by Paula Love

Created on: November 03, 2009

Before the Pilgrims set sail on the Mayflower in 1620, they sought religious freedom in Holland. After roughly a dozen years in the city of Amsterdam, the fear that their children were becoming culturally more Dutch than English drove them to the New World. While they were in disagreement over the doctrines of the Church of England, they still considered themselves very much English, and proud to be such.

The Pilgrims, known at the time as Separatists, believed that the Bible should be the only guide to Christianity. The Bible held the word of God, and the Separatists believed their doctrines should come directly from Him, not from the Pope or any king or queen. They felt that the Church of England was to ritualized, too immersed in festivities and ceremonies that had no basis in Biblical texts. In the Plymouth Colony, marriages were civil affairs rather than spiritual ones, because the Pilgrims could find no place in the Bible stating that priests should preside over wedding ceremonies.

The Pilgrims were a hard-working population. Of course they had none of the amenities of today. Motorized vehicles, electricity, even running water were all still far in the future. But they also faced the challenge of building a new civilization from the ground up. There were no roads, no houses, no crops, no trading posts; nothing that might ease their transition. They worked from dawn to dusk, men, women, and children alike. Young boys might act as corn watchers, charged with keeping birds and wildlife out of the crops. Boys also assisted the older men with building. Girls often helped their mothers cook, sew, or tend to other household duties. Children also gathered nuts and berries for meals, and grasses or pine needles to be used in building materials or for stuffing mattresses. The abundance of work to be done left the children with little time to play, but when they could find a moment the Pilgrim girls enjoyed home sewn dolls and the boys relished in learning how to shoot guns.

The work stopped for the people of the Plymouth Colony on Saturday afternoon and didn't resume until Monday morning. This break however was not a weekend in the sense that we enjoy in present times. This was their Sabbath, and they were forbidden to work or play. The Pilgrims spent Saturday evenings reading the Bible in their homes, either to themselves or out loud to their children. Sundays were spent in the church house, often for several hours at a time. They prayed, sang hymns, and listened to long sermons delivered by the minister.

The homes occupied by Pilgrims were small, one room cabins with dirt floors. They slept on linen bags stuffed with pine needles, corn cobs, or for the very lucky, feathers. An open fireplace provided heat, light, and fires for cooking. Dinner was served on a wooden plank laid across sawhorses for a makeshift table. Most Pilgrims ate with their fingers, although some used wooden spoons or clam shells. They often ate directly from the pot, which was placed on the center of the table. Sometimes they used trenchers, which were pieces of wood with a hollow scooped out of the center. They also made plates out of stale bread. They used their linen napkins over and over again, as laundry was only washed a few times a year.

Laws in 17th century New England were extremely harsh. Playing or working on the Sabbath was strictly forbidden, as was drunken or raucous behavior. Those who broke the laws might be whipped, branded, or placed in stockades for a time. Those who committed severe crimes were hanged.

A quick study of early Pilgrim culture should make us all more thankful for the freedoms we are allowed in American society today.

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