Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims

In the myth-making process, one aspect that was done is turning the Plymouth Rock into a tourist destination. This turned the thanksgiving ceremony into a pilgrim-native harmony. In reality, this was not enshrined as a national holiday until after 250 years later. This becomes a restorative myth of national origins. This is a fact that riveted the retelling of the story by Philbrick (Philbrick, 2014).

The history of Plymouth colony

The history of Plymouth colony is what Mr. Philbrick made himself to be very familiar with; in an intimate way. He made it to be prominent to the readers that are lost into today’s reality. The writer makes the reader be able to erase all thanksgiving pageant impressions and come to the reality that the new world was not a tabula rasa in the fall of 1620 (Browne, 2007). The reality is that there was that the eerie quiet place was a result of an epidemic that can be considered a plague that ravaged the natives’ from 1616-1619. This addressed their sparse numbers in the year 1620 (Philbrick, 2014). For example, the Pokanoket tribe that was living at the head of Narragansett Bay, they were thoroughly fought by a force of 3,000 men that reduced their numbers to hundreds. This issue is considered a myth by many though it was a reality.

Many natives mistook the first European ship as “a walking island” they thought it was a mast of a tree thinking that it sails clouds with gunfire that was lighting the clouds. In reality, at that time, the natives were hunting lobsters and whales (Browne, 2007). At that time hundreds of Dutch, French, and English men were in possession of cod fishing vessels having their daily bread from England shores. Mr. Philbrick was a legend integrating the familiar with the fresh. For example, many are of the knowledge that Mile Standish was a prominent person in early Pilgrim affairs; still very few knew that he had a nickname “captain Shrimp” and also, his military tactics impacted him to this day (Philbrick, 2014).

There was a myth that made people believe that the conflict that ensued at Plymouth was a racial rather than a political struggle. This instance made the English create a self-fulfilling prophecy as they were mindful of both the 17th and 21st centuries (Browne, 2007). The settlers believed that Mr. Philbrick had a hand in every killing of an Englishman. This occasion made Philbrick be afraid and to run from hideout to hideout. The reality is that he was not the mastermind behind the coordinated plan of Native attack (Philbrick, 2014).

The book “Mayflower” is an epic

The book “Mayflower” is an epic that is equally striking and finds a small parallel between the present and the past. The pilgrims were not in agreement about the amount of their society’s resources to be used as security. They later had to lose their lands so that the proceeds to be used in paying off the debts. The reality is that there was vast deforestation that occurred in the area so that they could sustain the wood-burning pilgrim village astronomically. Another reality is that there was a son of the governor of Plymouth who differed with the father (Browne, 2007). This made him move as far away as possible to escape the wrath of the father. It is imperative to indicate that Mr. Philbrick’s view of the church is one of the major reasons that made this book be a fine conversation piece, as it is a work that is deemed as scholarship.

References

Browne, R. B. (2007). Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick. The Journal of American Culture, 30(2), 249–250.

Philbrick, N. (2014). Mayflower: A Voyage to War (Text Only). HarperCollins UK.