The Wars and the Plague That Prepared a Place for the Pilgrims

by | Mar 28, 2020 | 17th-Century British & American History, Braving the New World, Captain John Smith, Captain Thomas Dermer, European and British Colonization of America, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, The Pilgrims, The Year of the Mayflower

“An Extraordinary Plague”

This blog entry is dated March 28, 2020, so it is perhaps a pertinent time, as we Americans endure an unprecedented and rather peculiar quarantine, to explore a curious and historically important plague of four centuries ago.

In 1616, several years prior to the year of the Mayflower, an unseen enemy stalked (more…)

Cod Fish, America, and the Pilgrims

by | Mar 9, 2020 | 17th-Century British & American History, Captain John Smith, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Squanto, The Pilgrims, The Year of the Mayflower

The Fish That Founded America
Photo from Pixabay by Susanna Winqvist

The Atlantic Codfish ~ America’s Founding “Fish Father”

It is March of 2020, the Year of the Mayflower, the 400th anniversary of the good ship’s New England arrival some 8 months future. What were the people we call our Pilgrim Fathers doing in March of 1620? They were dealing with, and arguing over, a new development on the business end of moving to America. (more…)

The Year of the Mayflower

by | Feb 6, 2020 | 17th-Century British & American History, Braving the New World, Captain John Smith, The Pilgrims, The Year of the Mayflower

The Mayflower Replica in a 2016 Plymouth Harbor (taken by author)

The Pilgrims’ 400th Anniversary Year

It’s February 2020. This next November, it will be 400 years since the Mayflower rounded “the fist” of Cape Cod’s flexed arm and found their first safe harbor near today’s Provincetown. In December, it will be 400 years since the Mayflower crew and passengers, after some exploration, anchored their ship in Plymouth Bay and sent men ashore in the shallop (for the second time) with intent to settle the place called Patuxet by the Wampanoags. (more…)

Guess Who Was In London in 1616

by | Jan 12, 2020 | 17th-Century British & American History, Braving the New World, Captain John Smith, Pocahontas, Squanto

1616 Engraving of London by Claes Visscher

A Most Interesting Year for Some Famous People

Do you know who was in London in 1616? All at the same time? The same year (or very close) that Dutch artist Claes Visscher published his magnificent etching of a panorama of London? Did you guess Lady Rebecca Rolfe, a Massachusetts Patuxet called Tisquantum, and the soldier-adventurer Captain John Smith? If you did, you are truly a history nerd!

Did they meet while in London? Two of them had a well-documented meeting. The third? No proof or mention, but perhaps a possibility, if we use our imaginations. Let’s find out more about what happened in London in 1616 and how it impacted the New World called America. (more…)