“NOTHING SAVES P[LYMOUTH] BUT THE ROCK” As we plodded along, either by the edge of the ocean, where the sand was rapidly drinking up the last wave that wet it, or over the sand-hills of the bank, the mackerel fleet continued to pour round the Cape north of us, ten or fifteen miles distant, in countless numbers, schooner after schooner, till they made a city on the water. They were so thick that many appeared to be afoul of one another; now all standing on this tack, now on that. We saw how well the New-Englanders had followed up Captain John Smith’s suggestions with regard to the fisheries, made in 1616, — to what a pitch they had carried “this contemptible trade of fish,” as he significantly styles it, and were now equal to the Hollanders whose example he holds up for the English to emulate; notwithstanding that “in this faculty,” as he says, “the former are so naturalized, and of their vents so certainly acquainted, as there is no likelihood they will ever be paralleled, having two or three thousand busses, flat-bottoms, sword- pinks, todes, and such like, that breeds them sailors, mariners, soldiers, and merchants, never to be wrought out of that trade and fit for any other.” We thought that it would take all these names and more to describe the numerous craft which we saw. Even then, some years before our “renowned sires” with their “peerless dames” stepped on Plymouth Rock, he wrote, “Newfoundland doth yearly freight near eight hundred sail of ships with a silly, lean, skinny poor-john, and cor fish,” though all their supplies must be annually transported from Europe. Why not plant a colony here then, and raise those supplies on the spot? “Of all the four parts of the world,” says he, “that I have yet seen, not inhabited, could I have but means to transport a colony, I would rather live here than anywhere. And if it did not maintain itself, were we but once indifferently well fitted, let us starve.” Then “fishing before your doors,” you “may every night sleep quietly ashore, with good cheer and what fires you will, or, when you please, with your wives and family.” Already he anticipates “the new towns in New England in memory of their old,”– and who knows what may be discovered in the “heart and entrails” of the land, “seeing even the very edges,” &c., &c. HDT WHAT? INDEX FOREFATHERS ROCK PATUXET 13,000 BCE About 15,000 years ago the last age ended with average temperatures rising by several degrees Centigrade. A glacier dumped a boulder that would eventually be freighted with identity-politics significance as “The Plymouth Rock.” The Near East experienced a corresponding northerly migration of monsoon rains, resulting in a kind of “Garden of Eden” in Jordan, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. OUR MOST RECENT GLACIATION HDT WHAT? INDEX FOREFATHERS ROCK PATUXET 1564 June 30, Friday (Old Style): René de Laudonnière had disembarked near present-day Jacksonville, Florida, to build a fort north of St. John’s Bluff named Fort Caroline. He heard twenty native musicians who were “blowing hideous discord through pipes of reed.” The French brought musicians to play the violin, spinet, fife, trumpet, and drums for both military and social occasions.1 Their spinet was the first keyboard instrument brought by Florida settlers, and the first on the American eastern seaboard. On this day the first recognizable Thanksgiving festival –by white people that is– was held in the New World. This was not in what would become Massachusetts but in what eventually would become Florida — it was held not in Plymouth but in this Fort Caroline. It was not held by the famous Puritans who had obtained freedom from English Protestant religious persecution but by these ignored Huguenots who were fleeing from French Catholic religious 1. With this group, also, was an artist named Jacques Le Moyne. HDT WHAT? INDEX FOREFATHERS ROCK PATUXET persecution. (So much for what you were taught in high school!) HDT WHAT? INDEX FOREFATHERS ROCK PATUXET 1608 On the Virginia coast, some Dutchmen were building Powhatan a house in Gloucester near Werawocomoco.2 READ ABOUT VIRGINIA Meanwhile, in England, the Separatist congregation in the village of Scrooby in Nottinghamshire in rural England, led by William Brewster and the Reverend Richard Clifton, emigrated to Amsterdam in order to escape harassment and religious persecution. The next year they would move to Leiden, where, enjoying full religious freedom, they would remain for almost 12 years. In 1617, discouraged by economic difficulties, the pervasive Dutch influence on their children, and their inability to secure civil autonomy, the congregation would vote to emigrate again, this time to America. Through the Brewster family’s friendship with Sir Edwin Sandys, treasurer of the London Company, the congregation would secure two patents authorizing them to settle in the northern part of the company’s jurisdiction. Unable to finance the costs of the emigration with their own meager resources, they would negotiate a financial agreement with Thomas Weston, a prominent London iron merchant. Fewer than half of the group’s members would, however, elect eventually to leave Leiden. A 2. The reconstructed chimney of that house now stands in “Powhatan’s Subdivision” at Wicomoco. HDT WHAT? INDEX FOREFATHERS ROCK PATUXET small ship, the Speedwell, would convey them to Southampton, England, where they were to join another group of Separatists and pick up a 2d ship. After some delays and disputes, the voyagers would regroup at Plymouth aboard the 180-ton Mayflower. This vessel would begin its historic voyage on September 16, 1620, with about 102 passengers — fewer than half of them from Leiden. After a 65-day journey, these “Old Comers”3 would sight Cape Cod on November 19th. Unable to reach the land they had contracted for, they would anchor on November 21st at the site of Provincetown. It was because they had no legal right whatever to settle in this region that they would need to draw up a compact creating their own government. The settlers soon discovered Plymouth Harbor, on the western side of Cape Cod Bay, and make their historic landing on December 21st; the main body of settlers would follow along after them on December 26th. The Mayflower Compact In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, e&. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, 3. They knew themselves as “Old Comers” rather than as the “Pilgrim Fathers.” Although the term “Pilgrim” had been applied by William Bradford to the Leiden Separatists while they were in the process of leaving Holland, the Mayflower’s passengers would not be characterized as “Pilgrim Fathers” until the year 1799 — considerably outside this emigration timeframe. HDT WHAT? INDEX FOREFATHERS ROCK PATUXET such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620. There followed the signatures of 41 of the 102 passengers, 37 of whom were members of the “Separatists” who were fleeing religious persecution in Europe. This compact established the first basis in the new world for written laws. Half the colony would not survive the 1st winter but the remainder would persist and, eventually, more or less, some of them, prosper. “The capacity to get free is nothing; the capacity to be free, that is the task.” — André Gide, THE IMMORALIST translation Richard Howard NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970, page 7 HDT WHAT? INDEX FOREFATHERS ROCK PATUXET 1613 Nathaniel Morton was born in England, the eldest son of George Morton. He would come across to the New World with his father and mother as members of the Scrooby Congregation during 1623, and during 1635 would become a freeman and get married with Lydia Cooper, who would bear Remember Morton during 1637; Mercy Morton; Lydia Morton; Elizabeth Morton born on May 3, 1652; Joanna Morton born on November 9, 1654; and Hannah Morton; besides Eliezer Morton and Nathaniel Morton who would die in early youth so that descent in the male line would fail. He would have the benefit of all the MSS of Governor William Bradford, his uncle, and would compile the well known “NEW-ENGLANDS MEMORIALL,” of which the 5th edition would be illustrated by Judge Davis. He would be secretary of Plymouth Colony from 1645 until his death. Edwin Morton of Plymouth would be one of his violinist descendants. HDT WHAT? INDEX FOREFATHERS ROCK PATUXET 1616 Captain John Smith’s A DESCRIPTION OF NEW ENGLAND, based on his 1614 explorations on land and on his coastal survey, was printed in London. The volume advocated the missionary position: CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE WORTHY is that person to starve that heere [sic] cannot live; if he have sense, strength and health: for there is no such penury of these blessings in any place, but that a hundred men may, in one houre [sic] or two, make their provision for a day: and he that hath experience to manage well these afaires [sic], with fortie [sic] or thirtie [sic] honest industrious men, might well undertake (if they dwell in these parts) to subject the Salvages [sic], and feed daily two or three hundred men, with as good corn, fish and flesh, as the earth hath of these kindes [sic], and yet make that labor but their pleasure: provided that they have engins [sic], that be proper for their purposes.