COMMUNAL AND FAMILY LIFE IN PLYMOUTH 1621-1623
Spring and summer came to bless them for their endurance and unconscious
heroism. Then they could appreciate the verdict of their leaders, who
chose the site of Plymouth as a “hopeful place,” with running brooks,
vines of sassafras and strawberry, fruit trees, fish and wild fowl and
“clay excellent for pots and will wash like soap.”[12] So early was the
spring in 1621 that on March the third there was a thunder storm and
“the birds sang in the woods most pleasantly.” On March the sixteenth,
Samoset came with Indian greeting. This visit must have been one of
mixed sentiments for the women and we can read more than the mere words
in the sentence, “We lodged him that night at Stephen Hopkins’ house and
watched him.”[13] Perhaps it was in deference to the women that the men
gave Samoset a hat, a pair of stockings, shoes, a shirt and a piece of
cloth to tie about his waist. Samoset returned soon with Squanto or
Tisquantum, the only survivor of the Patuxet tribe of Indians which had
perished of a pestilence at Plymouth three years before. He shared with
Hobomok the friendship of the settlers for many years and both Indians
gave excellent service. Through the influence of Squanto the treaty was
made in the spring of 1621 with Massasoit, the first League of Nations
to preserve peace in the new world.
Squanto showed the men how to plant alewives or herring as fertilizer
for the Indian corn. He taught the boys and girls how to gather clams
and mussels on the shore and to “tread eels” in the water that is still
called Eel River. He gathered wild strawberries and sassafras for the
women and they prepared a “brew” which almost equalled their ale of old
England. The friendly Indians assisted the men, as the seasons opened,
in hunting wild turkeys, ducks and an occasional deer, welcome additions
to the store of fish, sea-biscuits and cheese. We are told[14] that
Squanto brought also a dog from his Indian friends as a gift to the
settlement. Already there were, at least, two dogs, probably brought
from Holland or England, a mastiff and a spaniel[15] to give comfort and
companionship to the women and children, and to go with the men into the
woods for timber and game.
It seems paradoxical to speak of child-life in this hard-pressed,
serious-minded colony, but it was there and, doubtless, it was normal in
its joyous and adventuresome impulses. Under eighteen years of age were
the girls, Remember and Mary Allerton, Constance and Damaris Hopkins,
Elizabeth Tilley and, possibly, Desire Minter and Humility Cooper. The
boys were Bartholomew Allerton, who “learned to sound the drum,” John
Crakston, William Latham, Giles Hopkins, John and Francis Billington,
Richard More, Henry Sampson, John Cooke, Resolved White, Samuel Fuller,
Love and Wrestling Brewster and the babies, Oceanus Hopkins and
Peregrine White. With the exception of Wrestling Brewster and Oceanus
Hopkins, all these children lived to ripe old age,—a credit not alone to
their hardy constitutions, but also to the care which the Plymouth women
bestowed upon their households.
The flowers that grew in abundance about the settlement must have given
them joy,—arbutus or “mayflowers,” wild roses, blue chicory, Queen
Anne’s lace, purple asters, golden-rod and the beautiful sabbatia or
“sentry” which is still found on the banks of the fresh ponds near the
town and is called “the Plymouth rose.” Edward Winslow tells[16] of the
drastic use of this bitter plant in developing hardihood among Indian
boys. Early in the first year one of these fresh-water ponds, known as
Billington Sea, was discovered by Francis Billington when he had climbed
a high hill and had reported from it “a smaller sea.” Blackberries,
blueberries, plums and cherries must have been delights to the women and
children. Medicinal herbs were found and used by advice of the Indian
friends; the bayberry’s virtues as salve, if not as candle-light, were
early applied to the comforts of the households. Robins, bluebirds, “Bob
Whites” and other birds sang for the pioneers as they sing for the
tourist and resident in Plymouth today. The mosquito had a sting,—for
Bradford gave a droll and pungent answer to the discontented colonists
who had reported, in 1624, that “the people are much annoyed with
musquetoes.” He wrote:[17] “_They_ are too delicate and unfitte to begin
new plantations and colonies that cannot enduer the biting of a muskeet.
We would wish such to keep at home till at least they be muskeeto proof.
Yet this place is as free as any and experience teacheth that ye land is
tild and ye woods cut downe, the fewer there will be and in the end
scarce any at all.” The _end_ has not yet come!
Good harvests and some thrilling incidents varied the hard conditions of
life for the women during 1621-2. Indian corn and barley furnished a new
foundation for many “a savory dish” prepared by the housewives in the
mortar and pestles, kettles and skillets which they had brought from
Holland. Nuts were used for food, giving piquant flavor both to “cakes”
baked in the fire and to the stuffing of wild turkeys. The fare was
simple, but it must have seemed a feast to the Pilgrims after the months
of self-denials and extremity.
Before the winter of 1621-2 was ended, seven log houses had been built
and four “common buildings” for storage, meetings and workshops. Already
clapboards and furs were stored to be sent back to England to the
merchant adventurers in the first ship. The seven huts, with thatched
roofs and chimneys on the outside, probably in cob-house style, were of
hewn planks, not of round logs.[18] The fireplaces were of stones laid
in clay from the abundant sand. In 1628 thatched roofs were condemned
because of the danger of fire,[19] and boards or palings were
substituted. During the first two years or longer, light came into the
houses through oiled paper in the windows. From the plans left by
Governor Bradford and the record of the visit of De Rassieres to
Plymouth, in 1627, one can visualize this first street in New England,
leading from Plymouth harbor up the hill to the cannon and stockade
where, later, was the fort. At the intersection of the first street and
a cross-highway stood the Governor’s house. It was fitting that the lot
nearest to the fort hill should be assigned to Miles Standish and John
Alden. All had free access to the brook where flagons were filled for
drink and where the clothes were washed.
A few events that have been recorded by Winslow, Bradford and Morton
were significant and must have relieved the monotony of life. On January
fourth an eagle was shot, cooked and proved “to be excellent meat; it
was hardly to be discerned from mutton.”[20] Four days later three seals
and a cod were caught; we may assume that they furnished oil, meat and
skins for the household. About the same time, John Goodman and Peter
Brown lost their way in the woods, remained out all night, thinking they
heard lions roar (mistaking wolves for lions), and on their return the
next day John Goodman’s feet were so badly frozen “that it was a long
time before he was able to go.”[21] Wild geese were shot and used for
broth on the ninth of February; the same day the Common House was set
ablaze, but was saved from destruction. It is easy to imagine the
exciting effects of such incidents upon the band of thirteen boys and
seven girls, already enumerated. In July, the cry of “a lost child”
aroused the settlement to a search for that “unwhipt rascal,” John
Billington, who had run away to the Nauset Indians at Eastham, but he
was found unharmed by a posse of men led by Captain Standish.
To the women one of the most exciting events must have been the marriage
on May 22, 1621, of Edward Winslow and Mistress Susanna White. Her
husband and two men-servants had died since _The Mayflower_ left England
and she was alone to care for two young boys, one a baby a few weeks
old. Elizabeth Barker Winslow had died seven weeks before the wedding
day. Perhaps the Plymouth women gossiped a little over the brief
interval of mourning, but the exigencies of the times easily explained
the marriage, which was performed by a magistrate, presumably the
Governor.
Even more disturbing to the peaceful life was the first duel on June 18,
between Edward Lister and Edward Dotey, both servants of Stephen
Hopkins. Tradition ascribed the cause to a quarrel over the attractive
elder daughter of their master, Constance Hopkins. The duel was fought
with swords and daggers; both youths were slightly wounded in hand and
thigh and both were sentenced, as punishment, to have their hands and
feet tied together and to fast for twenty-four hours but, says a
record,[22] “within an hour, because of their great pains, at their own
and their master’s humble request, upon promise of better carriage, they
were released by the Governor.” It is easy to imagine this scene:
Stephen Hopkins and his wife appealing to the Governor and Captain
Standish for leniency, although the settlement was seriously troubled
over the occurrence; Elder Brewster and his wife deploring the lack of
Christian affection which caused the duel; Edward Winslow and his wife,
dignified yet tolerant; Goodwife Helen Billington scolding as usual;
Priscilla Mullins, Mary Chilton and Elizabeth Tilley condoling with the
tearful and frightened Constance Hopkins, while the children stand
about, excited and somewhat awed by the punishment and the distress of
the offenders.
Another day of unusual interest and industry for the householders was
the Thanksgiving Day when peace with the Indians and assured prosperity
seemed to follow the ample harvests. To this feast, which lasted for
three days or more, came ninety-one Indians bringing five deer which
they had killed and dressed. These were a great boon to the women who
must prepare meals for one hundred and forty people. Wild turkeys,
ducks, fish and clams were procured by the colonists and cooked, perhaps
with some marchpanes also, by the more expert cooks. The serious prayers
and psalms of the Pilgrims were as amazing to the Indians as were the
strange whoops, dances, beads and feathers of the savages marvellous to
the women and children of Plymouth Colony.
In spite of these peaceable incidents there were occasional threats of
Indian treachery, like the theft of tools from two woodsmen and the
later bold challenge in the form of a headless arrow wrapped in a
snake’s skin; the latter was returned promptly and decisively with the
skin filled with bullets, and the danger was over for a time. The
stockade was strengthened and, soon after, a palisade was built about
the houses with gates that were locked at night. After the fort of heavy
timber was completed, this was used also as a meeting-house and “was
fitted accordingly for that use.” It is to be hoped that warming-pans
and foot-stoves were a part of the “fittings” so that the women might
not be benumbed as, with dread of possible Indian attacks, they limned
from the old Ainsworth’s Psalm Book:
“In the Lord do I trust, how then to my soule doe ye say,
As doth a little bird unto your mountaine fly away?
For loe, the wicked bend their bow, their arrows they prepare
On string; to shoot at dark at them
In heart that upright are.”
(_Psalm xi._)
Even more exciting than the days already mentioned was the great event
of surprise and rejoicing, November 19, 1621, when _The Fortune_ arrived
with thirty-five more Pilgrims. Some of these were soon to wed
_Mayflower_ passengers. Widow Martha Ford, recently bereft, giving birth
on the night of her arrival to a fourth child, was wed to Peter Brown;
Mary Becket (sometimes written Bucket) became the wife of George Soule;
John Winslow later married Mary Chilton, and Thomas Cushman, then a lad
of fourteen, became the husband, in manhood, of Mary Allerton. His
father, Robert Cushman, remained in the settlement while _The Fortune_
was at anchor and left his son as ward for Governor Bradford. The
notable sermon which was preached at Plymouth by Robert Cushman at this
time (preserved in Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth) was from the text, “Let no
man seek his own; but every man another’s wealth.” Some of the
admonitions against swelling pride and fleshly-minded hypocrites seem to
us rather paradoxical when we consider the poverty and self-sacrificing
spirit of these pioneers; perhaps, there were selfish and slothful
malcontents even in that company of devoted, industrious men and women,
for human nature was the same three hundred years ago, in large and
small communities, as it is today, with some relative changes.
Among the passengers brought by _The Fortune_ were some of great
helpfulness. William Wright, with his wife Priscilla (the sister of
Governor Bradford’s second wife), was an expert carpenter, and Stephen
Dean, who came with his wife, was able to erect a small mill and grind
corn. Robert Hicks (or Heeks) was another addition to the colony, whose
wife was later the teacher of some of the children. Philip De La Noye,
progenitor of the Delano family in America, John and Kenelm Winslow and
Jonathan Brewster were eligible men to join the group of younger
men,—John Alden, John Howland and others.
The great joy in the arrival of these friends was succeeded by an
agitating fear regarding the food supply, for _The Fortune_ had suffered
from bad weather and its colonists had scarcely any extra food or
clothing. By careful allotments the winter was endured and when spring
came there were hopes of a large harvest from more abundant sowing, but
the hopes were killed by the fearful drought which lasted from May to
the middle of July. Some lawless and selfish youths frequently stole
corn before it was ripe and, although public whipping was the
punishment, the evil persisted. These conditions were met with the same
courage and determination which ever characterized the leaders; a
rationing of the colony was made which would have done credit to a
“Hoover.” They escaped famine, but the worn, thin faces and “the low
condition, both in respect of food and clothing” was a shock to the
sixty more colonists who arrived in _The Ann_ and _The James_ in 1623.
The friends who came in these later ships included some women from
Leyden, “dear gossips” of _Mayflower_ colonists, women whose resources
and characters gave them prominence in the later history of Plymouth.
Notable among them was Mrs. Alice Southworth, soon to wed Governor
Bradford. With her came Barbara, whose surname is surmised to have been
Standish, soon to become the wife of Captain Standish. Bridget Fuller
joined her husband, the noble doctor of Plymouth; Elizabeth Warren, with
her five daughters, came to make a home for her husband, Richard;
Mistress Hester Cooke came with three children, and Fear and Patience
Brewster, despite their names, brought joy and cheer to their mother and
girlhood friends; they were later wed to Isaac Allerton and Thomas
Prence, the Governor.
Fortunately, _The Ann_ and _The James_ brought supplies in liberal
measure and also carpenters, weavers and cobblers, for their need was
great. _The James_ was to remain for the use of the colony. Rations had
been as low as one-quarter pound of bread a day and sometimes their fare
was only “a bit of fish or lobster without any bread or relish but a cup
of fair spring water.”[23] It is not strange that Bradford added: “ye
long continuance of this diete and their labors abroad had somewhat
abated ye freshness of their former complexion.”
An important change in the policy of the colony, which affected the
women as well as men, was made at this time. Formerly the administration
of affairs had been upon the communal basis. All the men and grown boys
were expected to plant and harvest, fish and hunt for the common use of
all the households. The women also did their tasks in common. The
results had been unsatisfactory and, in 1623, a new division of land was
made, allotting to each householder an acre for each member of his
family. This arrangement, which was called “every man for his owne
particuler,” was told by Bradford with a comment which shows that the
women were human beings, not saints nor martyrs. He wrote: “The women
now went willingly into ye field, and tooke their little-ones with them
to set corne, which before would aledge weaknes and inabilitie; whom to
have compelled would have bene thought great tiranie and oppression.”
After further comment upon the failure of communism as “breeding
confusion and discontent” he added this significant comment: “For ye
yong-men that were most able and fitte for labour and service did repine
that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s
wives and children without any recompense.... And for men’s wives to be
commanded to doe servise for other men, as dresing their meate, washing
their cloathes, etc., they deemed it a kind of slaverie, neither could
many husbands well brooke it.”
If food was scarce, even a worse condition existed as to clothing in the
summer of 1623. Tradition has ascribed several spinning-wheels and looms
to the women who came in _The Mayflower_, but we can scarcely believe
that such comforts were generously bestowed. There could have been
little material or time for their use. Much skilful weaving and spinning
of linen, flax, and wool came in later Colonial history. The women must
have been taxed to keep the clothes mended for their families as
protection against the cold and storms. The quantity on hand, after the
stress of the two years, would vary according to the supplies which each
brought from Holland or England; in some families there were sheets and
“pillow-beeres” with “clothes of substance and comeliness,” but other
households were scantily supplied. A somewhat crude but interesting
ballad, called “Our Forefathers’ Song,” is given by tradition from the
lips of an old lady, aged ninety-four years, in 1767. If the suggestion
is accurate that she learned this from her mother or grandmother, its
date would approximate the early days of Plymouth history. More probably
it was written much later, but it has a reminiscent flavor of those days
of poverty and brave spirit:
“The place where we live is a wilderness wood,
Where grass is much wanted that’s fruitful and good;
Our mountains and hills and our valleys below,
Are commonly covered with frost and with snow.
“Our clothes we brought with us are apt to be torn,
They need to be clouted soon after they are worn,
But clouting our garments they hinder us nothing,
Clouts _double_ are warmer than _single_ whole clothing.
“If fresh meate be wanted to fill up our dish,
We have carrots and turnips whenever we wish,
And if we’ve a mind for a delicate dish,
We go to the clam-bank and there we catch fish.
“For pottage and puddings and custards and pies,
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies!
We have pumpkin at morning and pumpkin at noon,
If it was not for pumpkin we should be undoon.”[24]
What did these Pilgrim women wear? The manifest answer is,—what they had
in stock. No more absurd idea was ever invented than the picture of
these Pilgrims “in uniform,” gray gowns with dainty white collars and
cuffs, with stiff caps and dark capes. They wore the typical garments of
the period for men and women in England. There is no evidence that they
adopted, to any extent, Dutch dress, for they were proud of their
English birth; they left Holland partly for fear that their young people
might be educated or enticed away from English standards of conduct.[25]
Mrs. Alice Morse Earle has emphasized wisely[26] that the “sad-colored”
gowns and coats mentioned in wills were not “dismal”; the list of colors
so described in England included (1638) “russet, purple, green, tawny,
deere colour, orange colour, buffs and scarlet.” The men wore doublets
and jerkins of browns and greens, and cloaks with red and purple
linings. The women wore full skirts of say, paduasoy or silk of varied
colors, long, pointed stomachers,—often with bright tone,—full,
sometimes puffed or slashed sleeves, and lace collars or “whisks”
resting upon the shoulders. Sometimes the gowns were plaited or
silk-laced; they often opened in front showing petticoats that were
quilted or embroidered in brighter colours. Broadcloth gowns of russet
tones were worn by those who could not afford silks and satins;
sometimes women wore doublets and jerkins of black and browns. For dress
occasions the men wore black velvet jerkins with white ruffs, like those
in the authentic portrait of Edward Winslow. Velvet and quilted hoods of
all colors and sometimes caps, flat on the head and meeting below the
chin with fullness, are shown in existent portraits of English women and
early colonists.
Among relics that are dated back to this early period are the
slipper[27] belonging to Mistress Susanna White Winslow, narrow,
pointed, with lace trimmings, and an embroidered lace cap that has been
assigned to Rose Standish.[28] Sometimes the high ruffs were worn above
the shoulders instead of “whisks.” The children were dressed like
miniature men and women; often the girls wore aprons, as did the women
on occasions; these were narrow and edged with lace. “Petty coats” are
mentioned in wills among the garments of the women. We would not assume
that in 1621-2 _all_ the women in Plymouth colony wore silken or even
home-spun clothes of prevailing English fashion. Many of these that are
mentioned in inventories and retained as heirlooms, with rich laces and
embroideries, were brought later from England; probably Winslow,
Allerton and even Standish brought back such gifts to the women when
they made their trips to England in 1624 and later. If the pioneer women
had laces and embroideries of gold they probably hoarded them as
precious heirlooms during those early years of want, for they were too
sensible to wear and to waste them. As prosperity came, however, and new
elements entered the colony they were, doubtless, affected by the law of
the General Court, in 1634, which forbade further acquisition of laces,
threads of silver and gold, needle-work caps, bands and rails, and
silver girdles and belts. This law was enacted _not_ by the Pilgrims of
Plymouth, but by the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony.
When Edward Winslow returned in _The Charity_, in 1624, he brought not
alone a “goodly supply of clothing”[29] but,—far more important,—the
first bull and heifers that were in Plymouth. The old tradition of the
white bull on which Priscilla Alden rode home from her marriage, in 1622
or early 1623, must be rejected. This valuable addition of “neat cattle”
to the resources of the colony caused a redistribution of land and
shares in the “stock.” By 1627 a partnership or “purchas” had been
arranged, for assuming the debts and maintenance of the Plymouth colony,
freed from further responsibility to “the adventurers” in London. The
new division of lots included also some of the cattle. It was specified,
for instance, that Captain Standish and Edward Winslow were to share
jointly “the Red Cow which belongeth to the poor of the colony to which
they must keep her Calfe of this yeare being a Bull for the Companie,
Also two shee goats.”[30] Elder Brewster was granted “one of the four
Heifers came in _The Jacob_ called the Blind Heifer.”
Among interesting sidelights upon the economic and social results of
this extension of land and cattle is the remark of Bradford:[31] “Some
looked for building great houses, and such pleasant situations for them
as themselves had fancied, as if they would be great men and rich all of
a suddaine; but they proved castles in air.” Within a short time,
however, with the rapid increase of children and the need of more
pasturage for the cattle, many of the leading men and women drifted away
from the original confines of Plymouth towards Duxbury, Marshfield,
Scituate, Bridgewater and Eastham. Agriculture became their primal
concern, with the allied pursuits of fishing, hunting and trading with
the Indians and white settlements that were made on Cape Cod and along
the Kennebec.
Soon after 1630 the families of Captain Standish, John Alden, and
Jonathan Brewster (who had married the sister of John Oldham), Thomas
Prence and Edward Winslow were settled on large farms in Duxbury and
Marshfield. This loss to the Plymouth settlement was deplored by
Bradford both for its social and religious results. April 2, 1632,[32] a
pledge was taken by Alden, Standish, Prence, and Jonathan Brewster that
they would “remove their families to live in the towne in the
winter-time that they may the better repair to the service of God.” Such
arrangement did not long continue, however, for in 1633 a church was
established at Duxbury and the Plymouth members who lived there “were
dismiste though very unwillingly.”[33] Later the families of Francis
Eaton, Peter Brown and George Soule joined the Duxbury colony. Hobomok,
ever faithful to Captain Standish had a wigwam near his master’s home
until, in his old age, he was removed to the Standish house, where he
died in 1642.
The women who had come in the earlier ships and had lived close to
neighbors at Plymouth must have had lonely hours on their farms in spite
of large families and many tasks. Wolves and other wild animals were
sometimes near, for traps for them were decreed and allotted. Chance
Indians prowled about and the stoutest hearts must have quailed when
some of the recorded hurricanes and storms of 1635 and 1638 uncovered
houses, felled trees and corn. In the main, however, there was peace and
many of the families became prosperous; we find evidence in their wills,
several of which have been deciphered from the original records by
George Ernest Bowman, editor of the “Mayflower Descendant,”[34] issued
quarterly. By the aid of such records and a few family heirlooms of
unquestioned genuineness, it is possible to suggest some individual
silhouettes of the women of early Plymouth, in addition to the glimpses
of their communal life.
-----
Footnote 12:
Mourt’s Relation.
Footnote 13:
Mourt’s Relation.
Footnote 14:
Mourt’s Relation.
Footnote 15:
Winslow’s Narration.
Footnote 16:
Relation of the Manners, Customs, etc., of the Indians.
Footnote 17:
Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. II.
Footnote 18:
The Pilgrim Republic, John A. Goodwin, p. 582.
Footnote 19:
Records of the Colony of New Plymouth.
Footnote 20:
Mourt’s Relation.
Footnote 21:
_Ibid._
Footnote 22:
A Chronological History of New England, by Thomas Prence.
Footnote 23:
Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation; Bk. II.
Footnote 24:
The Pilgrim Fathers; W. H. Bartlett, London, 1852.
Footnote 25:
Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, ch. 4.
Footnote 26:
Two Centuries of Costume in America; N. Y., 1903.
Footnote 27:
In Pilgrim Hall, Plymouth.
Footnote 28:
Two Centuries of Costume in America; Earle.
Footnote 29:
Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. 2.
Footnote 30:
Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, edited by David
Pulsifer, 1861.
Footnote 31:
Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. 2.
Footnote 32:
Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England, edited by David
Pulsifer, 1861.
Footnote 33:
Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, Bk. 2.
Footnote 34:
Editorial rooms at 53 Mt. Vernon Street, Boston.
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