Archive for the 'Pilgrims' Category

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?

• had a big feast called Thanksgiving
• came to “New World” for religious freedom
• were European
• sailed on the Mayflower
• someone had a baby on the Mayflower
• traded with American Indians (gold, weapons, etc.)
• turned on Indians
• started a new life when they came
• had turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, pie, etc. during their feast
• Native Americans helped them a lot
• landed on Plymoth Rock
• danced on Mayflower
• two ways to spell Plymoth
• Pilgrims ripped off/took advantage of Native Americans
• people are descendants of Pilgrims
• won battle against Native Americans
• took land from Native Americans in New England area
• ate crops
• first year was really rough because people were ill and died
• Native Americans thought they were letting them “borrowing” their land and not selling it to them
• Squanto helped a lot
• they carried their food in “horn things” found in center of table
• they were interested in a sharing community

Yesterday we worked with a denser secondary source to learn even more about those Mayflower folks!  Ms. Stokien demonst for you just how to read the first section and then you will be working on your own and in a group with the rest of it. The hard part will be the reading —being sure you completely understand all of it. The fun part will be preparing for our class’s Pilgrim Jeopardy game!

Part 1

As a class, work with Ms. Stokien to develop strategies to read and annotate the packet.

Part 2

You will be assigned a group to prepare questions for the Jeopardy Game.

1.  With your group members, go through your section and read it carefully (annotate and underline as necessary) and be sure EVERYONE in your group understands the whole section. If you are doing this during Lab and some of your group members are missing, go ahead and do it on your own and then go back over it with your group members when they are available. You must ALL be experts on your section for the game.

2. Once you’ve finished reading, as a group, come up with AT LEAST SIX good questions and answers from your section (and write them down on scrap paper).

Example:

Question: What was the third religious group to form (in England) and what was their main goal?

Answer: The Puritans/Separatists who wanted a more “pure” form of religion.

3. Check your questions/answers with Ms. Stokien or Ms. Edinger.

4. Write each question on a card (question on one side and answer on the other).

5. Decide on point value for each question. (Hard, Medium, Easy).

Part 3

As an individual, carefully read the rest of the packet so you know it and can play the Jeopardy Game. You may get questions from other sections than your own.

Part 4

Play Jeopardy!

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.

Welcome back! I know that you saw a lot and learned even more about the lives of Pilgrims on your recent trip to Plimoth Plantation.

Let’s make a list of the various aspects of Pilgrim life that you studied and experienced during your visit:

• Pilgrim meal (manners, utensils, food)
• Activities (games, writing with a quill, clothing, mystery home)
• Native American Home (several homes, hides, children, canoe)
• Mayflower II
• Fort and canons
• Graveyard
• Village doctor
• Main Street
• Build/plaster a house
• Worked in fields
• Craft center (making a sail, glazing pottery)
• Gardens
• Brewster and the firewood
• Alice Bradford cooking
• and much more!

While you were away, I listened to the descriptions of your pilgrim characters. Many of your characters left family behind. Knowing what you know now about life in a new settlement during the early 1600s, write a letter to those family members who did not travel on the Mayflower. Pick several of the topics we listed above and describe the living conditions in Plimoth. How does your character overcome the challenges of life in a new settlement?

Be sure to practice using some that Pilgrim vocabulary, too!

Last Friday we began reading Mourt’s Relation, one of the first and most important primary sources about the Pilgrims. We read a version that retained the original spelling and capitals and discovered that in 1622 (when it was published) there was no conventional spelling or use of capitals. They spelled anyway they wanted (and so we have Plimoth, Plymouth, and Plymoth) and used capitals anyway they wanted as well. Here’s the page we “translated” and annotated. (Pardon for the messiness, but I was unable to calibrate the Smartboard for some weird reason.)

Today each of you is going to illustrate a small section of this journal. I will give you Pilgrim Voices, a book where the creators have carefully combined parts of Mourt’s Relation and On Plymouth Plantation (William Bradford’s memoirs and the other major source about the Pilgrims) and illustrated it beautifully, They researched the illustrations from primary sources and so you can use them as secondary sources for your own.

Each of you will be given one quote to illustrate. Be sure to write the quote on the drawing and where it is from. For example:

“… there was the greatest store of fowle we euer saw.” (Mourt’s Relation)

You can also see what some of last year’s house did here, here, here and here.

Once you have finished your drawing (and had it checked by me) please scan it and put it on your blog as did last year’s students. (You should know how to do this, but if you forgot go here for reminders.)

I’ve marked the different sections (badly, using the Smartboard pen:). Each section is numbered, but below the images I will give an easier-to-read quote for each.

Here are the sections (but they are from a version with the corrected spelling/capitals so use the one we annotated so you can get that old spelling!)

1. Wednesday, the sixth of September, the winds coming east north east, a fine small gale, we loosed from Plymouth, having been kindly entertained and courteously used by divers friends there dwelling.
2. and after many difficulties in boisterous storms,
3. by God’s providence, upon the ninth of November following, by break of the day we espied land which was deemed to be Cape Cod, and so afterward it proved.
4. And the appearance of it much comforted us, especially seeing so goodly a land, and wooded to the brink of the sea.
5. It caused us to rejoice together, and praise God that had given us once again to see land.
6. And thus we made our course south south west, purposing to go to a river ten leagues to the south of the Cape
7. but at night the wind being contrary, we put round again for the bay of Cape Cod; and upon the 11th of November we came to an anchor
8. the bay, which is a good harbor and pleasant bay, circled round, except in the entrance which is about four miles over from land to land,
9. compassed about to the very sea with oaks, pines, juniper, sassafras, and other sweet wood
10. it is a harbor wherein a thousand sail of ships may safely ride
11. there we relieved ourselves with wood and water, and refreshed our people
12. our shallop was fitted to coast the bay, to search for a habitation
13. there was the greatest store of fowl that ever we saw
14. And every day we saw whales playing hard by us, of which in that place, if we had instruments and means to take them, we might have made a very rich return, which to our great grief we wanted.
15. For cod we assayed, but found none, there is good store, no doubt, in their season.
16. Neither got we any fish all the time we lay there, but some few little ones on the shore.
17. We found great mussels, and very fat and full of sea-pearl, but we could not eat them, for they made us all sick that did eat, as well sailors as passengers; they caused to cast and scour, but they were soon well again.
18. The bay is so round and circling, that before we could come to anchor we went round all the points of the compass. We could not come near the shore by three quarters of an English mile, because of shallow water, which was a great prejudice to us, for our people going on shore were forced to wade a bow shot or two in going a-land, which caused many to get colds and coughs, for it was nigh times freezing cold weather.
19. This day before we came to harbor, observing some not well affected to unity and concord, but gave some appearance of faction, it was thought good there should be an association and agreement that we should combine together in one body, and to submit to such government and governors as we should by common consent agree to make and choose