Over four centuries ago, the Mayflower left England for the New World with 104 passengers, including William Bradford. These people fled to escape religious persecution and would become the first English settlers in America. They would eventually make their way to Plymouth and establish a colony there. Throughout the journey, William Bradford kept a journal, showing his thoughts.
William Bradford’s Journey to the New World
In September 1620, the Mayflower left England with 102 people. Many were pilgrims who were effectively exiled from their country due to their religious beliefs. To that end, they decided to leave in search of greener pastures in the New World where they hoped to create a new colony away from the British government. Among them was William Bradford, a pilgrim who would later become the governor of Plymouth, the Colony they created in America.
However, the journey to the New World was harrowing and lasted 66 days where they sailed across the Atlantic, facing storms, disease, and other dangers to reach their new home. All of these were recorded in Bradford’s journal, “Of Plymouth Plantation.” Here William Bradford recorded 20 years’ worth of challenges the Pilgrims faced as they built the first successful English colony in the US.
After his death, many believed the Journal was lost forever, but William Bradford’s words were later rediscovered in the 19th century, showing this important piece of American history. It painted a story of immense hardship by the Pilgrims who were exiled from their home and faced many perils to find a new one. But in the end, these difficulties lead to the creation of the Plymouth colony, a settlement that still exists today.
Some experts from William Bradford’s journal can still seen ehre that shows the emotions running through the governors mind during the founding of his colony.
“Thus it pleased God to vanquish their enemies and give them deliverance; and by His special providence so to dispose that not any one of them were either hurt or hit, though their arrows flew thick about them, and sundry of their coats, which hung up in the barricado, were shot through and through.”
-William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony.
“… And yet the Lord so upheld these persons, as in this general calamity they were not at all infected either with sickness or lameness. If He had not been with us in a special manner, we must needs have perished miserably.”
-William Bradford, Governor of Plymouth Colony.
At the time, England was ruled by James I, the son of Mary Queen of the Scots who may have been executed by Queen Elizabeth I as seen by this letter.
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