Pilgrims (American history)

Pilgrims (American history), early English settlers who founded Plymouth Colony, the first permanent settlement in New England. They were originally known as the Forefathers or Founders; the term Pilgrim was first used in the writings of colonist William Bradford.

Among the early Pilgrims was a group of Separatists, members of a radical religious movement that broke from the Church of England during the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1606 William Brewster led a group of Separatists to Leiden, The Netherlands, to escape religious persecution in England. After living in Leiden for more than ten years, some members of the group voted to emigrate to America. The voyage was financed by a group of London investors who were promised produce from America in exchange for their assistance.

On September 16, 1620, these Separatists were part of a group numbering 102 men, women, and children who left Plymouth, England, for America on the Mayflower. On November 21, the Mayflower dropped anchor in the sheltered harbor off the site of present-day Provincetown, Massachusetts. On December 21, after an exploratory voyage along Cape Cod, the Pilgrims landed and disembarked from the Mayflower near the head of the cape and founded Plymouth Colony. Today, people in New England celebrate December 21 as Forefathers’ Day.

The Pilgrims had originally intended to go to Virginia, where they would have been under the jurisdiction of the London Company, one of two English companies that had been chartered to colonize North America. But they were blown off course and had no grant to settle in the region controlled by the Plymouth Company, the other English company. Thus the Pilgrims drew up the Mayflower Compact. All adult male passengers on the ship were required to sign it. Under this informal agreement or covenant, government was based on consent of the governed, an important precedent for the development of American democracy. All colonists had to obey the laws that were enacted. This compact established majority rule, which remained a primary principle of the government in Plymouth Colony until Massachusetts Bay Colony absorbed the colony in 1691. John Carver was selected as governor; he was succeeded in 1621 by William Bradford.

The Pilgrims’ first winter was difficult, and many of the colonists died. In the spring Native Americans taught the settlers how to raise corn and catch fish. The Wampanoag leader Massasoit signed a peace treaty with the colonists in which each promised to live in peace and support the other if attacked. In the fall of 1621 the Pilgrims and the Native Americans shared a bountiful harvest of corn and beans, along with fish and game, in what became known as the first American Thanksgiving.