First I will unfold the causes that led to the foundation of the New Plymouth Settlement, and the motives of those concerned in it. In order that I may give an accurate account of the project, I must begin at the very root and rise of it; and this I shall endeavour to do in a plain style and with singular regard to the truth,—at least as near as my slender judgment can attain to it.
The opening lines of Bradford’s history of the Plymouth settlement should not be discounted. While the story’s “meat” is an eyewitness accounting of some of the earliest myths (as they would later become and not due to Bradford’s straightforward account) of America, the story most assuredly begins well before the Mayflower arrived on the shores of the New Land. Without understanding the why behind the departure of the Pilgrims, it almost impossible to fully grasp the significance of anything that follows the arrival of the Pilgrims.
But it pleased God, before they came half seas over, to smite the young man with a grievous disease, of which he died in a desperate manner, and so was himself the first to be thrown overboard.
Bradford here is basically celebrating the fact that a sailor was stricken with disease, died miserably and was unceremoniously tossed into the ocean. Remember, not everybody aboard the Mayflower was a Pilgrim; in addition to Puritans there was decidedly non-Puritan seamen. But what might sins might this young sailor have committed to make him deserving of such seemingly non-Christian sentiments? He was given to profane manifestations of insolence toward the Puritans aboard , cursing and, indeed, letting it be known he would not lose sleep were they to find themselves tossed overboard. One may draw from the parallel exhibited here whatever lesson one so desires.
After this he returned to his place, called Sowams, some forty miles off, but Squanto stayed with them, and was their interpreter, and became a special instrument sent of God for their good, beyond their expectation.
Notice the language—the precise word choice—that Bradford uses here to describe the “Indian” Squanto. He is an interpreter because he learned English and this, in turn, makes him a “special instrument.” One might well accuse Bradford of a little bit of subtle racism and prejudice here were it not for the fact that there’s nothing subtle about. Squanto learned to speak the language of the strangers to his country, not the other way around. But that’s not where the racial component. Not only is Bradford overlooking the fact that it was the “Indian” who made the effort rather than the other way around, but he won’t even give him credit for it! It was God who allowed Squanto to learn the language of these strange and mysterious invaders; not Squanto himself using his own clearly advanced intellect.
This calls for much thankfulness from us all, which we purpose, the Lord willing, to express in a day of Thanksgiving to our merciful God.
Probably the single most resonant event which took place during the period covered by Bradford’s historical account is the first Thanksgiving. Today, of course, almost the entire country effectively shuts down—except for football players, store clerks and street cleaners—and it is truly America’s national holiday. Huge! One of the most ironic displays of modesty and understatement in the literature of the New World is displayed above in Bradford’s only reference to the feast that began it all using the name which is now applied.
