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Forming a ‘civil body politic’ Once they arrived on the shores of America in mid-November, the Pilgrims faced a hard winter, realised they needed a new legal agreement, and managed to survive thanks to help from the Wampanoag Native Americans who already lived there. The ship stopped just off the coast of modern-day Provincetown in […]

Coming to America The Mayflower set sail for Virginia in September 1620 with around 130 passengers and crew. In lateNovember, the ship sighted land – but they were further north than planned. After a long voyage across theAtlantic, the Pilgrims were just off the coast of Massachusetts. Pilgrim diarist William Bradford recalled the drama of […]

Indentured passengers on the Mayflower There were a range of different passengers on the Mayflower, a mixture of Separatist families and others sent to help establish a new colony by those sponsoring the voyage.  Some of the families were accompanied by servants, which Bradford – who became the Governor of the colony within its first […]

The Pilgrims leave England for the last time The Mayflower set sail from Plymouth on the 16th September 1620 – or the 6th September according to Bradford’s diary (to explain, and just to make things a bit more complicated, in 1752, the Old Style Julian calendar was changed to the New Style Gregorian calendar we […]

A tale of two ships: the Speedwell and the Mayflower A tale of two ships: the Speedwell and the Mayflower In the summer of 1620, the Separatists in Holland had decided which of them would sail first to America. They boarded the ship they had bought, the Speedwell, ready to join another ship hired in […]