The stories of the early English settlers are a fascinating blend of trial and tribulation, prayer and steadfast hope, and their writings reflect it. The sense of promise and expectation flows through the lines of many writers from the time. The entries here are chosen to point to some themes that will feature throughout the foundational American experience.
The use of the adjective foundational is intentional. While it is a mistake to conflate the events from the days of English settlement with the founding period, they are undoubtedly linked. There are no discrete or mere facts in history. Everything is dependent on everything else because history is a web of related people, places, and events. We bear the stamp of those who came before us, and that was just as true for the founders as it was for us. The Pilgrims—and a host of other people who were long in the grave when the founders finally drafted the U.S. Constitution—played a vital role in the century and a half that followed because they helped shape the world that the founders inherited.
That fact seems obvious when you see the strong streak of independence that was manifest from the first and would eventually produce the rift between the Mother Country and her colonies, aspects that you’ll see hinted at in these selections. It’s also apparent in the assumed reliance on Providence and God’s direction and help in the events unfolding at the time.
The Mayflower, a ship of 180 tons, set sail from England in 1620. Aboard were 102 souls determined to cross the Atlantic. After 63 stormy days, they landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, where Plymouth Rock—a huge granite boulder—stood at the water’s edge. These first settlers signed a covenant called the Mayflower Compact just days after they landed in their new home.
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., have undertaken for the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith, and honor 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 of one another covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherence of the Ends aforesaid; and by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices from time to time, as shall be thought most mete and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunto 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.
THE MAYFLOWER. Image source: U.S. History Images, from History of the Colonization of the United States, by George Bancroft (New York: Julius Hart and Company, 1886).
Mr. John Carver,
Mr. William Bradford,
Mr. Edward Winslow,
Mr. William Brewster,
Isaac Allerton,
Miles Standish,
John Alden,
John Turner,
Francis Eaton,
James Chilton,
John Craxton,
John Billington,
Joses Fletcher,
Digery Priest,
Thomas Williams,
Gilbert Winslow,
Edmund Margesson,
Peter Brown,
Richard Britteridge,
George Soule,
Edward Tilly,
John Tilly,
Francis Cooke,
Thomas Rogers,
Thomas Tinker,
John Ridgdale,
John Goodman,
Mr. Samuel Fuller,
Mr. Christopher Martin,
Mr. William Mullins,
Mr. William White,
Mr. Richard Warren,
John Howland,
Mr. Steven Hopkins,
Edward Fuller,
Richard Clark,
Richard Gardiner,
Mr. John Allerton,
Thomas English,
Edward Doten,
Edward Liester.
The Federal and State Constitutions, Colonial Charters and Other Organic Laws of the United States, part 1, 2nd ed. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1878).
2. MARY ROWLANDSON RECOUNTS HER CAPTIVITY
Mary Rowlandson was the wife of the pastor at Lancaster, Massachusetts, when she was taken captive by the Native Americans on February 10, 1675. For weeks Mary relied on the grace of God as she was forced to stay with the Indians as they fled through the wilderness to elude the colonial militia. On May 2, 1675, Rowlandson was ransomed for £20.
On the tenth of February 1675, Came the Indians with great numbers upon Lancaster: Their first coming was about Sun-rising; hearing the noise of some Guns, we looked out; several Houses were burning, and the Smoke ascending to Heaven. There were five persons taken in one house, the Father, and the Mother and a sucking Child they knockt on the head; the other two they took and carried away alive.
Their were two others, who being out of their Garison upon some occasion, were set upon; one was knockt on the head, the other escaped: Another their was who running along was shot and wounded, and fell down; he begged of them his life, promising them Money (as they told me) but they would not hearken to him but knockt him in head, and stript him naked, and split open his Bowels. Another seeing many of the Indians about his Barn, ventured and went out, but was quickly shot down. There were three others belonging to the same Garison who were killed; the Indians getting up upon the roof of the Barn, had advantage to shoot down upon them over their Fortification. Thus these murtherous wretches went on, burning, and destroying before them,
At length they came and beset our own house, and quickly it was the dolefullest day that ever mine eyes saw. The House stood upon the edg of a hill; some of the Indians got behind the hill, others into the Barn, and others behind any thing that could shelter them; from all which places they shot against the House, so that the Bullets seemed to fly like hail; and quickly they wounded one man among us, then another, and then a third, About two hours (according to my observation, in that amazing time) they had been about the house before they prevailed to fire it (which they did with Flax and Hemp, which they brought out of the Barn, and there being no defence about the House, only two Flankers at two opposite corners and one of them not finished) they fired it once and one ventured out and quenched it, but they quickly fired it again, and that took Now is the dreadfull hour come, that I have often heard of (in time of War, as it was the case of others) but now mine eyes see it. Some in our house were fighting for their lives, others wallowing in their blood, the House on fire over our heads, and the bloody Heathen ready to knock us on the head, if we stired out. Now might we hear Mothers & Children crying out for themselves, and one another, Lord, what shall we do? Then I took my Children (and one of my sisters, hers) to go forth and leave the house: but as soon as we came to the dore and appeared, the Indians shot so thick that the bulletts rattled against the House, as if one had taken an handfull of stones and threw them, so that we were fain to give back. We had six stout Dogs belonging to our Garrison, but none of them would stir, though another time, if any Indian had come to the door, they were ready to fly upon him and tear him down. The Lord hereby would make us the more to acknowledge his hand, and to see that our help is always in him. But out we must go, the fire increasing, and coming along behind us, roaring, and the Indians gaping before us with their Guns, Spears and Hatchets to devour us. No sooner were we out of the House, but my Brother in Law (being before wounded, in defending the house, in or near the throat) fell down dead, whereat the Indians scornfully shouted, and hallowed, and were presently upon him, stripping off his cloaths, the bulletts flying thick, one went through my side, and the same (as would seem) through the bowels and hand of my dear Child in my arms. One of my elder Sisters Children, named William, had then his Leg broken, which the Indians perceiving, they knockt him on head. Thus were we butchered by those merciless Heathen, standing amazed, with the blood running down to our heels. My eldest Sister being yet in the House, and seeing those wofull sights, the Infidels haling Mothers one way, and Children another, and some wallowing in their blood: and her elder Son telling her that her Son William was dead, and my self was wounded, she said, And, Lord, let me dy with them; which was no sooner said, but she was struck with a Bullet, and fell down dead over the threshold. I hope she is reaping the fruit of her good labours, being faithfull to the service of God in her place. In her younger years she lay under much trouble upon spiritual accounts, till it pleased God to make that precious Scripture take hold of her heart, 2 Cor. 12. 9. And he said unto me my Grace is sufficient for thee. More then twenty years after I have heard her tell how sweet and comfortable that place was to her, But to return: The Indians laid hold of me, pulling me one way, and the Children another, and said, Come go along with us; I told them they would kill me: they answered, If I were willing to go along with them they would not hurt me.
Oh the dolefull sight that now was to behold at this House! Come, behold the works of the Lord, what dissolations he has made in the Earth. Of thirty seven persons who were in this one House, none escaped either present death, or a bitter captivity, save only one, who might say as he. Job. 1.15. And I only am escaped alone to tell the News. There were twelve killed, some shot, some stab’d with their Spears, some knock’d down with their Hatchets. When we are in prosperity, Oh the little that we think of such dreadfull sights, and to see our dear Friends, and Relations ly bleeding out their heart-blood upon the ground. There was one who was chopt into the head with a Hatchet, and stript naked, and yet was crawling up and down. It is a solemn sight to see so many Christians lying in their blood, some here, and some there, like a company of Sheep torn by Wolves. All of them stript naked by a company of hell-hounds, roaring, singing, ranting and insulting, as if they would have torn our very hearts out; yet the Lord by his Almighty power preserved a number of us from death, for there were twenty-four of us taken alive and carried Captive. . . .
Now away we must go with those Barbarous Creatures, with our bodies wounded and bleeding, and our hearts no less than our bodies. About a mile we went that night, up upon a hill within sight of the Town where they intended to lodge. There was hard by a vacant house (deserted by the English before, for fear of the Indians) I asked them whether I might not lodge in the house that night to which they answered, what will you love English men still? this was the dolefullest night that ever my eyes saw. Oh the roaring, and singing and danceing, and yelling of those black creatures in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell And as miserable was the wast that was there made, of Horses, Cattle, Sheep, Swine, Calves, Lambs, Roasting Pigs, and Fowl [which they had plundered in the Town] some roasting, some lying and burning, and some boyling to feed our merciless Enemies; who were joyful enough though we were disconsolate To add to the dolefulness of the former day, and the dismalness of the present night: my thoughts ran upon my losses and sad bereaved condition. All was gone, my Husband gone (at least separated from me, he being in the Bay; and to add to my grief, the Indians told me they would kill him as he came homeward) my Children gone, my Relations and Friends gone, our House and home and all our comforts within door, and without, all was gone, (except my life) and I knew not but the next moment that might go too. There remained nothing to me but one poor wounded Babe, and it seemed at present worse than death that it was in such a pitiful condition, bespeaking, Compassion, and I had no refreshing for it, nor suitable things to revive it, Little do many think what is the savageness and bruitishness of this barbarous Enemy; even those that seem to profess more than others among them, when the English have fallen into their hands. . . .
But now, the next morning, I must turn my back upon the Town, and travel with them into the vast and desolate Wilderness, I knew not whither. It is not my tongue, or pen can express the sorrows of my heart, and bitterness of my spirit, that I had at this departure: but God was with me, in a wonderfull manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit, that it did not quite fail One of the Indians carried my poor wounded Babe upon a horse, it went moaning all along I shall dy, I shall dy. I went on foot after it, with sorrow that cannot be exprest. At length I took it off the horse, and carried it in my armes till my strength failed, and I fell down with it: Then they set me upon a horse with my wounded Child in my lap, and there being no furniture upon the horse back; as we were going down a steep hill, we both fell over the horses head, at which they like inhumane creatures laught, and rejoyced to see it, though I thought we should there have ended our dayes, as overcome with so many difficulties. But the Lord renewed my strength still, and carried me along, that I might see more of his Power; yea, so much that I could never have thought of, had I not experienced it.
After this it quickly began to snow, and when night came on, they stopt: and now down I must sit in the snow, by a little fire, and a few boughs behind me, with my sick Child in my lap; and calling much for water, being now (through the wound) fallen into a violent Fever. My own wound also growing so stiff, that I could scarce sit down or rise up; yet so it must be, that I must sit all this cold winter night upon the cold snowy ground, with my sick Child in my armes, looking that every hour would be the last of its life; and having no Christian friend near me, either to comfort or help me. Oh, I may see the wonderfull power of God, that my Spirit did not utterly sink under my affliction: still the Lord upheld me with his gracious and mercifull Spirit, and we were both alive to see the light of the next morning. . . .
I can remember the time, when I used to sleep quietly without workings in my thoughts, whole nights together, but now it is otherwayes with me. When all are fast about me, and no eye open, but his who ever waketh, my thoughts are upon things past, upon the awfull dispensation of the Lord towards us; upon his wonderfull power and might, in carrying of us through so many difficulties, in returning us in safety, and suffering none to hurt us. I remember in the night season, how the other day I was in the midst of thousands of enemies, & nothing but death before me: It was then hard work to perswade my self, that ever I should be satisfied with bread again. But now we are fed with the finest of the Wheat, and, as I may say, With honey out of the rock: In stead of the Husk, we have the fatted Calf: The thoughts of these things in the particulars of them, and of the love and goodness of God towards us, make it true of me, what David said of himself, Psal. 6. 5. I watered my Couch with my tears. Oh! the wonderfull power of God that mine eyes have seen, affording matter enough for my thoughts to run in, that when others are sleeping mine eyes are weeping.
I have seen the extrem vanity of this World: One hour I have been in health, and wealth, wanting nothing: But the next hour in sickness and wounds, and death, having nothing but sorrow and affliction . . . .
The Lord hath shewed me the vanity of these outward things. That they are the Vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit; that they are but a shadow, a blast, a bubble, and things of no continuance. That we must rely on God himself, and our whole dependence must be upon him. If trouble from smaller matters began to arise in me, I have something at hand to check myself with, and say, why am I troubled? It was but the other day that if I had had the world, I would have given it for my freedom, or to have been a Servant to a Christian. I have learned to look beyond present and smaller troubles, and to be quieted under them, as Moses said, Exod. 14. 13. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
William B. Cairns, ed., Selections from Early American Writers, 1607–1800 (Macmillan, 1909).
3. THE FIRST THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION, 1676
A common practice from the colonial days through those of the founding was to offer purposeful and public pronouncement of gratitude to God for his grace and provision—especially in the midst of trials. Early printed proclamations of thanksgiving were usually printed in broadside form.
At A Council,
Held at Charlestown, June the 20th, 1676
The holy God having by a long and Continued Series of his Afflictive dispensations in & by the present Warr with the Heathen Natives of this Land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern that in the midst of his judgements he hath remembered mercy, having remembered his Footstool in the day of his sore displeasure against us for our sins, with many singular Intimations of his Fatherly Compassion, and regard: reserving many of our Towns from Desolation Threatened, and attempted by the Enemy, and giving us especially of late with our Confederates many signal Advantages against them, without such Disadvantage to our selves as formerly we have been sensible of, if it be of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed, It certainly bespeaks our positive Thankfulness, when our Enemies are in any measure disappointed or destroyed; and fearing the Lord should take notice under so many Intimations of his returning mercy, we should be found an Insensible people, as not standing before him with Thanksgiving, as well as lading him with our Complaints in the time of pressing Afflictions:
The COUNCIL have thought meet to appoint and set apart the 29th. day of this Instant June, as a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his goodness and Favour, many Particulars of which mercy might be Instanced, but we doubt not those who are sensible of Gods Afflictions, have been as diligent to espy him returning to us; and that the Lord may behold us as a People offering praise and thereby glorifying him; The Council doth Commend it to the Respective Ministers, Elders and people of this Jurisdiction; Solemnly and seriously to keep the same. Beseeching that being perswaded by the mercies of God we may all, even this whole people offer up our Bodies and Souls as a living and Acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ.
—BY THE COUNCIL, EDWARD RAWSON SECR.
“The Celebration of Thanksgiving Day,” from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Monthly Bulletin, vol. 26 (1921).
4. EDWARD RANDOLPH’S 1676 REPORT ON NEW ENGLAND’S DISREGARD OF BRITAIN’S TRADE LAWS
Edward Randolph was a British royal agent, a customs officer, and an American colonial official. His relationship with Massachusetts officials was less than friendly, and in 1676 he returned to England and filed a denunciatory report critical of the colony’s violations of imperial policy. The “act of navigation” referred to below is the Acts of Trade and Navigation that governed commerce in all of the realm, including and especially the colonies.
To the right honorable the Lords of his Majesties most honorable Privy Council appointed a committee for trade and plantations.
An answer to severall heads of enquiry concerning the present state of New-England.
[W]hat notice is taken of the act of navigation? . . .
The trade and navigation is carried on by a generall traffick to most parts of Europe, as England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, France, Portugall, Holland, Canaries, and the Hans townes, carrying to each place such commodities as are vendible, either of their own growth and manufacture or those of the other plantations, and doe make their returns in such goods as are necessary and vendible either in New England, or in any other of his Majesties dominions in America; as brandy, Canary, Spanish and French wines, bullion, salt, fruits, oyles, silks, laces, linnen of all sorts, cloath, serges, bayes, kersies, stockings, and many other commodities, which they distribute into all parts of the West-Indies; so that there is little left for the merchants residing in England to import into any of the plantations, those of New-England being able to afford their goods much cheaper than such who pay the customes and are laden in England. By which meanes this kingdome hath lost the best part of the western trade, there being very little exported hence but only such commodities as are properly the product and manufacture of England and cannot be had in other parts. . . .
There is no notice taken of the act of navigation, plantation, or any other laws made in England for the regulation of trade. All nations having free liberty to come into their ports and vend their commodities, without any restraint; and in this as well as in other things, that government would make the world believe they are a free state and doe act in all matters accordingly, and doe presume to give passports to ships, not only belonging to that colony but also to England, without any regard to those rules prescribed by his Majestie.
Thomas Hutchinson, The Hutchinson Papers, vol. 2 (Albany: Publications of the Prince Society, 1865).
5. JOHN COTTON ON THE ABUSE OF POWER
John Cotton (1584–1652) was a Puritan leader who fled to New England in 1633. A well-respected theologian and preacher, he became a vital teacher in the Boston church. Here he wrote on the limitation of government. Going beyond the bounds God has set, said Cotton, is both injurious to the people and the leaders who expand the power given to them.
Let all the world learn to give mortal men no greater power than they are content they shall use—for use it they will. And unless they be better taught of God, they will use it ever and anon. . . .
It is therefore most wholesome for magistrates and officers in church and commonwealth never to affect more liberty and authority than will do them good, and the people good: for whatever transcendent power is given will certainly overrun those that give it and those that receive it. There is a strain in a man’s heart that will sometime or other run out to excess, unless the Lord restrain it; but it is not good to venture it.
It is necessary, therefore, that all power that is on earth be limited, church-power or other. If there be power given to speak great things, then look for great blasphemies, look for a licentious abuse of it. . . .
It is therefore fit for every man to be studious of the bounds which the Lord hath set: and for the people, in whom fundamentally all power lies, to give as much power as God in His word gives to men. And it is meet that magistrates in the commonwealth, and so officers in churches, should desire to know the utmost bounds of their own power, and it is safe for both. All intrenchment upon the bounds which God hath not given, they are not enlargements, but burdens and snares; they will certainly lead the spirit of a man out of his way, sooner or later.
Percy Miller, ed., “Limitation of Government,” in The American Puritans: Their Prose and Poetry (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982).
6. ANNE BRADSTREET’S “EPITAPH ON A PATRIOT”
Thomas Dudley, Esq., by many accounts was an obstinate man. His loving daughter, poet Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672), however, always spoke of him with tenderness. His death was a terrible loss for her. Her 1653 elegy on his death, including “His Epitaph,” was full of her sorrow.
HIS EPITAPH.
Within this Tomb a Patriot lyes
That was both pious, just and wise,
To Truth a shield, to right a Wall,
To Sectaryes a whip and Maul,
A Magazine of History,
A Prizer of good Company
In manners pleasant and severe
The Good him lov’d, the bad did fear,
And when his time with years was spent
If some rejoyc’d, more did lament.
John Harvard Ellis, ed., The Works of Anne Bradstreet in Prose and Verse (Cambridge: John Wilson and Son, 1867).
7. EPITAPH OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, WRITTEN BY HIM IN 1728
Not only did Benjamin Franklin sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, he was also a man of science, an author and printer, a consummate diplomat, and a philosopher. In 1728 Franklin wrote a premature epitaph for himself.
The Body
Of
Benjamin Franklin,
Printer,
(Like the cover of an old book,
Its contents torn out,
And stript of its lettering and gilding,)
Lies here, food for worms.
But the work shall not be lost,
For it will, as he believed, appear once more,
In a new and more elegant edition,
Revised and corrected
By
THE AUTHOR.
Jared Sparks, ed., From The Works of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 1 (London: Benjamin Franklin Stevens, 1882).
8. PETER KALM ON AMERICA’S LIKELY BREAK WITH ENGLAND
Peter Kalm was a Swedish-Finnish botanist and explorer who traveled throughout much of colonial America from 1748 to 1751, providing the first naturalist’s description of such things as Niagara Falls. He wrote the observations and his prediction below in 1748, but his journals weren’t published until 1773, just three years before America declared independence.
It is . . . of great advantage to the crown of England, that the North American colonies are near a country under the government of the French, like Canada. There is reason to believe that the King never was earnest in his attempts to expel the French from their possessions there; though it might have been done with little difficulty: for the English colonies in this part of the world have increased so much in their number of inhabitants, and in their riches, that they almost vie with Old England. Now in order to keep up the authority and trade of their mother country, and to answer several other purposes, they are forbid to establish new manufactures, which would turn to the disadvantage of British commerce: they are not allowed to dig for any gold or silver, unless they send them to England immediately: they have not the liberty of trading to any parts that do not belong to the British dominions, excepting some settled places; and foreign traders are not allowed to send their ships to them. These and some other restrictions, occasion the inhabitants of the English colonies to grow less tender for their mother country. This coldness is kept up by the many foreigners, such as Germans, Dutch, and French, settled here, and living among the English, who commonly have no particular attachment to Old England; add to this likewise, that many people can never be contented with their possessions, though they be ever so great, and will always be desirous of getting more, and of enjoying the pleasures which arises from changing; and their over great liberty, and their luxury, often lead them to licentiousness.
I have been told by Englishmen, and not only by such as were born in America, but even by such as came from Europe, that the English colonies in North America, in the space of thirty or fifty years, would be able to form a state by themselves, entirely independent on Old England. But as the whole country which lies along the sea-shore is unguarded, and on the land side is harrassed by the French in times of war, these dangerous neighbors are sufficient to prevent the connection of the colonies with their mother country from being quite broken off.
John Pinkerton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World, vol. 13 (London: Longman, 1812).