by S. A. Cranfill | 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…)
by S. A. Cranfill | Feb 8, 2020 | 17th-Century British & American History, Braving the New World, European and British Colonization of America, South America, The Pilgrims, The Year of the Mayflower
Cape Cod? New Plymouth? The Hudson River?
The Pilgrims Were Headed for Virginia?
We saw in a previous post titled “The Year of the Mayflower” (Feb 2020) that the Pilgrim Fathers had a patent to settle their own, independent colony within the greater Virginia (which stretched from modern-day South Carolina to mid-Maine), with intent to settle somewhere along the Hudson River, and that Plymouth was already named on John Smith’s map (a copy of which the Pilgrims had purchased), but that the New Plymouth was not on the itinerary. So, how did they end up on the coast of Massachusetts? (more…)
by S. A. Cranfill | 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…)
