Pilgrims and Puritans
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About this ebook
History is dramatic—and the renowned, award-winning authors Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier demonstrate this in a compelling series aimed at young readers. Covering American history from the founding of Jamestown through present day, these volumes explore far beyond the dates and events of a historical chronicle to present a moving illumination of the ideas, opinions, attitudes, and tribulations that led to the birth of this great nation.
In Pilgrims and Puritans, the authors begin in the year 1620 in England and end in New England in the year 1676. The book recounts the religious, political, and social history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and its influence on our lives today. The narrative follows various groups of settlers from their departure from England through arrival in the New World and their often violent conflicts with the native peoples of the Americas. The authors examine a number of issues that arose in the new society that was founded and the rise and fall of the "city on a hill."
Christopher Collier
Christopher Collier is an author and historian. He attended Clark University and Columbia University, where he earned his PhD. He was the official Connecticut State Historian from 1984 to 2004 and is now professor of history emeritus at the University of Connecticut. He is the brother of James Lincoln Collier, with whom he has written a number of novels, most of which are based on historic events. His books have been nominated for several awards, including the Newbery Honor and the Pulitzer Prize.
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Reviews for Pilgrims and Puritans
4 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Its very hard to find much information on the Puritans.The Collier brothers are well-known for their knowledge of American History and even better known for novels likeMy Brother Sam is Dead.
Book preview
Pilgrims and Puritans - Christopher Collier
SERIES
PREFACE
OVER MANY YEARS of both teaching and writing for students at all levels, from grammar school to graduate school, it has been borne in on us that many, if not most, American history textbooks suffer from trying to include everything of any moment in the history of the nation. Students become lost in a swamp of factual information, and as a consequence lose track of how those facts fit together, and why they are significant and relevant to the world today.
In this series, our effort has been to strip the vast amount of available detail down to a central core. Our aim is to draw in bold strokes, providing enough information, but no more than is necessary, to bring out the basic themes of the American story, and what they mean to us now. We believe that it is surely more important for students to grasp the underlying concepts and ideas that emerge from the movement of history, than to memorize an array of facts and figures.
The difference between this series and many standard texts lies in what has been left out. We are convinced that students will better remember the important themes if they are not buried under a heap of names, dates, and places.
In this sense, our primary goal is what might be called citizenship education. We think it is critically important for America as a nation and Americans as individuals to understand the origins and workings of the public institutions which are central to American society. We have asked ourselves again and again what is most important for citizens of our democracy to know so they can most effectively make the system work for themselves and the nation. For this reason, we have focused on political and institutional history, leaving social and cultural history less well developed.
This series is divided into volumes that move chronologically through the American story. Each is built around a single topic, such as the Pilgrims, the Constitutional Convention, or immigration. Each volume has been written so that it can stand alone, for students who wish to research a given topic. As a consequence, in many cases material from previous volumes is repeated, usually in abbreviated form, to set the topic in its historical context. That is to say, students of the Constitutional Convention must be given some idea of relations with England, and why the revolution was fought, even though the material was covered in detail in a previous volume. Readers should find that each volume tells an entire story that can be read with or without reference to other volumes.
Despite our belief that it is of the first importance to outline sharply basic concepts and generalizations, we have not neglected the great dramas of American history. The stories that will hold the attention of students are here, and we believe they will help the concepts they illustrate to stick in their minds. We think, for example, that knowing of Abraham Baldwin's brave and dramatic decision to vote with the small states at the Constitutional Convention will bring alive the Connecticut Compromise, out of which grew the American Senate.
Each of these volumes has been read by esteemed specialists in its particular topic; we have benefited from their comments.
CHAPTER I: PILGRIMS AND PURITANS: THE ENGLISH CALVINISTS
THEY SET OUT from Southampton, a thriving port city on the southern coast of England, in two sailing ships that today would seem foolishly small. Almost immediately one of the ships, called the Speedwell, began to spring leaks. They put in at Dartmouth for repairs, then started off again out into the vast Atlantic, two corks bobbing on an uncertain sea. They were well out into the ocean when once again the Speedwell began to leak, and threatened to sink. There was no choice, and the two ships turned back. They made land safely at Plymouth, a bustling port near the western tip of England.
Now as many of the Speedwell passengers as there was room for were transferred to the other ship, called the Mayflower, and it set off alone across the dangerous Atlantic, crowded with 101 passengers and the ship's crew. Week after week these Pilgrims traveled onward, men, women, and children (two babies were born aboard ship), along with such things as household furniture, tools, barrels of salted beef, casks of butter, and hogsheads of beer, which at the time was thought safer to drink than water. There were also some dogs on the ship, and probably pigs and chickens.
Supplies of fresh food began to run short, and inevitably people grew sick. Scurvy, a common disease caused by a lack of vitamin C, grew rampant. Only one passenger died on shipboard, but by the end of the voyage many more were so ill that they would not survive the coming winter. They prayed; and finally, after almost eight weeks at sea, they saw the piece of land their maps called Cape Cod.
The Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower, as it appeared in 1957. At 180 tons, the Mayflower was larger than typical ships of the time. It was an excellent ship, and had seen many years of service hauling fish, timber, turpentine, and tar, mainly from Norway.
They sent out an expedition to see if there was any suitable place to settle in. The weather was so cold that as the explorers rowed for shore in their boat, the salt spray froze on their coats, glazing them over. They spent a night huddled around a fire, and all the next day searched the area. The next night they built a barricade of logs and brush, and once more huddled around the fire. Suddenly, as they were getting breakfast, they heard a great and strange cry. 'Men, Indians, Indians,' someone shouted, and withal, their arrows came flying amongst them.
The Pilgrims fired back, and some of the Indians fled. But one stood by a tree, speeding arrows toward them, until a musket shot ripped into