The Puritans and Plymouth Colony essays

The Puritans and Plymouth Colony essays Amer. governor of the Plymouth Colony for 30 years. A member of the Separatist movement within Puritanism, in 1609 he went to Holland to seek religious freedom. Finding a lack of opportunity there, in 1620 he helped organize an expedition of about 100 Pilgrims to the New World. He helped draft the Mayflower Compact aboard the group's ship, was unanimously chosen governor, and served as governor of the Plymouth Colony for all but five years from 1621 to 1656. He helped establish and foster the principles of self-government and religious freedom that characterized later Amer. colonial government. His descriptive journal provides a unique source of both the voyage of the Mayflower and the challenges faced by the settlers. Bradford was a native of Ansterfield, Yorkshire, in the north of England, where he was born in the year 1588. His pecuniary circumstances were easy, when he followed persecuted Puritans to Holland and became fully identified with them in exile. From early life he had been accustomed to their teachings; and at the age of seventeen years, he attempted to sail to the Netherlands, with some others, where their harassed brethren had gone. Betrayed, he was seized and imprisoned at Boston, in Lincolnshire, for awhile, but finally escaped and joined the fugitives at Amsterdam, where he learned the silk weaver's art and pursued it. On receiving his patrimony, he entered into unsuccessful commercial operations, and lost a greater portion of it. When the establishment of a free colony in America was projected at Leyden, he was one of the most zealous promoters of the measure; and he and his young wife were among the earliest emigrants to that land of promise. Before a site was selected for a settlement, and while the Mayflower was yet riding at anchor in Cape Cod Bay, Mrs. Bradford fell into the sea and was drowned. That was the first death among the Pilgrims after their arrival on the coast of America. Bradford was very popul...