When studying the earliest years of American history, many difficulties arise for the modern student. One of the first problems is the period since then, America having been settled in the first few decades of the 1600s. It is often difficult for works to survive several centuries, due to disintegration, fires, and so on. Secondly, very few of the early settlers and travelers into the Plymouth area kept a record of their experiences. That being noted, modern historians do have some documentation of what the early settlement was like, thanks to the writing of John Pory, Emmanuel Altham, John Smith, and Isaac de Rasieres.
When reading a section (focusing on the aforementioned writers’ discussion on Plymouth) from James and Patricia Scott Deetz’s The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth Colony, today’s historian gets a look at what the first settlements in Plymouth looked like. Edward Winslow and William Bradford wrote in 1620/21 about the process of building the first houses in the colony. “So in the afternoon we went to measure out the grounds… and so lots were cast where every man should lie, which was done, and staked out” (Deetz). Winslow later notes, in a letter to George Morton in 1621, that, “The town is seated on the ascent of a hill.”
In reading the description of American times long past, of people hewing out of the land a small village seated on the slope of a hill by the sea, it may be difficult to avoid experiencing longing nostalgia for a simpler time. The words of these long-dead writers evoke images of the sullenly cold of winter and the terror of Native American attacks; in their downtime, they surely prayed as a family in reverence and honor to God. For the modern reader living in today’s modernized, “sophisticated” America, such times might appear glamorously pure.
The modern adventure fan can read of the small fort in the “upper end of the town” that is continually at “watch so that no Indian can come near thereabouts but he is presently seen” (Deetz). It is easy to picture bloody battles between Pilgrims and Native Americans and feel the pulse rise. Sadly, it also evokes the image of displaced tribes whose land was taken from the new settlers.
Apart from the pleasure that a reader can derive from these sections, a great deal of history can be gleaned, as well. A humorous section is that covering Captain John Smith’s writings; while covered in detail, there is mention of Smith’s lie-riddled writings about his rescuing Pocahontas, who then fell in love with him. While amusing for entertainment’s sake, Smith did offer up some important historical data about the early settlement in Plymouth. He wrote about the length of “pale” around the settlement, thus corroborating the details of previous writers, leading today’s historians to find validity in the claims.
A final early writer’s notes on Plymouth worthy of recognition would be Isaac de Rasieres’s (1628) discussion about the gate used to catch fish.
The river the English have shut in with planks and in the middle with a little door, which slides up and down, and at the sides with trellis work, through which the water has its course, but which they can also close with slides (Deetz).
It is fascinating to read about how the early settlers used their ingenuity to turn a terrible, deathly situation (in the winter of 1620/21) into a livable, successful one just six or seven years later.
Overall, the discussion of early Plymouth is simply amazing. It is eye-opening to read about how some of the earliest Americans pushed themselves to build a village and thrive in a new land, all in the name of religious freedom and the love of God. While the Puritans may have been a bit too stringent in their practices of Christianity, their dedication to their village is evident in the writings of early Plymouth historians.
Works Cited
Deetz, James and Patricia Scott Deetz. “Plymouth Town Early Descriptions.” Histarch. 2007. Web.