At the
first Thanksgiving, in November 1621, there were only four European women in
attendance. It’s not that more weren’t invited. It’s just that there were only four European
women around. All the others died.
The Mayflower during its Atlantic crossing, fall 1620 (photo not available).
The
Pilgrims’ first winter at Plymouth was harsh, and they weren’t ready for
it. Only five of the women in the group lived to see the spring. Most of the men survived, and 22 of the
thirty of the children survived, too. The Mayflower landed on
November 16, 1620, right when winter was starting. The Pilgrims figured
it wouldn’t matter so much since they had traveled to a place well south of England,
so the winter would probably be milder. London is as far north as the
city of Calgary, but its winters aren’t as cold as Calgary’s because the Gulf
Stream current sends warm water and warm air, providing a much gentler climate
for it and for western Europe. This was not understood yet, but they
learned it quick. The Pilgrims knew they
were heading south to around 40º latitude, the same as that of Madrid. The weather in New England wasn’t very well
understood yet, so they expected to find a Mediterranean climate, not snow and
months of temperatures below freezing.
Women,
it was said at the time and for a long time afterward, had “weaker bodies” and
thus weren’t hardy enough to survive. A more accurate way to put it is
that they had weakened bodies. Remember that there was no Motel 6
to check in to at Plymouth at the time, so everyone had to spend all their time
on the ship, anchored off the coast. Everyone but the men, who were busy
building houses, hunting game, and foraging for food. Women were confined to the ship. A more modern understanding holds that
because the men were able to stay active in the fresh air, they reaped health
benefits that women missed out on. Women also had prolonged exposure to
disease on the ship, and were more likely to get sick. As a result, the women’s health was generally
worse than the men’s. It didn’t help
that the task of taking care of the sick men and women fell to the women, who
were exposed to germs and viruses more than the men. Compound that with
the cramped, filthy conditions of the ship, they were much more
vulnerable. Had women been allowed to
leave the ship and stretch their legs more, and even do physical labor, more of
them would probably have survived.
Five of
the 28 women survived that winter. 46 of the 78 men survived. One of the women, Katherine Carver, died in
May 1621, diagnosed with a “broken heart” caused by her husband dying of
sunstroke a month earlier. In 1623, the wives who stayed behind in
England finally came to join their families in the New World. None of them perished during the winter of
1620/21.
The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in October 1621, following the harvest that year. There were over 140 people in attendance, including 90 Wampanoags who joined them. Much of the thanks was owed to the Wampanoags, the native people of the region, who had shown the Pilgrims how to plant and raise corn. They were probably responsible for averting more Pilgrims' deaths that year. The last Pilgrim, Mary Allerton, who arrived on the Mayflower at age 3, died in 1699.
There was never another voyage of the Mayflower. The ship sailed back to England in the spring of 1621, was decommissioned, and sold for scrap. Its timbers are said to have been purchased by a farmer in Buckinghamshire, England, in 1624 and used to build a barn. The barn still stands today, and is a popular tourist attraction, despite the fact that the authenticity of the claim has been widely discredited.
The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in October 1621, following the harvest that year. There were over 140 people in attendance, including 90 Wampanoags who joined them. Much of the thanks was owed to the Wampanoags, the native people of the region, who had shown the Pilgrims how to plant and raise corn. They were probably responsible for averting more Pilgrims' deaths that year. The last Pilgrim, Mary Allerton, who arrived on the Mayflower at age 3, died in 1699.
There was never another voyage of the Mayflower. The ship sailed back to England in the spring of 1621, was decommissioned, and sold for scrap. Its timbers are said to have been purchased by a farmer in Buckinghamshire, England, in 1624 and used to build a barn. The barn still stands today, and is a popular tourist attraction, despite the fact that the authenticity of the claim has been widely discredited.
The reverse of an American $10,000 bill representing the Embarkation of the Mayflower.
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