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THE PILGRIM
STORY
Understanding the Pilgrims
The Scrooby Separatists
Life in Holland & Departure
to New England
The Mayflower Voyage
The First Winter
The "First Thanksgiving"
Plymouth
Colony:
1622-1626
Pilgrim Clothing
17th-century Wampanoag Clothing
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The Pilgrim story begins
in the small north Nottinghamshire village of Scrooby. In about
1606, a group of English religious dissidents, whom we know as
"the Pilgrims," formed their own church independent
of the national Church of England and its head, King James I.
William Brewster, Richard Clifton, William Bradford and John
Robinson and their families felt that their Christian faith required
a greater degree of church reformation than was possible in the
King's established Church. They therefore decided to gather themselves
into a church of their own under a separate covenant. Such a
move was considered treasonous at a time when church and state
were united, and the Separatists, as they were called, were forced
to flee the country lest they be imprisoned or even executed
for their beliefs. After a disastrous false start at Boston in
Lincolnshire -- where they were discovered and imprisoned --
and a more successful attempt near Immingham, on the Humber River,
the little company was able to emigrate by 1609 to the tolerant
haven of the Netherlands. |
