Devout Beginnings

It has often been said that America's success flows naturally from the stout, God-fearing nature of the first settlers. This usually means the Pilgrims, who are fleeing Europe to create a better society, based on God's grace.

The Pilgrims are, indeed, a different breed of people. But there are only 70 of them, barely two dozen of whom survive the first winter. The Jamestown settlement is far larger, with a cash crop much in demand.

The Pilgrims are a tiny group, alone in the wilderness. Struggling to survive, they quickly abandon notions of a communal society, and begin staking out private plots. Their children later adopt more relaxed religious rules.

Ten years after the Pilgrims, a flood of 'Puritans' arrive in Boston who are also fleeing religious persecution in England. Unlike the Pilgrims, however, they become known for their tolerance of other religious viewpoints.


	Desperate Pilgrims After long delays, the Pilgrims finally arrive in America with the first snow of winter (left). They immediately set about building a small cluster of English-style cottages, using lumber, nails and tools they bring with them. Most return to the safety of the ship each night. The Pilgrims stay true to their dreams, at least until their children grow up, but strict religious practices fade. Plymouth is never able to pay off its investors. All the business activity is up north, around Boston, where astonishing numbers of 'Puritans' arrive during the next 10 years.



	The First Winter Fewer than half the Mayflower passengers are actually Pilgrims, fleeing religious persecution. The others have economic reasons for wanting to start a new life in America. London has a growing problem of over-crowding, and jobs for young men are hard to find. But all the new arrivals in America face the same tough situation, trying to establish a wilderness settlement in winter, with only what they brought with them. There is little to sustain life during the first winter. With so little time to prepare, and so little food, half the settlers die before spring. The view at lower left shows those who survives, and those who don't. Only four adult females make it to the second year.


	Plymouth Colony This is a re-creation of Plymouth in the early years. The houses are simple, small and spare. The roofs are made of bundled straw, while the outside walls are covered with boards split from logs. Interior walls are made of a mud-straw mixture, which is pressed into a simple lattice-like arrangement of woven branches (partially exposed, at upper right). The result resembles a crude type of plaster (lower right). Cooking fireplaces have chimneys made from wood, but lined with the same mud mixture. Personal belongings are scanty, partly because of the isolated circumstance, but also because Pilgrims look for their rewards in heaven, not on earth.


	Combination Fort and Church The Pilgrims enclose their settlement in a stockade fence to protect against possible Indian attack. Two years later, they add a fort at the top of the hill. The upper floor of the fort also functions as a church and meeting house. The cannons can throw an iron ball half a mile, but Plymouth never comes under Indian attack. The surrounding Indians are weak and fearful, having been recently ravaged by a terrible sickness brought by earlier Europeans. Unlike the Jamestown colony, Plymouth does not threaten surrounding Indian settlements. This is partly because colonists don't need to seize Indian land to plant tobacco, but also because later settlers bound for New England head straight to Boston. Plymouth barely grows.


	Backyard Gardening Vegetables are grown in gardens behind every house, but also in surrounding fields. Corn (top right) is an important part of the Plymouth diet, despite being unknown in Europe at the time. Corn has been introduced by neighboring Indians, who are eager to maintain friendly relations with their strange new neighbors. The settlers also raise cattle and pigs, which graze outside the stockade, and sometimes eat from fields planted by nearby Indians. This causes friction with the Indians, but the settlers argue that they can't control where their animals eat.


	Quiet Piety Life at Plymouth is simple. Religious observances are center stage during the early years, as Pilgrims believe that righteous deeds are a means of honoring the freely-given grace of God. Though located just 40 miles south of the rapidly growing region surrounding Boston, the little Plymouth Colony remains isolated, with its small, shallow harbor. Though it lacks an official Royal Charter, the colony extends its reach southward to the 'elbow' of Cape Cod. This results in a burst of growth, about 40 years after its founding, which triples the colony's population to about 7,000. This includes the founding of 20 new towns over a span of 30 years. Still, the town of Plymouth itself remains small, barely reaching a population of 3,000 during the next 100 years.