Who Journeyed on the Mayflower?

Nicola Barber

Description

How do we know about the people who journeyed on the Mayflower? Why did they cross the Atlantic, and what happened to them? This book shows how we know about the travellers and their ship from primary and other sources. It includes information on some historical detective work that has taken place, using documentary and archaeological evidence, that has enabled historians to piece together the fascinating story of the Mayflower.

Sujets

• Massachusetts

Informations

• Publié par: Capstone Global Library
• Date de parution: 13 février 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781406273229
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

P YR I M A R  S O U R C E  D E T E C T I V E S

Who Journeyed on the mayflower ?

Nicola Barber

Raintree is an imprint of Capstone Global Library Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales having its registered office at 7 Pilgrim Street, London, EC4V 6LB – Registered company number: 6695582

www.raintreepublishers.co.uk [e-mail]

Text © Capstone Global Library Limited 2014 First published in hardback in 2014 The moral rights of the proprietor have been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS (www.cla.co.uk). Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission should be addressed to the publisher.

Edited by Andrew Farrow, Patrick Catel, and  Vaarunika Dharmapala Designed by Steve Mead Original illustrations © Capstone Global  Library Ltd 2014 Illustrated by HL Studios Picture research by Ruth Blair Originated by Capstone Global Library Ltd Printed in China

ISBN 978 1 406 27308 3 17 16 15 14 13 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Barber, Nicola Who journeyed on the Mayflower? (Primary source detectives) A full catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce photographs: Alamy pp. 5, 21 & 56 (© North Wind Picture Archives), 7 (© Justin Kase z08z), 25 (© Old Paper Studios), 26 (© David Lyons), 34 (© Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library), 50 (© Universal Images Group [Lake County Discovery Museum]); Corbis pp. 23 (© Brooklyn Museum), 29 (© Burstein Collection), 32 & 41 (© Bettmann), 54 (© PoodlesRock); Courtesy of Pilgrim Hall Museum p. 11, 30, 36 & 43; Getty Images pp. 6 (British Library/Robana), 13 (National Geographic), 15 (Universal Images Group), 16 (Time & Life Pictures), 46 (Boston Globe), 47 (Kean Collection), 49 (MPI), 53 (Claver Carroll); Library of Congress p. 10; Shutterstock p. 22 (© Tischenko Irina).

Cover photograph of Mayflower Compact, 1620 (engraving, 1859, after Tompkins Harrison Matteson) reproduced with permission of Topfoto (The Granger Collection).

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of material reproduced in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in subsequent printings if notice is given to the publisher.

Disclaimer All the internet addresses (URLs) given in this book were valid at the time of going to press. However, due to the dynamic nature of the internet, some addresses may have changed, or sites may have changed or ceased to exist since publication. While the author and publisher regret any inconvenience this may cause readers, no responsibility for any such changes can be accepted by either the author or the publisher.

Contents

A narrow escape ....................................................................4

What was the Mayflower ?............................................6

Why did they go?................................................................. 14

Who travelled on the Mayflower 20? ................

What sort of people were they? .......................... 30

What happened to them on the journey? .......................................................................... 36

What happened to them afterwards?............. 42

Why was their journey significant? .................52

Timeline ....................................................................................... 58

Glossary......................................................................................60

Find out more ...................................................................... 62

Index............................................................................................... 64

Some words are shown in bold,like this. You can find out what they mean by looking in the glossary.

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A narrow escape

It is autumn 1620. A tiny ship battles the waves on the vast Atlantic Ocean. It is crammed with people. They are constantly wet, and many are seasick. The weather is increasingly stormy and treacherous. At times, the wind is so strong that the crew take in all the sails and simply allow the ship to drift – it is too dangerous to try to sail. On 1 October, they are once again being battered by wind and waves when a cry goes up: “Man overboard!” One of the passengers, a man called John Howland, has slipped on the wet deck, and fallen over the side. However, as he falls, he grabs a rope trailing in the sea. He holds on for dear life, although he is being halfdrowned by the wild waves. As the icy water begins to numb his hands, he feels something grab at his clothes. John Howland is hoisted back to safety with a long boathook.

HOW DO WE KNOW? After this narrow escape, John Howland went on to live for another 50 years – unlike the majority of his fellowpassengers. He was one of the Pilgrim Fathers, and the little ship was the Mayflower . This book tells the story of the Pilgrim Fathers – why they came to be crossing the Atlantic on the Mayflower and what happened to them when they finally arrived on the shores of America. But it also examines how we know about this voyage. What are the documents and objects that have allowed historians to piece together events that happened nearly 400 years ago?

HISTORY DETECTIVES: what is a primary source?

In history, a primary source is one that gives us firsthand information about an event, or a particular period in time. Primary sources come in many different forms – they can be “eyewitness” accounts, sketches or paintings, documents such as wills or lists, or, from more recent times, photographs or films.

This is an artist’s impression of the Mayflower at sea. No pictures of the ship exist, so historians and artists rely on descriptions from primary sources.

MEET WILLIAM BRADFORD The account of Howland’s neardrowning is found in a journal titled Of Plymouth Plantation by one of the Pilgrim leaders, William Bradford. We will find out a lot more about Bradford, and about his history of the Pilgrims throughout this book. The document is a primary source that gives us vital information about what happened to the Pilgrims. Below is a brief extract from Bradford’s description of Howland’s adventure. To make it easier to understand, some of the spellings have been changed from the original. For example, shipe has been changed to “ship”, and yonge to “young”.

[I]n a mighty storm, a lusty young man (called John Howland) … was, with a heel of the ship thrown into [the] sea; but it pleased God that he caught hold of the topsail halliards [ropes], which hung over board … he held his hold … and then with a boat hook and other means got into the ship again, and his life saved…

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