![]() There is a large rock on the Plymouth waterfront. Deciding that the Outer Cape was unsuitable for settlement, they sailed across Cape Cod Bay and, after the day of exploration by several of the colony’s leaders described by Bradford, chose the vacant Wampanoag village of Patuxet as the site of their new home. The Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts on November 11, 1620, anchoring in what is now Provincetown harbor at the very tip of Cape Cod. But myths are important as archaeologist James Deetz, who excavated several sites in Plymouth, wrote, “historical myths of this kind provide a common shared sense of where we have come from as a people.” The landing on Plymouth Rock, which is depicted on this plate made in the 1820s, is considered by many to be a key moment of American history. ![]() Notice that Bradford does not mention the one thing that almost all of us think about when we think about the arrival of the Pilgrims: Plymouth Rock. So they returned to their shipp againe with this news to ye rest of their people, which did much comforte their harts.” “On Monday they sounded the harbor and found it fit for shipping, and marched into the land and found diverse cornfields and little running brooks, a place (as they supposed) fit for situation at least it was ye best they could find, and ye season, & their presente necessitie, made them glad to accepte of it. William Bradford, one of the leaders of the colony, described the event: Plate made of pearlware (lead-glazed earthenware) by Enoch Wood & Sons, Staffordshire, England, 1820-1830.įour hundred years ago, on December 21, 1620, the Pilgrims set foot in what they would come to call Plymouth. ![]() Tomorrow morning you can catch the Old Colony Club’s Forefathers Day procession on Cole’s Hill at sunrise.Search Feature Stories Campus Events All Stories Stories by Discipline According to the Boston Globe, in 1802, John Quincy Adams delivered a speech at Forefathers Day in Plymouth “that celebrated the Pilgrims as proto-democrats whose Mayflower Compact had laid the basis for the great experiment in republican government to come”, and once his reputation began to rise, the position of Forefathers Day speaker in Plymouth became a coveted one. Bradford wrote, “it was the best they could find, and the season and present necessity made them glad to accept of it.”ĥ) Forefathers Day was introduced in 1769 to celebrate the landing of the Pilgrimsīefore the creation of the United States of America, and almost a century before Thanksgiving was proclaimed a federal holiday by President Lincoln (1863), Forefathers Day was a day for commemorating not only the landing of the Pilgrims but the values which they represented, which are still largely considered cornerstones of our Nation. …had it not been for the terrible sicknesses being shared among the passengers and the looming winter. Captain Smith is credited with naming this region New Plimouth.Ĥ) The Pilgrims might have moved on to another location… The Pilgrims were also aware that where they landed was called “Plymouth,” thanks to Captain John Smith’s well-documented expedition in 1614 (which is also significant because of this high-profile kidnapping) and the maps that were created as a result. ![]() …not documented! Little is known of the first expedition in Plymouth, but we can guess that it was likely all men who boarded the 30-foot shallop to explore their new home.ģ) The Pilgrims did not name Plymouth (or America, for that matter)īradford wrote, while the Pilgrims were still living in Holland, that he was hoping to travel to “America,” which could have meant either North or South America, as both continents had been identified as simply “America” sometime around 1515 in honor of Amerigo Vespucci, who made at least three voyages to the continents between 14. In fact, the rock wasn’t identified as anything of significance until 1771, when 94-year-old Thomas Faunce, claimed that his father, who arrived in Plymouth in 1623, and several of the original Mayflower passengers assured him the stone (which was much larger at the time) was the specific landing spot.Ģ) The first passengers to step foot in Plymouth were… There are no written or verbal accounts that the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, and the landing place of the Pilgrims has not been determined. Here are a few things you may not have heard about this iconic moment in history:ġ) The Pilgrims did not actually land on Plymouth Rock. On December 21st, the first expedition took the shallop ashore. On December 21, 1620, the Pilgrims came ashore at Plymouth.Īfter 66 days at sea and several weeks docked in Provincetown Harbor while the passengers explored Cape Cod, Mayflower finally docked in Plymouth on December 18th. ![]()
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