God’s Justice in Of Plymouth Plantation Jamie Leung College

Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation opened the possibility that Indians were as much in God’s favor as the Pilgrims.During that time period written in the 17th century, this argument would be rather controversial.To begin, the exercise of human agency appeared to invoke God’s attention within the text.Whenever a noteworthy character incited a change of fate from his actions, he was described as “lusty”: having agency, whether for good or bad.

Also, from the beginning, Bradford set up the theme and a possible equation of how God executed justice.When the first “lusty” man was introduced, he was the sailor who harassed the passengers who were ill, and his actions were described as “grievous” as well as his consequences.The repetition of that adjective constructed a direct relationship between actions and repercussions.And his fate, directed by God, was described as “just”. However, “just” in this case, whether the able-bodied man deserved his death—could be described as biased.This resulted to a hypothesis whether the scales of justice were based on the well-being of only the Pilgrims.

Based on the able-bodied sailor’s death seen as an act of justice, his execution was a very Utilitarian stance on justice in this text.

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