Puritans
Amer. governor of the Plymouth Colony for 30 years. A member of the Separatist movement within Puritanism, in 1609 he went to Holland to seek religious freedom. Finding a lack of opportunity there, in 1620 he helped organize an expedition of about 100 Pilgrims to the New World. He helped draft the Mayflower Compact aboard the group's ship, was unanimously chosen governor, and served as governor of the Plymouth Colony for all but five years from 1621 to 1656. He helped establish and foster the principles of self-government and religious freedom that characterized later Amer. colonial government. His descriptive journal provides a unique source of both the voyage of the Mayflower and the challenges faced by the settlers. Bradford was a native of Ansterfield, Yorkshire, in the north of England, where he was born in the year 1588. His pecuniary circumstances were easy, when he followed persecuted Puritans to Holland and became fully identified with them in exile. From early life he had been accustomed to their teachings; and at the age of seventeen years, he attempted to sail to the Neth
When, for instance, a sailor aboard the Mayflower mocked those Puritans who were sick, William Bradford, recounting the incident in his History of Plymouth Plantation, found it fitting that the sailor should succumb to a disease and die. They chose a governor from among the "elect" to rule for a term of one year as the civil authority. All civil laws had their basis in biblical principles. "God's design was seen in every event no matter how small. That was the first death among the Pilgrims after their arrival on the coast of America. When the establishment of a free colony in America was projected at Leyden, he was one of the most zealous promoters of the measure; and he and his young wife were among the earliest emigrants to that land of promise. Betrayed, he was seized and imprisoned at Boston, in Lincolnshire, for awhile, but finally escaped and joined the fugitives at Amsterdam, where he learned the silk weaver's art and pursued it. Bradford was very popular; and he was in the chair of state almost continually from 1621 until his death in 1657, a period of thirty-six years. The signing of a mutual agreement or "compact" became the foundation for constitutional government and was a model for the later documents most closely associated with the American republic. Before a site was selected for a settlement, and while the Mayflower was yet riding at anchor in Cape Cod Bay, Mrs. "But it pleased God before they came half seas over, to smite this young man with a grievous disease. The sole basis for law among the Puritan settlers was the Bible. Governor William Bradford, the second governor chosen from among the Puritans, relates the following incident: When the first marriage was to be performed in the New World, the Pilgrims chose a civil magistrate rather than a minister to perform the ceremony. "Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the god of heaven who had brought then over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all peril and miseries there of, again to set their feet on the on the firm and stable earth, their proper element.
Common topics in this essay:
World Pilgrims,
Mayflower Puritans,
Plymouth Colony,
Boston Lincolnshire,
Plymouth Plantation,
Puritans Holland,
America Bradford,
William Bradford,
Ansterfield Yorkshire,
Mayflower Compact,
religious freedom,
god's design,
william bradford,
aboard mayflower,
governor plymouth,
governor plymouth colony,
plymouth plantation,
plymouth colony,
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Acceptance Essays
