Buy on Amazon
View on Biblioguides
There have been many lies taught to US school children over the last 60 years or so about the Pilgrims who came to America in 1620 to escape religious persecution in England. The founding of the colony of New Plymouth (I have stood on the steps from which they boarded the Mayflower in old Plymouth, England) has been framed as a typical white European exploitation of Native Americans, stealing their land, their food, and their health. The Story of the Old Colony of New Plymouth, written by Samuel Eliot Morison, an acclaimed American historian, sets this picture straight. In fact, since the book was published in 1956, the truth had been available all during the time when the Pilgrims’ story, as taught to American children, has been greatly distorted by left-wing “educational consultants.”
The Pilgrims were helped by the Native Americans when the colonists were desperate during that first harsh winter. The Pilgrims always had good relations with these tribes and paid for the land that they wanted. And the people we call the Pilgrims were not sober, grim people who always wore gray and black – religious fanatics. They wore what was common in England at the time – bright colors for men and women, and they loved the Lord Jesus Christ and obeyed the Bible about loving other people.
Morison describes the first 70 years of the New Plymouth colony, from the beginnings in England through to where the much large Puritan colony, centered in Boston, absorbed the Pilgrim colony. He tells the reader of their personal life, their corporate life, their unsuccessful stab at socialism (which failed miserably, as it always does), and their interactions with the local Native American tribes. This extensively illustrated book is written at the high school or upper middle school level and has a good index and a suggested further reading list. Every student should read this book at some point in their school life so that they know the truth about these important founders of America.
Note on the author: Samuel Eliot Morison was an accomplished historian who wrote many acclaimed books. Probably his most famous books were Admiral of the Ocean Sea (1942), a biography of Christopher Columbus, and John Paul Jones: A Sailor's Biography (1959). He won the Pulitzer Prize for both these books. In 1942, he was commissioned to write a history of United States naval operations in World War II, which came out to be fifteen volumes published between 1947 and 1962. That work is still studied today at the US Naval Academy. Morison loved his family. The dedication of The Story of the Old Colony of New Plymouth reads: “Dedicated to my ancestress PRISCILLA MULLINS who said ‘yes’ when John Alden spoke for himself and to my beloved wife PRISCILLA BARTON who finally said ‘yes’ when I spoke for myself.”