by Lenna Gonya

Created on: November 09, 2009   Last Updated: November 01, 2010

Few of us today could imagine uprooting our families, giving up our property and jobs, and traveling thousands of miles, to a land we knew nothing about, to start a new life. When the pilgrims set out from England for the New World, it was the 17th century equivalent of colonizing the moon.

By the time they celebrated the first harvest feast in October of 1621, the remaining pilgrims had every reason to be grateful for their feast, and their very lives. Their three day celebration, which included feasting, contests, and feats of strength, was a rare, and well earned occasion.

When they were ready to set sail for America, they had already been uprooted from their native England, and had made a new life for themselves in Holland as tradesmen and merchants. They lived in cities, where all the 17th century amenities such as sugar and flour and ready-made clothing could be found. Now, they set off again, back to England, to catch the ship that would take them to the unknown.

Apart from their short trips to and from England, most of these pilgrims had little experience with the sea. The 66 day voyage was anything but pleasant. There were storms and sea sickness. Surprising few died from this trip, and all were glad to see dry land.

While it was a big relief to be on dry land, it wasn't much more promising. It was a wild land, full of potential with an abundance of wild animals, fruits, berries and seafood, but it wasn't home. And, there were already inhabitants, groups of people who looked and acted strange to the newcomers, and to whom they couldn't even communicate. To make matters worse, they had been blown off course and weren't even in their chartered territory of Virginia. They had traveled north, to Plymouth.

Winter was coming, the stores of food from the ship were diminishing, and, at some point these pioneers must have realized that they knew very little about how to fend for themselves.

During that cold winter, their first communal house burned down, food was running low and a disease spread throughout the colony that killed many of them. To make matters worse, now and then they would catch a glimpse of a native American watching them from afar. This must have been unnerving for both the pilgrim and the Indian.

By October of 1621, however, they had managed to pull the colony together. They had learned new skills that helped them to survive, partly on their own, and, for a great part from the natives. They had learned to hunt, fish, and grow corn, which replaced the wheat they had been accustomed to back home. They had built shelters, and, unlike the colonists that preceded them, they had endured.

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