"If a tree falls but no one is there to see it, does it really fall?" This quote explains the very logic of history. Throughout the course of history, many significant occurrences have shaped our society to what it is today: free. William Bradford not only lived through a symbolic historical cornerstone of America, but wrote about it too.
William Bradford, the second governor of Plymouth colony elected, was accountable for the young colony’s success through great hardships. The Pilgrims were signified as complete abdicates from the Church of England. The success of the Plymouth was based on covenantalism - the belief that men could form compacts or covenants in the sight of God as a basis for government without the consent of a higher authority. According to Bradford’s exposé, the Pilgrims:
shook off this yoke of antichristian bondage, and as the Lord's free people joined themselves (by a covenant of the Lord) into a church estate, in the fellowship of the gospel, to walk in all His ways made known, or to be made known unto them, according to their best endeavors, whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord assisting them. And that it cost them something this ensuing history will declare.
But after these things they could not long continue in any peaceable condition, but were hunted and persecuted on every side, so as their former afflictions were but as flea-bitings in comparison of these, which now came upon them. For some were taken and clapped up in prison, others had their houses beset and watched night and day, and hardly escaped their hands; and the most were fain to flee and leave their houses and habitations, and the means of their livelihood.
Yet these and many other sharper things which afterward befell them, were no other than they looked for, and therefore were the better prepared to bear them by the assistance of God's grace and Spirit.
Yet seeing themselves thus molested, and that there was no hope of their continuance there, by a joint consent they resolved to go into the Low Countries, where they heard was freedom of religion for all men; they resolved to get over into Holland as they could. (W. Brad Home Page).
Once in Holland, the Pilgrims discovered that religious persecution was being diffused. They picked up once again on another brave journey in search for a land that was seemingly impossible to find: a land of religious freedom.
"Research Starters: Plymouth Colony." 2014 Scholastic Inc. Grolier Incorporated, n.d. Web. 9 Feb 2014. .
These people were called Separatists. Consequently, the members of this religious sect began to get “hunted and persecuted” (123). They were put in prison, their families were watched at all times, and a great deal of people began to flee. When this began, they started to hear of places that allowed religious freedom, Holland in particular. In result, that’s where they went off to.
The Jamestown and Plymouth settlements were both settled in the early 1600's. Plymouth and Jamestown were located along the shoreline in Massachusetts and Virginia, respectively. Although both had different forms of government, they both had strong leadership. Jamestown was controlled by the London Company, who wanted to profit from the venture, while the Puritans who settled at Plymouth were self-governed with an early form of democracy and settled in the New World to gain religious freedom. John Smith took charge in efforts to organize Jamestown, and at Plymouth William Bradford helped things run smoothly.
Many of the things that the Europeans, Cabral’s men and others later, observed about these savages were very interesting to them. The first thing that they found amazement in was the fact that the savages wore no clothing of any sort. They wer...
When the Mayflower sailed over to the New World, on the boats were Puritans that were looking for a change in the way that their religion was practiced where the Chesapeake settlers came over for gold. Alongside the Puritans were the Separatists who wanted everything their way and wanted to perfect the ways of the Puritans. When they landed in New England, they immediately settled down because they didn’t have an economic reason for coming. Both sets of religions ventured overseas so that they could create a new religion that would work for them in their favor and not be prosecuted for practici...
The suffering and hardships that the Pilgrims endure in England and in Holland make their appetite for religious freedom greater than ever. “But after these things they could not long continue in any peaceable condition, but were hunted and persecuted on every side, so as their former afflictions were but as flea-bitings in comparison of these which now came upon them” (Bradford 123). This quote from William Bradford reveals the kind of suffering and persecution that is endured by the “Separatists” as they search for a place of religious freedom. While in England, the “Separatists” are subject to being thrown in prison as punishment for breaking the law. Many of their houses are watched night and day to catch them practicing a different religion. Most of them are more than happy to leave their homes and belongings to escape the persecution so that they are free to practice their religion. In Holland they are free from persecution, but a truce between the Netherlands and Spain will soon come to an end and it has them worri...
His only concern was how he was going to look as a person, the work, and the money. Plymouth, on the other hand had very generous leaders. William Bradford, was a farmer in Yorkshire, England. He was elected governor, a position he held for more than 30 years, and his tolerance for diverse beliefs was in part responsible for the success of the Plymouth Colony. Their main concern was God.
The founder and governor John Winthrop gave the famous sermon of “City on a Hill” and led the persecuted Puritans from England to this land and established the Massachusetts Bay. He hoped to build safe place as a Christina commonwealth as an example to show the world. He was a capable governor and a faithful follower of God. When Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson challenged his authority, they were both banished and went south to establish their own colonies. It might be that his exclusion of people with different believes made him a model of intolerant religious ruler, but at the same time his actions showed another form of democracy. He led the colonists who were Puritans and who shared the same belief of him onto a life of prosper and stability in their land, and he never prevented anyone who disagreed with him from leaving and establishing their ideal place somewhere else. However, living in Massachusetts meant that people should follow the local law. This shows another similarity in the situations today where people in a certain legal area could choose what they want separately from other parts of the country like only four states in te States now legalize marijuana for recreational use. In this way, John Winthrop made a colony bear a democratic spirit as opposed to people yelling for their individual
In the 1600’s there was the foundations of representative government. In the 1600’s the colonists came up with something called a democracy. A democracy is a government in which people rule themselves. The colonists had voted for many certain laws. They ruled themselves by using the laws of society. The carter named “Magna Carta” was a character of liberties which was agreed by King John of England, it had made the king obey the same laws as the citizens. Protestantism is a branch within Christianity; this was mostly participated during the 16th century. These were people who had reformed certain practices in the Catholic churches. On November 11, 1620 the Mayflower Compact was signed. The Mayflower Compact is a legal contract which was agreed to have fair laws to protect the good.
Many of England’s problems could be solved in America, and so colonization began. When the earliest settlers came, England had the responsibility to continue the Protestant Church, and prevent the Catholic Church from converting the entire Native American population of North America (Morison, p.105) A potential Protestant refuge could be based there in the threat of civil wars or a change of religion.
Most of the Pilgrims were members of the Separatist congregation that had split from the Church of England. However, some were not, and these people sought independence from the Separatists. To prevent this, Separatist leaders wrote the Compact, which was formed after the covenant that had established their Separatist faith. Each male adult signed the document. The signers agreed to follow all "just and equal" laws that the settlers enacted and to be ruled by the will of majority. Plymouth Colony did not receive an English royal charter, and so the compact determined governmental authority in the colony until it became part of the Massachusetts colony in 1691. They thought that they needed to this to survive, because they needed rules. Without this they might have ended up killing each other. People thought with this it would give equal power to the separatist and the people who was against them. Was also good because it kept mutiny contained.
In the New World Bradford and Morton were both important men of our history. The stories of both great men give us an insight into the way religion and influence affected Puritan life.
While on the Mayflower, the settlers came to the realization that there would be no civil authority on the new land for them to follow. Resulting from that realization was the Mayflower Compact, it was designed to be their rule and guide to life on the new land. This was the first American State Paper; it provides the original statement of the principles of American democracy as we now know it. In addition it was the first self-government within the colonies and it regarded people as the source of power. The Mayflower Compact expresses four major ideas, a deep faith in God and his guidance, a deep loyalty to England and the king, a mutual regard for one another as equals, and the intent to establish equal laws to all men. It was the birth of constitutional liberty and became the official constitution of Plymouth Colony until Plymouth merged i...
wrote a pamphlet to the people in England and told about all the good things
Lineberry, John. Salvation Is of the Lord: Topical and Word Studies. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959.