Mayflower a story of courage, community and war. He details the relationship between the english settlers and the wampanaog indians. We recorded this in plymouth, massachusetts, in 2006. The year the book was published. My name is peggy baker. Im the director of Pilgrim Hall Museum and i would like to welcome you all here tonight for what is a grand occasion for all of us who love pilgrims. Because we are in essence gathered to celebrate the first wellwritten, comprehensive narrative about Plymouth Colony in over 50 years. Three key words. One, well written. As one would expect from Nathaniel Philbrick whose career has focused on americas relationship with the sea in a string of notable books, from a way offshore, to abrams eyes. Second comprehensive in covering not just the voyage or the first few years or King Phillips war, all of which have recently been done. But in covering the entire story allowing us the readers to enjoy the true benefit of history which is the scope to follow consequences of actions through generations and narrative. Because what nat does best is to tell a story. An adventure story, but in many ways, an unexpected adventure story. Look at the cover. I have, of course, love it because its our painting, the mayflower on her arrival. But what i really love is that even though the book is entitled the mayflower. This book doesnt show a ship tossed bid waves. That would be the expected adventure story. Instead, it focuses on this little group of pilgrims leaving the ship that has brought them through storms and peril, headed off toward shore on the verge of starting new lives. And its there in the territory of these wideopen possibilities that the Real Adventure story begins. An adult adventure story dealing with mature themes like the nature of leadership, the establishment of respect with a widely varying culture, and then the decent grags of that respect. And this, of course, is why the pilgrims a pilgrims are relevant, its why they matter, its why this book matters. Because the mayflower tells the story of real people facing complex choices in a confusing time. People who had to make difficult decisions without knowing how the story would end. Im pleased to introduce to you, our author, innathaniel philbri. He started a conversation about the choices that were made by those 17th century voyagers, choices that affect us even now living in a nation and a world that those mayflower pilgrims could not begin to imagine. [ applause ]. Thank you, its a pleasure to return to pilgrim hall. Its been a very interesting month and a half, going around the country, talking about the book. But it really does seem like a homecoming to be not only in pilgrim hall, but beside the painting. Well, like a lot of americans, i first learned about the pilgrims in elementary school. I think it was third grade and it was thanksgiving time and it was time for the aprpilgrim uni. The teacher divided us in half, half of us indians, and half of us pilgrims. And we learned about the story of how in 1620 the mayflower sailed across the ocean, came to cape cod and then Plymouth Harbor, came to the famous rock, were greeted by the native americans and then a year later celebrated the first thanksgiving. And that was pretty much all i would learn about the pilgrims throughout my education not only in high school but in college. About 20 years ago i moved to nantucket island and i became fascinated with the place. Having grown up in the Maritime Center of the world, pittsburgh, pennsylvania, i was overwhelmed by having all of this water around it. And i was also overwhelmed because one of my most famous books in the world was moby dick. I wanted to learn everything i could about it. The more i learned about it, the more i began to realize if i was ever going to write a book about the history of nantucket, i had to put it in the context of new england. If i was going to do that, i had to begin with the pilgrims, that story that i assumed i already knew. I began to look into 17th century new england and the more i looked into the story, the more almost indignant i became because, you know, what i learned in third grade didnt do justice to the complexity and the real relevance of what happened in 17th century new england. Because a story of the pilgrims does not end with the first thanksgiving. That is just the beginning of an intergenerational story that is truly epic in scope. Because, yes, there was the first thanksgiving. And then for the next 54 years, there was a remarkable thing in Plymouth Colony. There was peaceful coexistence between the indians and the english in plymouth. And that is truly remarkable. But in 1675, 55 years after the sailing of the mayflower, war came to Plymouth Colony. When massasoit, his son, phillip, led his people in a war against the sons and grandsons of the pilgrims known today as King Phillips war. Its a conflict about which Many Americans know almost nothing. For me, its the its what makes the story of the pilgrims all the more relevant. Because in 14 months, what had been this remarkably bicultural colony, saw a war of total annihilation in which there were military defeats and victories, and it looked like the english might be driven to the sea during the first year of the conflict. Almost half the towns were burned and abandoned. There were fears that the english would be driven to the sea. But the war became a war not of military victories and defeats, but a war of attrition. In the spring of 1676, the english were unable to plant their corn crops and that summer they began to starve. And the english who had the mother country to provide them with provisions and weapons were able to outlast them. In august of 1676, phillip was taken and killed and thus ended King Phillips war. This was no victory for the english. Because for decades to come, they would be paying for this conflict. The war was by no means over for the next century. There would be indian conflict after indian conflict throughout new england. And worst of all, from the standpoint of plymouth, it would be absorbed by Massachusetts Bay and in the years after the war, new england, which had been remarkably independent of a mother country, throughout the first half century of the 17th century, there would be a royal governor. And thus would end an era in new england. By fighting this war of annihilation with the native people that had been stood by their side for so long, the children and grandchildren of the pilgrims had destroyed their forefathers way of life. When you take the arc of the story, from the mayflower to its to King Phillips war, you begin to see that, you know, when i was a teenager, in my cynical teenage years in the 60s and 70s, i began to look at the pilgrims as irrelevant to america, as kind of stereotypes, with buckles on their shoes that were trotted out for thanksgiving. And this is not the case. When you put it in the context during those first 56 years, the story of the pilgrims is vital to showing us what america would become. American history begins in the popular view begins with the voyage of the mayflower a story of courage, community and war. Well before the founding fathers, there were things happening that would determine in large respect where america would be headed. Because, you know, we for whatever reason, the pilgrims have become of the founding myth of america. Were a recent people. We need a beginning. And i think we owe it to ourselves to examine that beginning and see it as best we can as it was rather than in terms of the legends and myths that have been passed to us from another age. I would like to begin by reading a selection from my book, from the first chapter. The first chapter is entitled they knew they were pilgrims. This is a quote from william bradford. Bradford was the true rock upon which Plymouth Colony would be built. Without his leadership, the settlement would have never been a success and the pill grims never referred to themselves as the pilgrims. This comes from a phrase bradford uses of plymouth plantation and its as good a term as any to refer to them, i think, given the complexity of what was beneath that label. For 65 days, the mayflower has plundered her way through storms. Her leaky deck spews salt water onto her passengers devoted heads. There are 102 of them. 104 if you counted the two dogs. A spaniel and a giant mastiff. I was contacted by a dog owner who said she had to bring a towel wherever they bring their dog. Most of their equipment was beneath them in the hold. The primary stoerrage area of t vessel. The passengers were in the tween decks. The tween decks was more of a crawl space than a place to live. A series of thinwalled cabins had been built that overflowed with people and their possessions. Chests of clothing, casks of food and chamber pots. There was a boat cut into pieces doing temporary duty as a bed. There were nearly ten weeks into a voyage that was supposed to have been completed during the balmy days of summer. They started late. It was now november and winter was coming on. They were reaching the slimy bottoms of their water casks. They were down to their last casks of beer. Due to the bad quality of the Drinking Water in england, beer was considered essential to a healthy diet. Sure enough, with the rationing of their beer, came the unmistakable signs of scurvy, loosening teeth, and foulsmelling breath. So far, only two had died, a sailor and a young servant. If they didnt reach land soon, many more would follow. They set sail with three pregnant mothers. These are the true heroes of the mayflower. Elizabeth had given birth to a son, appropriately named oceanous. It had been a miserable passage. A fierce wave exploded against the ship, straining a structural timber until it cracked like a chicken bone. Christopher jones has considered turning back to england, but jones had to give his passengers their due. They knew next to nothing about the sea or the savage coast for which they were bound, but their resolve was unshakable. Despite all they had suffered, agonizing delays, seasickness, cold and the scorn and ridicule of the sailors, they had done everything in their power to help the carpenter repair the beam. They brought a screw jack to assist them in constructing houses. With the help of the screw jack, they lifted the beam into place. Then the mayflower was sound enough to continue on. Who were the people we refer to as the pilgrims . The motivating force behind this voyage came from a group of religious enthusiasts who lived in exiexile in holland. They believed they should worship god the way god intended. This was illegal in england at the time so they had gone to holland. Things didnt turn out the way they wanted in holland. They had been there for ten years. Their congregation had grown wonderfully, under the guidance of John Robinson, their pars. But they the pilgrims were forced to work lowend jobs. They would work six days a week, often with their children by their side. And there was a treaty with spain was about to go up and there was fear that war might come to holland. But their biggest concern was that their children were becoming dutch. Despite the fact that they had left england, these people were proud of their english ancestry and they wanted to reconnect with it but couldnt go home. Go to the new world. Transplant the congregation to america where they could reconnect but be free of the reach of king james and his bishops. Unfortunately like many great concepts, it would prove difficult to implement. The pilgrims were like many people, they knew each other wonderfully well, but they had trouble relating to those outside of their circle and they they became the objects of people who saw this group of religious radicals who wanted to go 3,000 miles across the ocean to the new world as a way to separate them from their money. And Thomas Weston would be a merchant from london who would tell them everything they wanted to hear. He had sympathy for their religious convictions and he had the contacts that would provide them with the money they needed. But weston proved to be a less than he advertised. By 1620 by the spring of 1620, he had not come up with the ship. And more and more people began to worry that maybe this was not the right thing to do at this time. And in fact, as more and more people dropped out, they were going to come eventually, but not in this first brunt. This created a problem for the investors. They needed to fill up the ship. They began to recruit people in london. People who did not necessarily share the pilgrims point of view. They would become referred to as the strangers by them and this created a division aboard the mayflower almost from the beginning. This was a troublesome thing for these people. Their whole world view was based on drawing a line between themselves and the rest of the world. Here they were going to share space with these strangers. Just before their departure from holland, John Robinson would write them an important letter in which he would urge them not to prejudge these strangers. Try to make it work because the future success of the settlement depended on that. And that would have a huge impact on making things eventually work. The mayflower would leave late. They were supposed to go early in the season so that they would arrive in the new world with plenty of time to build structures before winter came on but it was september before the mayflower finally left plymouth, england. It would be as i say in the passage, a miserable voyage. Storm after storm after storm. The mayflower would average in the neighborhood of 1. 5 miles an hour as it made its way across the atlantic. It would take more than two months. And they were and they were headed not for new england, but for the hudson river. They could have been our first new yorkers. But they were 200 miles off course and they come across what we refer to as the backside of cape cod. Christopher jones heads south for their intended destination but there are no trustworthy charts of england at this time and they run snack dab into pollack rip. And i can tell you, its still a frightening piece of water. They almost lost the ship. But remarkably, the wind does a 180 degrees and starts blowing from the south. Jones says, we aint going to the hudson river. Were going to cape cod. I need to get these people off this ship and get myself back to england. They head for Province Town harbor. This creates an uproar in the between decks of the mayflower because the strangers who are roughly half the passengers realize that their Legal Paperwork does not apply to a settlement does nthis far north. They realize theyre about to become americas first illegal immigrants. If this is the case, why do we follow them . Why should we go with them . They say, you guys can do what you want to do. Were going to do our own thing. This might might mean the end of the settlement if they divide this early on and this is a pivotal moment. What do they do . They do a remarkable thing. They put pen to paper and borrowing many of the words from John Robinsons farewell letter, they draft the mayflower compact. Given the future course of American History, its tempting to see it as the u. S. Constitution in utero. Its not that. But its still an extraordinary document where both sides, what have been called saints and strangers, agree to listen to their duly elected leaders. This is civil government. And this really is the First Step Towards the ultimate success of Plymouth Colony. They arrive finally after having drafted the mayflower compact at providence town harbor. Its signed and now they have a big question. What do we have before us . They know nothing about the coast upon which they have arrived. Their biggest concern is what about the native people . Whats going to happen . I would like to now read from chapter three. Into the void which begins with the other side of the story. Just a word of explanation, the pilgrims would refer to them as the pocanocits. We refer to them today as the wampanaog. About 60 miles southwest of Province Town harbor, at the confluence of two rivers live massasoit. He was in the prime of his life. About 35. Strong and imposing. With a quiet dignity that was expected. Despite his personal vigor, massasoit provided over a people who had been decimated by a disease. The indians of southern new england had been hit by as a virgin soil epidemic. From 1616 to 1619 what may have been bubonic plague introduced by fishermen spread south along the atlantic seaboard to the Eastern Shore of the bay killing in some cases as many as 90 of the regions inhabitants. So many died so quickly that there was no one left to bury the dead. Portions of coastal new england were suddenly empty of people with only the whitened bone of the dead to indicate that a Thriving Community existed along these shores. What were described as bloody wars erupted throughout the region when they struggled to create a new order amid the haunted vacancy of new england. Massasoits people had been particularly hard hit. Before the plague, they had numbered about 12,000. Enabling massasoit to muster 3,000 fighting men. After three years, his force had been reduced to a few hundred warriors. Making it worse, the plague had not affected their enemies who controlled the western portion of the bay and numbered 20,000 with 35,000 fighting men. Massasoit and ten of his warriors had suffered the humiliation of forced. Wasted by disease and under the thumb of a powerful enemy, they were in a desperate struggle to maintain their existence as a people. But mas ismas is a soy its had their enemies. But this did not prevent massasoit from attempting to use his alliances with other tribes to neutralize the threat to the west. A small bird is called sachim because of its sachim or princelike encourage that man should see the small bird, pursue and put to flight the crow and other birds. They might feel they were the masters. As they would discover, massasoit was the csmall bird. Rather than looking to the pilgrims, massasoit would say, wait a minute, perhaps an alliance with this small group of english people could provide my people with a kind of parity relative and he would forge an alliance. There were other factors at w