On the 15th of December they weighed anchor to go to the place they
had discovered, and came within two leagues of it, but were fain to bear
up again, but the 16th day, the wind came fair, and they arrived safe in
this harbor. And afterwards took a better view of the place, and resolved
where to pitch their dwelling; and the 25th day began to erect the first house
for common use to receive them and their goods.William Bradford
Governor
Plymouth Plantation
We Americans all know about the Pilgrims. Weren’t they those people in the funny hats who left England and then had a big feast with the Indians? With lots of turkey and pumpkin pie? Those Pilgrims? Those Indians? That celebration? That story?
Well, um, no. In this unit you are going to be serious historians, finding about the real Pilgrims behind the myth (and they are nothing like the cartoon ones above). The Pilgrims were immigrants with similar reasons for coming to America that people still have today. You have already looked closely at contemporary immigration by way of your oral history project. You created thoughtful questions for your subject about his or her immigration experiences and crafted the resulting interview into a picture book. Now you are going to attempt to do something similar with a real person from over 250 years ago! Since the Pilgrims aren’t here to interview, you will have to get your information some other way. Learning ways to do that will be a major part of your work in this assignment. As well, you will become a Pilgrim expert, ready to travel back in time to visit Plimoth Plantation itself!
So to begin, what do you already know about these folks?
- They came on two ships but one sank.
- They came to the East coast of America.
- When they were on the Mayflower, they wouldn’t eat during the day b/c of bugs on the food.
- They was a great sickness that killed 42 of the Pilgrims.
- They dressed differently than we do.
- They didn’t only wear black; they wore purple and brown clothes.
- At first, they thought the Indians were savages.
- They started Thanksgiving.
- Indians and Pilgrims taught each other things.
- At first, Indians and people living their didn’t like the immigrants.
- They had a big peace with the Indians and a feast.
- There was a battle w/ the Indians when they first arrived.
- They landed close to Massachusetts.
- At first, the Pilgrims had trouble growing crops like corn.
- The first Indian who came to the colony was Samoset.
- There is something called Plymouth Rock.
- The Indians taught the Pilgrims to use fish in their planting.