I have this earnest conviction. It is centered around the stories of our American holidays. I have been raised in a culture that defines the ideal American family as one who gathers around the fireplace during a holiday celebration, encircled with cups of hot chocolate or eggnog, singing a traditional song, and bowing their heads for a word of prayer remembering God's faithfulness to each of us throughout the year.
In this circle is mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, siblings, and grandchildren, all with smiles and joys as they gather for a meal. Added to this setting is the turkey grandpa has prepared, mom's homemade mashed potatoes, grandma's pumpkin pie, and many other items each member of the family has gained recognition in culinary achievements.
I think to my self: I imagine the first Thanksgiving had a similar setting with the warmth and gratefulness of establishing new homes in a new world.
So, I began to research....
My study initiated with the women who came across the Atlantic on the Mayflower. Who were these women who would leave their homes in England ( and the Netherlands which I will explain later) and follow their husbands to a new world of untamed wilderness?
There were 102 passengers aboard the Mayflower as it left English shores, including 18 married women and 11 young girls among a group known as separatists. Three of these women were already in their last segment of pregnancy. Their names were Elizabeth Hopkins, Susanna White, and Mary Allerton. The following information brought me to a startling reality "I wasn't in Kansas anymore Toto." The ideal American family thought that had embraced me throughout the years was about to be adjusted.
Most of our historical documents were written by William Bradford, a leader within this group of passengers who had boarded the Mayflower on September 6th, 1620 from Plymouth, a town along the southern coast of England. There were approximately 40 members of this group and were referred to as protestant separatists. The group nicknamed themselves "the saints" with a primary mission to establish a Christian church in the new world.
Here is where the story "gets ugly," and my "ideal family holiday thought" is flushed down the commode.
Of these 18 married women aboard the Mayflower, only 5 survived the first winter. If you count the little girls who did not survive, the mortality rate of the women during the first year was 75%. This rate was higher than the men and children who had come on this voyage.
Why?
The Mayflower arrived on the east coast of what is Massachusetts area in November of 1620. Because winter had already begun, the passengers simply remained inside the docked ship for the duration of that first winter. Sickness spread as dampness, cold, and horrible living conditions existed on the Mayflower. The men and boys were given to hunting and looking for areas to establish homes in the spring. As a result, they were able to breathe and take in the freshness of the outside. The women?...were not.
These brave women were confined to combating the various diseases of the numerous sick that were in the ship of the Mayflower. It is documented that at one point during this bleak winter of 1620, only 7 women had enough strength to help others. 3 of these 7 women were small children. There was only one chamber pot (toilet) in the Mayflower, along with numerous pots for people to vomit and cough into. Various upper respiratory diseases were affecting many and the conditions within the Mayflower became a breeding ground...for death.
In December, a rather freak accident occurred. Dorothy Bradford was outside on the deck of the Mayflower throwing a bucket dirty water into the bay, when she suddenly slipped and fell into the bitter cold waters of the harbor. She became very ill from the accident and never recovered, dying in December.
Rose Standish is recorded to have died from respiratory infection on January 29th of 1621 and Mary Allerton, one of the 3 pregnant women making the voyage, passed away on February 25th. Records also include Elizabeth Winslow dying on March 24th, 1621. Many of the women on the Mayflower died shortly before the spring in both February and March of 1621.
Men died as well including a William Mullins on February 25th. Soon after his wife Alice and their son Joseph died leaving only their daughter Priscilla to survive and brave the new world in the spring of that year.
There was also recorded a John Carver who died in April from some sort of stroke. His wife Katherine passed away in May and it is written she died from a broken heart.
I had written in another article of the deaths of little Mary More ( 4 years of age) and her sister Ellen passing during the cruel winter, along with their sister Jasper.
The opening scenes for the arrival of the pilgrims to the new world is much different that what I have been taught in the western culture of America. It was a tragic one, full of grief and sorrow. Families were ripped apart by death and the child survivors were put with other families. The women of the Mayflower were strong and to be admired for their valor. As I contemplate my thoughts on gathering together as a family...divorce, step-children, and the like, I don't think I feel the failure of meeting up to this American ideal family image any longer because it is not a real picture...of who we are....clear back to the year of 1620.
In this circle is mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, siblings, and grandchildren, all with smiles and joys as they gather for a meal. Added to this setting is the turkey grandpa has prepared, mom's homemade mashed potatoes, grandma's pumpkin pie, and many other items each member of the family has gained recognition in culinary achievements.
I think to my self: I imagine the first Thanksgiving had a similar setting with the warmth and gratefulness of establishing new homes in a new world.
So, I began to research....
My study initiated with the women who came across the Atlantic on the Mayflower. Who were these women who would leave their homes in England ( and the Netherlands which I will explain later) and follow their husbands to a new world of untamed wilderness?
There were 102 passengers aboard the Mayflower as it left English shores, including 18 married women and 11 young girls among a group known as separatists. Three of these women were already in their last segment of pregnancy. Their names were Elizabeth Hopkins, Susanna White, and Mary Allerton. The following information brought me to a startling reality "I wasn't in Kansas anymore Toto." The ideal American family thought that had embraced me throughout the years was about to be adjusted.
Here is where the story "gets ugly," and my "ideal family holiday thought" is flushed down the commode.
Of these 18 married women aboard the Mayflower, only 5 survived the first winter. If you count the little girls who did not survive, the mortality rate of the women during the first year was 75%. This rate was higher than the men and children who had come on this voyage.
Why?
The Mayflower arrived on the east coast of what is Massachusetts area in November of 1620. Because winter had already begun, the passengers simply remained inside the docked ship for the duration of that first winter. Sickness spread as dampness, cold, and horrible living conditions existed on the Mayflower. The men and boys were given to hunting and looking for areas to establish homes in the spring. As a result, they were able to breathe and take in the freshness of the outside. The women?...were not.
These brave women were confined to combating the various diseases of the numerous sick that were in the ship of the Mayflower. It is documented that at one point during this bleak winter of 1620, only 7 women had enough strength to help others. 3 of these 7 women were small children. There was only one chamber pot (toilet) in the Mayflower, along with numerous pots for people to vomit and cough into. Various upper respiratory diseases were affecting many and the conditions within the Mayflower became a breeding ground...for death.
In December, a rather freak accident occurred. Dorothy Bradford was outside on the deck of the Mayflower throwing a bucket dirty water into the bay, when she suddenly slipped and fell into the bitter cold waters of the harbor. She became very ill from the accident and never recovered, dying in December.
Rose Standish is recorded to have died from respiratory infection on January 29th of 1621 and Mary Allerton, one of the 3 pregnant women making the voyage, passed away on February 25th. Records also include Elizabeth Winslow dying on March 24th, 1621. Many of the women on the Mayflower died shortly before the spring in both February and March of 1621.
Men died as well including a William Mullins on February 25th. Soon after his wife Alice and their son Joseph died leaving only their daughter Priscilla to survive and brave the new world in the spring of that year.
There was also recorded a John Carver who died in April from some sort of stroke. His wife Katherine passed away in May and it is written she died from a broken heart.
I had written in another article of the deaths of little Mary More ( 4 years of age) and her sister Ellen passing during the cruel winter, along with their sister Jasper.
The opening scenes for the arrival of the pilgrims to the new world is much different that what I have been taught in the western culture of America. It was a tragic one, full of grief and sorrow. Families were ripped apart by death and the child survivors were put with other families. The women of the Mayflower were strong and to be admired for their valor. As I contemplate my thoughts on gathering together as a family...divorce, step-children, and the like, I don't think I feel the failure of meeting up to this American ideal family image any longer because it is not a real picture...of who we are....clear back to the year of 1620.
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