Moses
While the text naturally references many Biblical allusions, special symbolic significance is accorded to Moses. His leading the Hebrews out bondage in Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land is not just symbol, metaphor in Bradford’s hands for the pilgrimage being undertaken by the persecuted Puritans.
Squanto
Squanto is an actual historical personage and Bradford affords him that distinction. At the same time, however, the “Indian” instrumental in bringing about the first Thanksgiving is also implicated with greater symbolic significance. That significance is directly addressed in the text when Bradford refers to the indigenous tribesman who learned to speak English and serve as Plymouth’s translator as “a special instrument sent by God.” In one fell swoop, Bradford manages to undermine the singular labor and abundance of intellect of Squanto by suggesting that everything he did was only capable through being an active agent of God’s intrusion into the affairs of man.
Corn
In an anecdote in which British settlers essentially steal from an unprotected supply of “Indian” corn, Bradford also directly addresses the symbolism: “it is to be noted as a special providence of God, and a great mercy to this poor people, that they thus got seed to plant corn the next year, or they might have starved.” Ignoring the economics of the situation, Bradford chooses instead to frame the story within theological terms. As a symbol, corn is especially specious.
Thomas Morton
The leader of the rival Merrymount settlement, Thomas Morton, is referred to by Bradford as the Lord of Misrule. It might be too much to suggest that Morton takes on the symbolic weight of nemesis, but it is readily apparent that he is a symbol intended to convey in full how the Puritans of Plymouth were superior colonial managers in every imaginable way. The Lord of Misrule is a figure associated within Christianity with the wanton drunkenness of Christmas, a holiday which did not figure predominantly in Puritan belief.
The Pequot War
The Pequots were a tribe of “Indians” with which the Plymouth colony—and, indeed, none of the other settlements—got along with quite like they did various others. Essentially a land dispute erupted which was brought to a genocidal end for the Pequots by superior British firepower. The tribe was declared extinct, although many of them were actually sold off into slavery in the West Indies. The rest were annihilated. Referencing the book of Leviticus, Bradford frames this horrific response within the overarching symbolic motif the history as a modern version of Biblical Holy Wars against God’s Chosen People.
