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Plymouth Rock, Pilgrim Memorial State Park, Mayflower II

Address: near 70 Water St, Plymouth MA 02360
Phone: 508-747-5360
Hours: Always Open

Pilgrim Memorial State Park - Plymouth Rock

Overview

Nearly one million people a year travel from all over the world to see Pilgrim Memorial State Park, which is one of the most heavily visited parks in the Massachusetts state parks system. In 1620, Europeans first made a home in New England. This simple glacial erratic boulder on the shore of Plymouth Harbor has become a world famous symbol of the courage and faith of the men and women who founded the first New England colony. A landscaped waterfront park provides scenic views of Plymouth Harbor.

History

In 1774, the rock split in two when a team of oxen attempted to raise it. Only the upper portion of Plymouth Rock left the waterfront originally for display in the Town Square. Souvenir seekers caused further deterioration until Plymouth Rock was moved to safety inside an iron fence at the Pilgrim Hall Museum in 1834. It had a rough trip to the museum, though, falling off its conveyance and obtaining its distinctive crack. The Pilgrim Society acquired the other half of Plymouth Rock in 1859, and in 1867, a Plymouth Rock canopy structure was completed at the waterfront to house it. In 1880, the upper chunk was united with the lower piece of Plymouth Rock with cement, and “1620″ was permanently carved into the rock. Plymouth Rock was moved for the last time during the celebration of Plymouth’s tercentenary in 1921 to a new canopy.

Mayflower 2

Mayflower II, a replica of the ship that brought the first Pilgrims to Massachusetts, is anchored at the park. Pilgrim Memorial State Park has an 81 foot granite monument that memorializes Plymouth Rock and provides the history of Plymouth Rock and Plymouth, MA.

Park Directions

Pilgrim Memorial State Park is located in southeastern Massachusetts. From north or south: Rte. 3 to Rte. 44 (Plymouth). Follow 44 east to waterfront. There is on-site parking.

Mayflower Compact

Alternative Mayflower Compact 1620 Video

The Mayflower Compact was the first governing document of Plymouth Colony. It was written by the colonists, also known as the Pilgrims, who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower.

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini 1620.

1. John Carver
2. William Bradford
3. Edward Winslow
4. William Brewster
5. Isaac Allerton
6. Miles Standish
7. John Alden
8. Samuel Fuller
9. Christopher Martin
10. William Mullins
11. William White
12. Richard Warren
13. John Howland
14. Stephen Hopkins
15. Edward Tilly
16. John Tilly
17. Francis Cooke ( [sic])
18. Thomas Rogers
19. Thomas Tinker
20. John Ridgdale
21. Edward Fuller
22. John Turner
23. Francis Eaton
24. James Chilton
25. John Craxton (sic)
26. John Billington
27. Joses Fletcher (sic)
28. John Goodman
29. Digery Priest (sic)
30. Thomas Williams
31. Gilbert Winslow
32. Edmund Margeson
33. Peter Brown
34. Richard Bitteridge (sic)
35. George Soule
36. Richard Clark (sic)
37. Richard Gardiner
38. John Allerton
39. Thomas English
40. Edward Doten (sic)
41. Edward Leister

Related topics:
Jamestown VA Settlement
Pilgrim Memorial State Park
Plymouth Rock, First Thanksgiving

History of Plymouth MA, Plymouth Rock & First Thanksgiving

Alternative Mayflower Voyage 1620 Video

Plymouth Colony, was an English settlement in North America from 1620 to 1691. Founded by a group of religious separatists and Anglicans, Plymouth Colony, now Plymouth, Massachusetts, was, along with Jamestown, Virginia, one of the earliest successful colonies to be established by the English in North America and the first sizable permanent English settlement in the New England region. Aided by Squanto, of the Native American Patuxet tribe, the colony was able to establish a treaty with Chief Massasoit which helped to ensure the colony’s success. Plymouth, MA, holds a special role in American history. A significant proportion of the citizens of Plymouth were fleeing religious persecution and searching for a place to worship as they saw fit. The social and legal systems of the Plymouth Colony became closely tied to their religious beliefs, as well as English custom. Many of the people and events surrounding Plymouth Colony have become part of American folklore, including the North American tradition known as Thanksgiving.

The First Thanksgiving - The Real Story (edited from Free Republic):

On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs.

Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from? From the Bible. The Pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example. And, because of the biblical precedents set forth in Scripture, they never doubted that their experiment would work.

“But this was no pleasure cruise, friends. The journey to the New World was a long and arduous one. And when the Pilgrims landed in New England in November, they found, according to Bradford’s detailed journal, a cold, barren, desolate wilderness,” destined to become the home of the Kennedy family. “There were no friends to greet them, he wrote. There were no houses to shelter them. There were no inns where they could refresh themselves. And the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning.

During the first winter, half the Pilgrims – including Bradford’s own wife – died of either starvation, sickness or exposure.

“When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats.” Yes, it was Indians that taught the white man how to skin beasts. “Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper! This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end. “Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than as a devout expression of gratitude grounded in the tradition of both the Old and New Testaments.

Here is the part [of Thanksgiving] that has been omitted: The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share.

“All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well. They were going to distribute it equally. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well. Nobody owned anything. They just had a share in it. It was a commune, folks. It was the forerunner to the communes we saw in the ’60s and ’70s out in California – and it was complete with organic vegetables, by the way.

Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken so many lives.

He decided to take bold action. Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace.

“That’s right. Long before Karl Marx was even born, the Pilgrims had discovered and experimented with what could only be described as socialism. And what happened?

It didn’t work! Surprise, surprise, huh?

What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else, unless they could utilize the power of personal motivation!

But while most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for well over a hundred years – trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it – the Pilgrims decided early on to scrap it permanently.

What Bradford wrote about this social experiment should be in every schoolchild’s history lesson. If it were, we might prevent much needless suffering in the future.

“‘The experience that we had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years…that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God,’ Bradford wrote. ‘For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense…that was thought injustice.’

Why should you work for other people when you can’t work for yourself? What’s the point?

“Do you hear what he was saying, ladies and gentlemen? The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive. So what did Bradford’s community try next? They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the undergirding capitalistic principle of private property.

Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products. And what was the result?

‘This had very good success,’ wrote Bradford, ‘for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.’

Bradford doesn’t sound like much of a… liberal Democrat, “does he? Is it possible that supply-side economics could have existed before the 1980s? Yes.

“Read the story of Joseph and Pharaoh in Genesis 41. Following Joseph’s suggestion (Gen 41:34), Pharaoh reduced the tax on Egyptians to 20% during the ‘seven years of plenty’ and the ‘Earth brought forth in heaps.’ (Gen. 41:47)

In no time, the Pilgrims found they had more food than they could eat themselves…. So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians. The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London.

And the success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans and began what came to be known as the ‘Great Puritan Migration.’”

Now, other than on this program every year, have you heard this story before? Is this lesson being taught to your kids today — and if it isn’t, why not? Can you think of a more important lesson one could derive from the pilgrim experience?

So in essence there was, thanks to the Indians, because they taught us how to skin beavers and how to plant corn when we arrived, but the real Thanksgiving was thanking the Lord for guidance and plenty — and once they reformed their system and got rid of the communal bottle and started what was essentially free market capitalism, they produced more than they could possibly consume, and they invited the Indians to dinner, and voila, we got Thanksgiving, and that’s what it was: inviting the Indians to dinner and giving thanks for all the plenty is the true story of Thanksgiving.

Major Historical Figures: William Bradford, Miles Standish, Squanto

Related topics:
Jamestown VA Settlement
Pilgrim Memorial State Park
Mayflower Compact

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Colony

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1742553/posts

Jamestown VA Settlement History, John Smith, The Real Pocahontas, John Rolfe - 1607

Alternative The Jamestown Colony VA 1607 Video

Captain John Smith, The Real Pocahontas, John Rolfe, Wahunsenacawh

Jamestown, VA, located on Jamestown Island of the Virginia Colony, was established on May 14, 1607. Jamestown, Virginia, is the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States of America. The site is about 40 miles (62 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean and the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. Both the river and the settlement were named after King James I of England, who was on the throne at the time. The location at Jamestown Island was selected primarily because it offered a strong strategic defensive position against other European forces which might approach by water. Another reason was because it was not inhabited by the local Virginia Indians because the swampy and isolated site was plagued by mosquitoes and tidal river water unsuitable for drinking. Jamestown, VA, had limited hunting and farming.

Despite the leadership of Captain John Smith, starvation, hostile relations with the natives, and lack of profitable exports all threatened the survival of Jamestown, Virginia. However, John Rolfe introduced tobacco which was successfully exported in 1612, and the local economy soon became much more favorable. In 1614, John Rolfe & Pocahontas, daughter of Wahunsenacawh, Chief of the Powhatan Confederacy, married. A period of relative peace with the Powhatan Confederacy followed. In 1616, the John Rolfe & Pocahontas made a public relations trip to England, where Pocahontas was received as visiting royalty. In 1619, changes by the Virginia Company attracted additional investments and a local governing body called the House of Burgess was created, the first democratically elected representative legislative body in the New World.

Major Historical Figures: King James I, John Smith, John Rolfe, Pocahontas

Related topics:
Plymouth Rock, First Thanksgiving
Pilgrim Memorial State Park
Mayflower Compact
Virginia Genealogy – Pocahontas, US Presidents

Jamestown Settlement Center
2110 Jamestown Rd, Route 31 S
Williamsburg, VA 23185
Open daily 9am to 5pm

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown,_Virginia