by Bradford in which he called the settlers who left Holland saints and pilgrimes. In 1820, at a bicentennial celebration of the colony s founding, the orator Daniel Webster referred to Pilgrim Fathers, and the term stuck. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 5
Quiz Read the final paragraph of the article. Why does the author choose to conclude the article with this paragraph? (C) to provide more information about repressive English policies to explain why the Plymouth Colony did not thrive on its own to confirm the Pilgrims name and place in the colony s founding to show how the Massachusetts colony changed and grew 2 Why does the author include the following paragraph in the article? Rough seas and storms prevented the Mayflower from reaching their initial destination. After a voyage of 65 days the ship reached the shores of Cape Cod, anchoring on the site of Provincetown Harbor in mid-november. After sending an exploring party ashore, the Mayflower landed at what they would call Plymouth Harbor, on the western side of Cape Cod Bay, in mid-december. During the next several months, the settlers lived mostly on the Mayflower. They ferried back and forth from shore to build their new storage and living quarters. (C) to describe the weather the Pilgrims experienced at Cape Cod to highlight the difficulty of the Pilgrims arrival and first winter to list the options the Pilgrims considered before landing at Playmouth to show how ill-prepared the Pilgrims were for the harsh winter 3 Which of the following statements is emphasized in the article but is NOT reflected in the map? (C) The Pilgrims intended destination was a region near the Hudson River. Boston was eventually established as the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Native American neighbors of the Pilgrims included the Pokanoket tribe. The Mayflower s settlers landed on the western side of Cape Cod Bay. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https:/!newselacom. 6
4 The image of the painting at the top of Mayflower waits in the distance. the article shows Based on the article, what is the explanation for this detail? a smaller boat pulling ashore while the More than half of those coming from England had already died on the voyage. Many of the settlers aboard the Mayflower preferred living on the ship to land. (C) A smaller group of settlers was sent into Plymouth Harbor to explore. Pilgrims asked for help in locating a colony they hoped to join in Virginia. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newselacom. 7