Written like a well-woven adventure story, Nathaniel Philbrick weaves together the human threads of the famous Pilgrim escape to the New World. Shut off the television. Put down the i-Pod. This rendition of the famous voyage and the tribulations encountered traveling to and upon docking at Provincetown, Cape Cod, is well worth the read.
Beyond the First Thanksgiving
Shed all of your preconceived ideas and concepts about the Pilgrims and the Mayflower--about the Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony. Philbrick takes you behind the scenes with the new English Church, the estrangment of the Separatists from the English Church, their flight to Holland and subsequent flight to the New World.
Philbrick glimpses into the thinking and reasonings of the Pilgrims--their spirits, their souls. The reader develops a sense of relationship with these people who spring to life within the pages of his book, even though their graves have been with us for almost 400 years.
Philbrick drops in on the shady dealings of London merchant, Thomas Weston and the Merchant Adventurers of England. He reveals the apparent reasons behind the leaks in the Speedwell, the other vessel planned for the Atlantic voyage. The background information left out in all of those mandatory history classes students endure--Philbrick expertly presents.
Aboard the Mayflower
The winds blew westard the morning of September 6, 1620, Plymouth England, filling the sails of the Mayflower. This was not a voyage for weak stomachs. Philbrick takes you above and below the decks of this trading ship as the passengers in their cramped quarters digest a crash sailing course and intensive, mandatory electives about close human relationships. The voyage is anything but leisurely. No cruise vacation here.
The two groups of Pilgrims, distinctively different from one another all but loathe each other. Philbrick's accounts are insightful and passionate. The Pilgrims become individuals, not just a group of men and women dressed in black and white garb.
Establishing Plymouth Colony
On the brink of starvation, snow already covering the ground, the Pilgrims scramble to build shelter and secure food. Besides impending starvation, is the threat of annihilation by the indigenous people of the area. Philbrick describes the desperate circumstances suffocating the Pilgrims by the time the Mayflower docked off Cape Cod. The Natives were not there to greet the passangers with open arms as school plays may suggest.
Earlier English and French visitors to these shores mercilessly abused and murdered the inhabitants. They also brought diseases which the Natives had no immunity for. Philbrick takes you into the villages of the chiefs/sachems. Every day the Pilgrims faced the possiblity of being massacred by some tribe, yet, they persevered, establishing the first successful English colony within the future state of Massachusetts.
There is nothing like a good book, and this one is definitely top notch!
About the Author, Nathaniel Philbrick
Nathaniel Philbrick resides on Nantucket Island, off the coast of Cape Cod. This book, Mayflower was a finalist for both the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in History and the Los Angeles Times Book Award and was winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction.
He is also the author of, In the Heart of the Sea, and Sea of Glory: The Epic South Seas Expedition, 1838-1842. He won awards for both of these books, as well.
Source
Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower,Viking, Penquin Group (USA), Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New Yor, NY, 10014, 2006. ISBN 0-670-03760-5
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