European Settlement:
Plymouth Colony
(GA: SSUSH 1b, 1e)
“The Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Mass., Dec. 22nd, 1620,” Lithograph,
Published by Currier & Ives, c1876.
• Church of England (Anglicanism)
– Created during the Reformation as a
“middle-way” between Protestantism and
Catholicism
Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556),archbishop of Canterbury and principal author
of the first two Books of Common Prayer
• Calvinism
– A Protestant form of Christian theology
by John Calvin
– Argues for an omnipotent (all-powerful)
God
– God chooses who goes to “Heaven” and
who goes to “Hell”
Sixteenth-century portrait of John Calvin
(1509- 1564) by an unknown artist
• Primitivism (primitive + ism)
– A consequence of the Protestant Reformation
– The idea that the earliest (most primitive) form of
Christianity is the correct form
Mural painting from the catacomb of Commodilla, Rome. Bust of Christ, c. 4th
Century.
Anglicanism + Calvinism + Primitivism =
Puritans
William Brewster (c. 1560–1643) was
a Pilgrim colonist leader and preacher
• Pilgrims believed that the Church of England was
beyond fixing
– The only answer was to leave and start a better form
of Christianity
– This was not received well by traditional Anglicans
– The Pilgrims (then called “Separatists”) traveled to
neighboring countries to find a new home and
religious freedom
• They decided the best place to go was the New
World
– 1620: 102 Pilgrims set sail for Virginia
• 1620: a group of 102 people (half Separatists)
– Negotiated with the Virginia Company to settle in its
jurisdiction
– Non-Separatists included Captain Myles Standish
• Instead of landing in Virginia the Pilgrims landed in
Southern Massachusetts
– Became squatters without legal right to land & specific
authority to establish a govt.
• Written and signed before the Pilgrims
disembarked from the ship.
• Not a constitution, but an agreement to form a
crude govt. and submit to majority rule.
 Signed by 41 adult males.
• Led to adult male settlers meeting in assemblies to
make laws in town meetings.
• Winter of 1620-1621
– Unexpectedly hard winter
Average England Winter = 35°F
Average Plymouth Winter = 18°F
The Result…
44 of the 102 died.
• Fall of 1621: First “Thanksgiving.”
 Colony survived with fur [especially beaver], fish, and
lumber
• Plymouth stayed small and economically
unimportant.
– In 1691: only 7,000 people in colony
– Merged with Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• Why was there no Visual or Musical Art
created during the early Plymouth Colony?