MAYFLOWER - the book

I recently finished reading Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick, published in 2006. I should say I finally finished it because it has been sitting on my shelf for a while. It is a fascinating read.

Like most Americans, I was raised on the story of the Pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving. This story has been referred to as the classic American founding myth. The Pilgrims were always cast as brave and heroic and virtuous. The Indians were decent and helpful and embraced their new neighbors in friendship and love.

While I know a lot about the Pilgrims and the Puritans, both historically and theologically, I have rarely gone beyond the shallow façade of the popular story. In this book, I learned a great deal about those early settlers and other early forays by Europeans to the American shores, unfortunately not all of it was very positive.

For example: those pious Englishmen were involved in selling Native Americans as slaves to Spain and the West Indies; they used all means, some fair and some not, in obtaining more and more land from the neighboring tribes; and they engaged in some acts that would now be considered barbaric behavior in the commission of the fighting of King Philip’s war.

I realize that I have been guilty of overly romantic thinking as I consider that doughty band of Pilgrims - and the Puritans who arrived later - and that I should see them just as human beings as we all are, products of their times, and not especially “holy or saint like.” But, that may be my point in this.

The behavior those Pilgrims exhibited was just like what people in every age have manifest. They were subject to the same flaws and to similar excesses as we all are. Wouldn’t it be nice if, some time, I could look at myself and say, “I cannot imagine that I would ever be willing to see people enslaved or cheated from their land.”

Let me encourage you to read Philbrick’s book and ponder what you can learn about yourself.