Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick

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Review of Mayflower : A Story of Courage , Community and War

Nathaniel Philbrick

American History 2753

Brenda Beam

This work deals with a familiar theme in American history , the first Puritan settlement on American soil , from England and Holland , aboard the Mayflower . It is a story of hardship and courage on both the part of the Indians and the Pilgrims , but most importantly , it is an evenhanded treatment of a complex subject that has been mythologized in two ways first , the pro-Pilgrim myth , that they were

innocent Christians attacked by an inferior and savage group of tribes , and the pro-Indian myth , that the innocent Indians were massacred and enslaved by a group of adventurers and freebooters using religion and political dissent as a cover for their immorality . Neither of these familiar points of view are remotely true , and punching holes in both sacred cows is the real purpose of the work itself

However , before this review can begin , several major issues need to be dealt with . First , the passengers of the Mayflower , under captain Christopher Jones (57-58 , were not all Puritans . The Puritans were the larger group involved in the move to North American from England , but there also were Strangers , a smaller group recruited by British merchant interests to act as settlers and labor in the new world . AT the same time , Pilgrim ' is a word that take into itself not merely Puritans but any and all Protestant dissenters who rejected the Church of England...