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 work. Remember squanto . Squanto, when i learned about squanto, he was the generous interpreter who took the pilgrims by the hand and taught them how to plan corn. He had an agenda of his own from the beginning. Squanto was born right here in Plymouth Harbor known as patuxet. Before the arrival of the pilgrims, he was abducted by an english explorer. He made his way back to europe and would end up in london where he learned the english language. He would return to his native home as the interpreter of yet another english explorer and find patuxet empty of people. At some point, he began to see this as a possible opportunity. He saw that massasoit was now vulnerable due to these terrible plagues and squanto has envision to become the next massasoit. If there should ever been a settlement in this area, he would be in a unique position. He could tell pamassasoit what wanted them to say what he wanted him to think they were saying. And for a year in Plymouth Colony, thats what he would do it. It would take a year before both massasoit and bradford realized that he had been telling indians in the region that the pilgrims possessed the plague. It was in a barrel and buried underneath one of these houses and they could unleash it at will. And that he, given his relationship with the pilgrims, was the one who had the power, that the indians in the region should come to him, rather than massasoit. When his the level of his ambitions were revealed, massasoit was indigment. He demanded the head of the interpreter. But bradford was reluctant to give him up. This almost brought down the end of the alliance, things would settle down because squanto would die suddenly unexpectedly, perhaps poisoned by massasoit, well never know, about a year later. And, once again, relations between the two peoples, the pilgrims and the wampanaog were back on track. But it was not a benign embrace between two cultures. It was a harrowing, disturbing give and take between two peoples. Three years after the arrival of the pilgrims, massasoit would send word to them that there was a conspiracy against Plymouth Colony. That massachusetts just to the north of plymouth were part of a conspiracy and were about to descend on the pilgrims and wipe them out. It was advised that they send a group up to snuff out this plot. Bradford decided to send his military officer, Miles Standish, with about half a dozen pilgrims up, and standish was for this. There was a warrior there that he had not liked for a long time. They would arrive at the area, standish and other pilgrims would invite this warrior and others into a house, close the door, and as they sat down to eat, standish would reach over to the warriors chest and grab his knife and stab him to death with it while the pilgrims on the other side of the structure kids t did the same to another indian. By the time they were done, half a dozen indians were killed and they returned with the head of the warrior wrapped in a piece of white linen. A few months after this, in the summer of 1623, bradford would celebrate his marriage to his wife. His wife had died during the first winter, 55 of 102 would die. And but in the summer of 1623, bradford was celebrating his wedding and massasoit and one of his wives was invited over and it became a celebration of not just a wedding, but the power of the alliance. And it was decided that a flag should be raised in massasoits honor, up would go that bloodsoaked piece of linen. This was not the story of the pilgrims i learned in third grade. Its a story, in many ways, the that next 50 years of peace was something that is very different from that snapshot we get in elementary school. It was it was a difficult, often harrowing time of this give and take, but it worked. They worked very hard at trying to get through their differences. The indians and english did not necessarily like each other. They did not necessarily understand each other. But they both realized that their mutual existence was dependent on the other. But there were pressures building in new england. In the beginning, the native americans had the fur trade to provide them with the means to purchase western goods, iron hose and guns and things like that, things they became dependent. But as the beaver and other furbearing animal became scares the fur trade dried up and the only thing the native americans had that the english valued was their land. In the meantime, the pilgrims were averaging somewhere between seven and nine children per family. So the need for land was insatiable, and by the middle of the 17th century, much had changed in new england. The Second Generation had a very different attitude from the first. The young englishmen began to covet what lands the native Americans Still possessed, while the Young Warriors said what good are these english to us . Theyve taken our birthright. Both sides began to see the other as not something they needed for survival, but as an impediment to their future survival. This created a real increasing tension in the colony. And yet when war broke out in june of 1675, it was not inevitable. In fact, it struck most people in the colony, native and english alike, by total surprise. There was a real crisis in leadership on both sides going into this. For one thing, phillip, son of massasoit, and josiah winslow, did not like each other very much. Phillip was convinced that josiah had been responsible for the death of his older brother, known as alexander, about a decade before the outbreak of violence. Josiah was one of the unscrupulous purchasers of native american land. And when violence broke out in june of 1675, both leaders were loathe to use a diplomatic solution. As a consequence, what was an isolated outbreak of violence in Plymouth Colony began to spread rapidly. There were english men, women and children killed, their bodies mutilated and suddenly the english were racked by fear and anger and began to look to all of the native americans that had once been their friends as potential foes. As the war broke out, there was someone among the english who was uniquely situated. While bratford is the focus of the first half, Benjamin Church was the focus of the second half. He lived in rhode island at the outbreak of the conflict. He was the only english settler among indians and he had gotten to know them well. He was a very good friend of the female. When the war was building, he realized that most of the indians wanted no part of it. Some were fighting on the english side. But the hatred and the anger and the racial nature of this became such that all indians became the enemy. Early on in the fighting, several hundred native americans gave themselves up to the authorities in the vicinity of modern day new bedford. They thought this is what were supposed to do to stay out of it. The authorities in Plymouth Colony would crowd them into a ship and sail them to the caribbean where they were sold as slaves. If you had told me two decades ago that slavery was an issue in the history of Plymouth Colony, i would have been very surprised, but its true. And its in this 76 year span you see so much of what will be issues in america in this confined space. When church heard about the enslavement of the indians, he was outraged. He said if we do this, this means that no indian in his right mind will sur runder to us. This will only prolong the war and thats exactly what would happen. Native groups that wanted no part of the war began to say, phillip may be right, the only alternative we have is to fight. It became a selffulfilling prophecy. Half of the towns were burned and abandoned. In the first year it was a terrifying time for everyone. This is a war about which most americans know very little. If you look at the losses its truly horrendous. There were 70,000 people in new england in 1675. About 25,000 indians, 50,000 english. 5,000 would die in this war. With threequarters of those losses native american. And the english losses alone, it was twice as bloody as the american civil war, the war that most of us think of as the worst in our history. For the native americans it was much, much worse. And thats not counting the slaves sent to the caribbean and beyond during this time. And the fear was such that even those indians that were clearly loyal to the english, the indians who lived in a series of christian towns around boston were herded into internment camps in Boston Harbor and Plymouth Harbor, Clarks Island here. And towards the end of that first year people began to say this is crazy. Perhaps these native americans hold the key to helping us turn the tide in this war. And towards the early part of 1676, church would be given a Small Company of primarily native americans, with a few of his english friends, and in the spring of 1676 they would begin bringing in more captives than all the companies of massachusetts and plymouth combined. Now, in churchs narrative, which was written many decades after the war with the help of his son, he is the hero of every incident. That such are the way of war memoirs. But its also interesting that those puritan historians corroborate just about most of many of what seem like outlandish things that church claims. And theres a wonderful letter written by William Bradfords son, william jr. Hes one of the captains involved in the war and its in the summer of 1676 and church is out there. Hes reckless, hes brazen, hes everything a pilgrim shouldnt be, and in his letter bradford says, you know, clearly Benjamin Church is driving him a little crazy, but he says this is not the way i conduct myself. He says, but without the benjamin forces we might not all be here. So you see that church would be a key factor in this war. He was sort of the forrest gump of King Phillips war. If there was a major battle he was there and it would be his group who would take phillip almost in the shadow of a symbolic home in bristol, rhode island in august of 1776. This was not a war that stopped the fighting, this was not a war that freed new england of the native threat. It really increased the threat for decades to come and thats what makes the story ultimately a tragedy, because there was Something Special in Plymouth Colony for the first half century. It was not a utopia, but two very different peoples found a way to peacefully coexist and i think in the world today where this is a global scene full of competing nations, religious groups, ethnic groups that dont necessarily like each other, dont necessarily understand each other. But if we dont find a way to peacefully exist, the alternatives are not good for anyone. And i really feel that first generation of wampanoags and pilgrims have many lessons from which we can learn. I would like to read a brief passage that speaks not only to the bicultural nature of what went on during the first half century in Plymouth Colony, where the pilgrims wanted to keep the indians at an arms length. But inevitably they were deeply influenced by their native neighbors, not only in food ways but just in their understanding of the land that was Plymouth Colony. Native americans embraced the western goods, in some cases their religion. This is a passage that also speaks to the nature of history. What is history . Is the past so remote from us today that those people were so different that is there a figurative pane of glass between it and us . Maybe we can study it through a microscope, but ultimately it has little meaning to where we are today. I think its hard to do much better than the native american look at not only the past, but the present and the future that was revealed to the pilgrims in the early years of Plymouth Colony in this passage. Because history is not just about us, we humans. Its about the land in which we live. The land that was there in the past is here now in the present and will be here in the future. Let me just set the scene. This is early on. Theyve just forged the alliance with massasoit and bradford determines that they need to go visit massasoit in his home. So he sends out a delegation including Edward Winslow, who had become massasoits best friends, and steven hopkins, a stranger who appears to have been in jamestown prior to boarding the mayflower and had experience with the native americans. Squanto is still alive and he goes with them walking the hardpacked native trails that crisscrossed new england at this time. Its about a 45 mile walk from plymouth. They head out and theres no horses yet, so theyre walking these trails. Theyve just left the settlement when they come across a group of native americans who have been collecting lobsters in Plymouth Harbor and they begin to talk. As they conversed with their new companions, the englishmen learned that to walk across the land in southern new england was to travel in time. All along this narrow, hardpacked trail were circular foot deep holes in the ground that had been dug where any remarkable act had occurred. It was each persons responsibility to maintain the holes and inform fellow travelers what had once happened at that particular place so that many things of great antiquity are fresh in memory. Winslow and hopkins began to see they were traversing mythic land and as a man traveller, winslow wrote, his journey will be the less tedious by the many discourses that will be related unto him. In closing my only plea is that we keep the memory holes alive. Thank you very much. [ applause ] i would be happy to try to answer some of your questions. Any questions . Yes. And if you could wait until the microphone comes over, that would be great. I loved your story that you just repeated. I was fascinated with your almost 100 pages of notes and the details that you found, like the indians were expert at burning and creating an open forest. Can you talk a little bit about how you go to find all of these details to put this story together . Good. Well, thank you for it makes my heart feel warm when i hear someone has read the notes, because i labor very mightily on them, and so thank you. For me, writing a book is at least at bare minimum a threeyear process. The first year is learning everything i can about the topic, throwing out the net, developing a bibliotography and getting a sense of where i think the book is going to go. Then i realize the plans were totally wrong and as i begin to work chapter by chapter, im writing and researching simultaneously. And thats really where i end up going down those avenues i had never expected and in some cases finding things that, for me its a continual act of discovery. I write narrative nonfiction, so i am trying to tell a story, but im also trying to do Due Diligence when it comes to the scholarship. And that is a true challenge, is distilling the scholarship, while maintaining a narrative that is as true as we can be to what actually happened. In learning about the pilgrims and in the process of dispelling the pilgrim myth, what was the most surprising fact that you learned in this whole process . You know, this book was a series of surprises, but a couple of things. One thing, i was astonished to learn the level of suffering that first year in Plymouth Colony. Ive written a book called in the heart of the sea which is a survival tale. So i thought i was inured to these things. But i had respect for what happened not only on the pilgrim side, but also on the native american side in that year. Both cultures had been effectively over the process of those years broken down and then had to be put back together. And i think that building together process made possible the next 50 years of peace. And so, for me, it really renewed my understanding to see that the pilgrims did not come as empire builders. Their ambitions were very humble. They wanted to transplant their congregation from holland to the new world. They were never successful, completely successful in doing that. Pastor robinson would die before he made it. Not everyone would come over. That initial vision was never fully realized. And you see bradford very depressed towards the end of his life, as plymouth expands, town after town, you would think thats a success. But for bradford, that was a defeat. What he wanted was that congregation recreated. And as people like Edward Winslow and Miles Standish moved, he saw bradford saw it as a diminishment of what they should be. So that was a true surprise. And, you know, the other side, the second half of the book, was the impact of King Phillips war. I was acquainted with King Phillips war, but you have to read theres dozens, if not hundreds of letters, many of them unpublished, about the war. Theres an incredible treasure trove of information, not only narratives such as churchs, but theres mary rollinsons narrative. There are very strong women in the story. Mary rollinson would invent the indian captivity narrative. They would have several meals with phillip, knit a cap for his son and provide firsthand information about what was going on, and yet its a very harrowing family saga, too. And so with all of this, for me its a process of trying to connect as best we can with the people who lived this and its a process by which, for me, with each chapter, i was continually surprised and ultimately amazed, yeah. I had read that massasoits philosophy when the english were coming was basically the same as rommels in europe, basically throw them back to the sea. And when the disease came in, he was forced to change his plans and strategies and form the alliance. Was that true . Did you find that to be thats a little bit of an oversimplification because there is evidence there was for example, john smith explored new england in 1614 and seems to have met with phillip and his brother and had a fairly good conversation with him, but also had some flareups of violence. One of the other surprises, just to get back to your first question, is that, you know, this was when were often taught the story, its as if the indians had never seen the english before, but the indians had vast experience with europeans by this point. There had been fishermen arriving for years along the coast of new england up to maine. There had been these explorers coming. This was different. These were not only men, but women and children who were moving here. Thats what made it different. Yes. What first got you into writing . What first got me into writing . Well, writing is something i did when i was your age. I was scribbling a lot. Nothing ive saved. I wrote some really bad poetry, i remember, in middle school. Kind of embarrassing to think about it. What i found is i loved reading. And when i would read a book, i would get so excited by what i read, it made me want to write. And what i began to realize is that the more you write, its like anything, the better you get at it. But to do that is to do it a lot, over and over again. And so i was, you know, scribbling things in middle school and in high school. In college i was an english major, writing papers and things like that. And then i worked as a sailing journalist at a sailing magazine for four years. After moving to nantucket, i became very interested in the history and ive followed that course ever since. So writing for me, if i dont write something during a day, i really feel as if ive cheated myself in some way. So i try to keep at it. Thank you. Yes. Any more questions . Over here. As youve traveled around the country now on your book tour and i know youve been to new england, to chicago, to san francisco, to dallas, have you noticed any regional differences, either in the way people look at the book or ultimately the way that they think about the pilgrims . Well, the question for those of you who didnt hear it, is ive been on this book tour thats taken me around the country and what has been the response, are there regional differences in that response. For one thing, literally every place i have gone there has been a generous portion of the audience who are mayflower descendants and it has shown me that this is a story that has a vital connection with who we are. Getting back to the surprises, one of the surprises for me was to learn that to be a descendant of the mayflower passengers, i sort of assumed it was an elite club. 10 of the american population, more than 34 Million People are descended from the passengers of the mayflower. And talk about a living legacy. And its everywhere in this country. And one reader who i spoke to in i think it was milwaukee, was part cherokee indian and part mayflower descendant and she feels like she is the living embodiment of what this country is about in many ways. I think thats true. It was very interesting, in texas of all places, i found a really strong response to the story. You know, for me, the story anticipates so much about what would happen in the 19th century. We think of the indians wars as a 19th century story, americas push west. And yet in the 17th century, in the 76year span, you see that dynamic unfold in a very essential way. And so this is a story that i think does have relevance to all americans, no matter where you live. Yes. Ive just begun your book, so perhaps the answer lies further than ive read. You spoke of the 55 years, roughly, of peace, albeit at times uneasy, between the wampanoag and pilgrims. The question is, the piquot war, i see that as the puritans were the ones that arrived in boston a decade after the sailing of the mayflower and quickly took over new england. In one year, Plymouth Colony goes from being the only English Settlement in the region to being a backwater, what is now known as the great migration. It brought thousands into the boston area and they quickly spread new massachusetts, New Hampshire and also connecticut. The puritans were the motivators behind the war. The soldiers did not arrive in time to be part of the conflict and that may have been intended. And yet i see that conflict as sort of being the puritan version of wessagusset. It would radically change the balance of power, particularly among the native groups of the region and would anticipate in many troubling ways what would happen next. Because the scale of what happened in that war was very different. Hundreds of piquot men, women and children would die, be massacred at a fort in whats now mystic, connecticut. And this brought a level of violence and brutality that was not a part of native warfare prior to this. This was a real wakeup call to the stakes of any kind of conflict that might spread beyond something that was very local. Thank you very much. [ applause ] American History tv is on social media. Follow us at cspan history. In february, 1965, president Linden Johnson called on Vice President humphrey to lead a task fours on tourism in an initiative called discover america. The group worked to promote an increase in domestic travel. Next, on reel america, as most travel for americans is limited, we invite you to take a virtual journey while watching the 1967 United Airlines film. The aerial trip across the United States supported the Johnson Administration initiative, by highlighting natural and manmade attractions from coast to coast. An invitation for discovery to each shoreline of this land,