Second, comprehensive. In covering not just the voyage for the first few years, working philips war, all of which have recently been done, but in covering the entire story, allowing us, the readers, to enjoy the true benefits of history, which is the scope, to follow consequences of actions through generations. Narratives, because what nat does best is to tell a story. An adventure story, but in many ways, and unexpected adventure story. Look at the cover. I of course love it because it is our painting, the mayflower on her arrival in plymouth harbor. Thathat i really love is even though the book is entitled the mayflower, this cover doesnt put the mayflower front and center, it doesnt show a by waves. D that would be the expected adventure story. Instead, it focuses on this little group of pilgrims leaving the ship that has brought them through peril, headed off toward the shore on the verge of starting new lives. And it is there in the territory of these wideopen possibilities that the Real Adventure story begins. Story dealingture with mature themes like the nature of leadership, the establishment of respect with a widely varying culture, and then the disintegration of that respect. And this, of course, is why the pilgrims are relevant, it is why is why the, it mayflower tells a story of real people facing complex choices and a confusing time. People who had to make difficult decisions without knowing how the story would end. And so im very pleased to introduce to you our author, nat philbrick, an end who, through his book, has once again started the conversation about the choices that were made by those 17thcentury voyageurs, choices living in aus nation in a world that those mayflower pilgrims could not even begin to imagine. Nat philbrick. [applause] Nathaniel Philbrick well, thank you. It is a true pleasure to return to plymouth and particularly, pilgrim hall. It has 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 me not only in pilgrim hall, and for me, the thing about the painting is is on the cover. Doesnt that look a lot like a whaling boat . For me, it was a great continuity in books. 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 pilgrim unit. The teacher divided us in half, half of us indians, half of us pilgrims. I wanted to be an interim, indian, but she made me pilgrim. And we learned about the story of how, in 1620, the mayflower sailed across the ocean, came to cape cod and then to plymouth harbor, came to the famous rock, they were greeted by the native americans, and then a year later, celebrated the first thanksgiving. And that was pretty much all of the learn about the pilgrims throughout my education not only in high school, but in college. But 20 years ago, i moved to nantucket island. I became fascinated with the place, having grown up in the Maritime Center of the world, pittsburgh, pennsylvania, i was a little overwhelmed by having all this water around me. And i was also overwhelmed because one of my most favorite books in the world was moby dick. It was as if i had stepped into the pages of my favorite novel. The more i learned about it, the more i began to realize that 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. I had to begin with the pilgrims. That story i assume i already knew. To look into 17thcentury new england and the more i looked into the stories, the more almost indignant i became. What i learned in third grade didnt do justice to the complexity and the real relevance of what happened in 17 entry new england. Because the 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. Re was people coexisting peaceful coexistence between the english and the indians in plymouth. And given the subsequent history of america, that is truly remarkable. But in 1675, 55 years after the sailing of the mayflower, war came to Plymouth Colony when his , philip led his people in a war against the sons and grandsons of this pilgrims known today as king philips war. It is a conflict which Many Americans know almost nothing about. Me, is what makes the story of the pilgrims all the more relevant. Because in just 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 as if the english might be driven to the sea during the first year of the conflict. Almost half the towns in new england were buried and abandoned. There was through fear that the english would be driven to the sea. But the war became a war not of military victories and defeat, but a war of attrition. In the spring of 1676, the indians were unable to plant their corn crops and that summer they began to starve. The english had the mother country to provide them with provisions and weapons and were able 12 last them and in august of 1676, philip was taken and killed and thus ended king philips war. But 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 revenue england and worst of all, from the standpoint of Plymouth Colony, soon after it would be absorbed by Massachusetts Bay and in the years after the war, new england, which had been remarkably independent as a mother country throughout the first halfcentury of the 17th century, there would be a royal governor, and that would really end an era. By fighting this war of annihilation with the native people after having stood by their side for so long, the children and grandchildren of the pilgrims had really destroyed their forefathers way of life. Of this take the arc story from the mayflower to king philips war, you begin to see that when i was a teenager, and 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 who were trotted out for thanksgiving. This is not the case. When you put it in the context of what happened during those first six years, the story of the pilgrims is vital for showing us what america would become. Begins in thery popular view with the voyage of the mayflower, but then there really isnt much until 100 50 years later with the american revolution, the founding fathers. Well before the founding fathers, there were things happening that would determine in large respect where america would be headed. For whatever reason, the pilgrims have become of the founding myth of america. We are a recent people, we need a beginning. We owe it to ourselves to examine that beginning and to was,t as best we can as it rather than the legends and myths that have been passed to us. I would like to begin by reading a selection from my book, from , entitledchapter they knew they were pilgrims. And this is a quote from William Bradford from plymouth plantation, one of the great books of American History and literature. Bradford was a true rock upon which Plymouth Colony would be built. Without his leadership, the settlement was never a success. The pilgrims never referred to themselves of the pilgrims. This comes from a phrase bradford uses in plymouth plantation of plymouth plantation, and it is as good a term as any to refer to them, i omplexity of the c what was beneath that label. For 65 days, the mayflower has wandered through storms and headwinds. Her bottom shaggy with seaweed and particles, her leaky decks spewing saltwater underwear passengers devoted heads. 104 if you counted the two dogs. I was richly contacted by an owner who is a mastiff ownwer, she said she had to bring eight towel wherever she took her dog. Most of their provisions and equipment were beneath them in the hold. The primary storage area of the vessel. The passengers were in the between deck, a dank, airless space about 75 feet long and not even five feet high that separates the hold from the upper deck. Between decks is more of a crawlspace than a place to live, made even more claustrophobic by the passenger attempts to provide themselves with some privacy. Cabinss of thinwalled had been built, creating a series of rooms that overflowed with people in their possession. There was even a boat cut into pieces for Later Assembly doing temporary duty as a bed. They were nearly 10 weeks into a voyage that was supposed to have been completed during the balmy days of summer but they had started late and winter was coming on. They had long since run out of firewood, reaching the slimy bottoms of their water caps. With even greater concern, they were down to their last casks of beer. Due to the notoriously bad quality of the Drinking Water in 17th century england, beer was considered essential to a healthy diet and sure enough, with the rationing came the unmistakables kinds of scurvy. Bleeding g ums, listening teeth and foulsmelling breath. Butar, only two had died, if they didnt reach land soon, many more would follow. They had set sail with three pregnant mothers, the true heroes of the mayflower. Elizabeth hopkins, savanna white, and mary. Elizabeth had given birth to a son named oceanaus. Susanna and mary were both well along. A fierce wave had exploded against the top side, straining a structural timber until it had cracked like a chicken bone. The mayflowers master, christopher jones, had considered turning back to england, jones had to give his passengers there due. They knew next to nothing about the sea or the savage coast for which they were bound, but there was always unshakable. Despite all they had so far suffered, agonizing delays, seasickness, cold, the scorn and ridicule of the sailors, they had done everything in their power to help the carpenter repair the fractured beam. They have brought a screw jack to assist them in constructing houses in the new world and with the help of the screw jack, they lifted the beam into place and once the carpenter had hammered and a post for support, the mayflower was sound enough to continue on. And on they would go. Now, who were the people we referred to as the pilgrims . The motivating force behind this voyage came from a group of religious enthusiasts we will refer to as puritan separatists who had lived in exile for more than a decade. They believed that the church of england was not a holy church, they must separate from it and worship god as they felt god intended. Unfortunately, this was illegal in england at the time, savanna gone to holland. Necessarilyid not turned out the way they wanted in holland. They have been there for 10 years, their congregation had grown wonderfully under the guidance of John Robinson, their pastor. Forced tolgrims were work lowend, backbreaking jobs because they were foreigners. They would work literally dawn until dusk six days per week with their children by their side. A treaty with spain was about to go up, and there is fear that war might come to holland. But their biggest concern was that the children were becoming dutch. Despite the fact that they had left england, these people were fiercely proud of their english ancestry and they wanted to reconnect with her, but they couldnt go home. What to do. Well, go to the new world. Transplant the congregation. Where they can reconnect with her in which ancestry, but be free of the meddlesome reach of king james and his bishops. Sounds like a great concept. Unfortunately, like many great concepts, it proved very 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 became the objects of people who saw this group of religious radicals, who wanted to go 3000 miles across the ocean to the new world, as a way to separate them from their money. Would be aon 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. Weston proved to be less than advertised. By 1620, he had not yet come up with a ship. The provisioning of the exhibition was in chaos, and more and more people began to worry that maybe this was not the right thing to do at this time. In fact, as more and more people drop out, they were going to come eventually, but not in this first batch, this created a problem for the investors. So 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. This created a division aboard the mayflower, almost from the beginning. And this is a troublesome, troublesome thing. Because their whole worldview with face on drawing a line between themselves and the rest of the world. And here, they were going to share space with these strangers. Just before their departure from holland, John Robinson would write in a very important letter, a farewell letter in which he would urge them not to prejudge the strangers, to try to make it work because the future success of the settlement depended on that. That would have a huge impact on making things eventually work. The mayflower would leave terribly late. They were supposed to go early in the season, so that they would arrive in the new world with 20 of time to build structures before winter came on, but it was september before the mayflower finally left with, england. It would be as i say in the passage, invisible voyage. Storm,fter storm after the mayflower would average in the neighborhood of 1. 5 miles per hour, as it made its way across the atlantic. It would take more than two months, and they were headed not for new england, for the hudson river. They could have been at first new yorkers. They were 200 miles off course, and they had come across but we never referred to as the backside of cape cod. Christopher jones headed south, for their intended destination, but there were no trustworthy charts of new england at this time and they ran smack dab into poligrip, not far from my home in nantucket. It is still today a frightening piece of water. They almost lost the ship. Remarkably, the wind does a 180 and starts blowing from the south. Jones says we aint going to the hudson river, we are going to cape cod. I need to get these people off my ship and get myself back to england. Knockoutad to what we now called provincetown harbor. This creates an uproar in the between decks of the mayflower because the strangers, who are roughly half the passengers, realized that their Legal Paperwork does not apply to a settlement this far north. They realize that the passengers aboard the mayflower are about to become americas first illegal immigrants. [laughter] if this is the case, why do we follow them . Why should we go . You guys can do what you want to do, we are going to do our own thing. This might mean the end of the voyage, the end of the settlement. If they divide this early on. This is a pivotal moment. What do they do . Well, they do a remarkable thing. Borrowing many of the words from John Robinsons farewell letter, they draft what we now refer to as the mayflower compact. Given the future course of it is testingry, to see it as the u. S. Constitution in utero. But it is not bad. Distill an extraordinary sides agreere both to listen to their duly elected leaders, and this is civil government. This really is the first step toward the ultimate success of Plymouth Colony. They arrive, finally, after having drafted the mayflower compact, at provincetown harbor. His side, and now they have a big question. What we have before us . They dont nothing about the coast upon which they have arrived. Their biggest concern is what about the native people . What is going to happen . I would like to now read from chapter three, into the void. With the other side of the story. Just a word of explanation, the pilgrims would refer to them as the pocono cans. We refer to them today is the wapo noag. About 60 miles southwest of provincetown harbor, in the vicinity of modern rhode island, the most powerful native leader in the region, he was in the prime of his life, about 35, strong, and imposing. With a quiet dignity that was expected. Vigor, hes personal presided over a people who had been devastated by disease. During the three years of the pilgrims had been organizing their voyage to america, the indians of southern england had been hit by what scientists refer to as the vergence oil epidemic, a contagion against which they had no antibodies. 1619, what may have been the phonic plague introduced by european fishermen bubonic plague spread south. Asen, in some cases, as many 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 that had once been as densely populated as western europe were suddenly empty of people, with only the whitened bones of the dead to indicate that a Thriving Community had once existed along these shores. In addition to disease, what were described as civil dissensions and bloody wars erupted throughout the nation. The poconocans had been particularly hard hit. Before the play, they had numbered about 12,000, enabling 3000 fighting men. After three years of disease, is force have been reduced to a few hundred warriors, making it even worse for him that the plague had not affected their neighboring enemies to control the western portion of the bay and numbered about 20,000 with 5000 fighting men. Tenants warriors had suffered the humiliation of. G forced disease, the powerful and proud enemy, the pocono cans were in a desperate struggle to maintain their existence as a people. But massachusetts to the north, and cape cod shared. Prevent him from attempting to use his alliances with other tribes to neutralize the threat to the west. A man shall often see this small bird pursue and vanquish and put to flight the crow and other birds far bigger than itself. They might feel that they were now the poconocans masters. Because what you would do is rather than look to the pilgrims, who did many things not to necessarily ingratiate himself to the local population in those first steps, he would say, wait a minute. Perhaps an alliance with this small group of engagement could provide my people with a kind of parity, and he would forge an alliance. There were other factors at work. Member squanto . Squanto, heed about was st