0:00:07 > 0:00:10Now faith is the substance of things hoped for.
0:00:12 > 0:00:15The evidence of things not seen.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21Abel, Enoch...
0:00:22 > 0:00:24..Noah.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26Abraham.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28Sarah.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31These all died in faith.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37Confessing that they were both strangers and pilgrims on the Earth.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41But they desired a better country.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45That is a heavenly one.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49Wherefore God was not ashamed to be called their God.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53That he has prepared for them
0:00:53 > 0:00:54a city.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02I think William Bradford knew they were on a journey
0:01:02 > 0:01:04in this world towards heaven.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09They were transient citizens of the world and ultimately
0:01:09 > 0:01:11citizens of heaven.
0:01:14 > 0:01:17And they were on a journey towards purity, that is what they sought,
0:01:17 > 0:01:20that's what took them out of England,
0:01:20 > 0:01:22that's what took them over to Holland.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26That's what took them from Holland over to the New World.
0:01:46 > 0:01:51Summer was fading fast when on September 6th 1620,
0:01:51 > 0:01:56a small group of pilgrims, including a one-time farm boy from Yorkshire,
0:01:56 > 0:02:00named William Bradford, set out across the North Atlantic,
0:02:00 > 0:02:02on an ageing ship called the Mayflower.
0:02:04 > 0:02:09Their historic voyage would come to define the moment America was born.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17It is worth reminding ourselves that, at the time,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21they were a very, very small group of very extreme people...
0:02:23 > 0:02:26..and if we'd never heard of them ever again,
0:02:26 > 0:02:28nobody would be surprised.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32The fact they are, in the long term, extraordinarily successful,
0:02:32 > 0:02:35that they found the world's greatest democracy,
0:02:35 > 0:02:37throws retrospective lustre.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40They are, one might say, if you wanted to be pretty critical,
0:02:40 > 0:02:43they're religious nutters who won't settle
0:02:43 > 0:02:45for anything except the most literal
0:02:45 > 0:02:46reading of the Bible,
0:02:46 > 0:02:49they want to transform a nation state
0:02:49 > 0:02:54into something that resembles what they take to be a godly kingdom.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59They weren't the people that you would expect to be founding a new colony.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03They weren't soldiers, they were not emissaries of a foreign government,
0:03:03 > 0:03:06they were not particularly well provided with supplies.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09At least half of them were Separatists,
0:03:09 > 0:03:12that is to say radical Protestants who were religious exiles.
0:03:12 > 0:03:14They weren't the people
0:03:14 > 0:03:16you would automatically expect to be founding
0:03:16 > 0:03:18a new outpost of the British Empire.
0:03:20 > 0:03:25Fewer than 50 of the 102 passengers were adult men,
0:03:25 > 0:03:30many well past their physical prime, at least 30 were children,
0:03:30 > 0:03:34and nearly 20 were women, including three expectant mothers.
0:03:37 > 0:03:38By the time they set sail,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41England had still not succeeded in establishing
0:03:41 > 0:03:45a truly viable colony on the shores of the New World
0:03:45 > 0:03:48and few expected their chances of survival,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51let alone success, to be any better.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55They don't register at all, numerically.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59It's a tiny handful of people, many of whom don't survive.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02If we're thinking about migration to the Americas
0:04:02 > 0:04:04in the 17th and 18th century,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07we're talking about ten million Africans, for instance,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10as against this tiny handful of English men and women.
0:04:10 > 0:04:15The fascinating thing about the Pilgrims' story is how this tiny group of people
0:04:15 > 0:04:19managed to tell the story in such a way as to erase that whole other history.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21If you ask people
0:04:21 > 0:04:22where does America start,
0:04:22 > 0:04:25they'll say it starts in Plymouth Rock.
0:04:25 > 0:04:29Despite the fact that Jamestown was founded in 1607,
0:04:29 > 0:04:35and Plymouth was found in 1620, it became our story of national origin.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41Somehow, with the passage of time, the arrival of this frail,
0:04:41 > 0:04:43unlikely band would come to be seen as the true
0:04:43 > 0:04:46founding moment of America,
0:04:46 > 0:04:50and the story of their coming enshrined as the quintessential
0:04:50 > 0:04:51myth of American origins,
0:04:51 > 0:04:55commemorated each year on the fourth Thursday in November,
0:04:55 > 0:04:57at Thanksgiving,
0:04:57 > 0:05:02a feast that almost certainly never took place as we imagine it did.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Because the Pilgrims had been so enshrined
0:05:06 > 0:05:08in the national imagination,
0:05:08 > 0:05:11we need to go back, and ask questions
0:05:11 > 0:05:13about why we picked that story.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16An important exercise,
0:05:16 > 0:05:19when we are thinking about something that has been so central to
0:05:19 > 0:05:21our national imagination.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31We would scarcely remember the Pilgrims at all
0:05:31 > 0:05:34were it not for the unusual man who came to lead them
0:05:34 > 0:05:36in the New World,
0:05:36 > 0:05:38William Bradford,
0:05:38 > 0:05:41and the unusual book he left behind,
0:05:41 > 0:05:43a luminous text unlike
0:05:43 > 0:05:46any other account of early American settlement,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49extraordinary both in what it says
0:05:49 > 0:05:52and in what it passes over in silence.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57He was a person of very delicate sensibilities
0:05:57 > 0:05:59and very keen perceptions.
0:06:01 > 0:06:06He watched the flutterings of their little conventicle
0:06:06 > 0:06:10and its ups and downs with the greatest concern,
0:06:10 > 0:06:15and registered it in this wonderful prose.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation is one of the great books of American
0:06:20 > 0:06:23literature and history.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27That book, more than anything, is a kind of bible in its own way.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30It's steeped in the Bible, obviously,
0:06:30 > 0:06:31when it comes to its language,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35but when it comes to the history of Plymouth Colony, it is the text.
0:06:38 > 0:06:42Bradford laboured over the manuscript for more than 20 years,
0:06:42 > 0:06:46"scribbled writings", he said, pieced up in times of leisure,
0:06:46 > 0:06:52stolen from his duties as governor, and written in the third person,
0:06:52 > 0:06:54as if to a far-distant future.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00From my years young in days of youth,
0:07:00 > 0:07:02God did make known to me his truth.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07And called me from our native place
0:07:07 > 0:07:09for to enjoy the means of grace.
0:07:11 > 0:07:14In wilderness he did me guide
0:07:14 > 0:07:16and in strange lands for me provide.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22In fears and wants,
0:07:22 > 0:07:25through weal and woe...
0:07:26 > 0:07:28..a pilgrim passed I...
0:07:29 > 0:07:31..to and fro.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46In England, the place that is most closely associated
0:07:46 > 0:07:49with the origins of the Pilgrims is a village called Scrooby,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52which is right at the northern corner
0:07:52 > 0:07:54of the county of Nottinghamshire.
0:07:54 > 0:07:56It was an area where religious divisions
0:07:56 > 0:07:58were particularly conspicuous,
0:07:58 > 0:08:02where there was still quite a large number of lingering Roman Catholics
0:08:02 > 0:08:05in an area that had recently been evangelised
0:08:05 > 0:08:07by radical Protestantism.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13You have the right people at the right time in the right area
0:08:13 > 0:08:16with the same ideas, and I think that's what happened up here,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19in this part of the country.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21Got John Robinson at Gainsborough.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23Got William Brewster there at Scrooby.
0:08:23 > 0:08:26You have Richard Clyfton here at Babworth.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28William Bradford in Austerfield.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32So spiritually strong and so young,
0:08:32 > 0:08:34they supported each other,
0:08:34 > 0:08:38and I think that is why it took off here and maybe
0:08:38 > 0:08:40not in other places.
0:08:44 > 0:08:48William Bradford was born in the tiny village of Austerfield,
0:08:48 > 0:08:52and baptised on March 19th 1590,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55in the ancient stone church of St Helena's,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59a three-mile walk down the lane from the village of Scrooby.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06His family were yeomen, with farmland of their own.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Though far from wealthy, they were far from poor.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15But his childhood would be blighted by the death of virtually everyone
0:09:15 > 0:09:19close to him. His father William when he was one,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22his grandfather William when he was six,
0:09:22 > 0:09:25his mother Alice when he was seven,
0:09:25 > 0:09:29his sister Alice and his grandfather John Hanson
0:09:29 > 0:09:30when he was 12.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37He was sent to live with his uncle, Robert,
0:09:37 > 0:09:40who hoped he would prove useful working in the fields.
0:09:40 > 0:09:44His family's economic security had been badly shaken by
0:09:44 > 0:09:46four failed harvests in a row,
0:09:46 > 0:09:49and by the devastating depression that followed.
0:09:55 > 0:09:58The standard of living of the average English labourer
0:09:58 > 0:10:02was rapidly declining. There was something very close to famine.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05It was a very uncertain world in which even people from the yeomanry,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08as the Pilgrims were, were always worried they were about to slip back
0:10:08 > 0:10:12into this state of near destitution, in which many people lived.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14In addition to that,
0:10:14 > 0:10:18the kind of people who became the nucleus of the Plymouth Colony
0:10:18 > 0:10:20honestly believed that, in England,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23they were being forced to live amid sin, amid iniquity,
0:10:23 > 0:10:27and there is evidence that there was a great deal of immorality going on.
0:10:27 > 0:10:32Incidence of fornication, adultery, drunkenness.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35And what emerges from this is a picture of
0:10:35 > 0:10:39quite a troubled and disturbed and agitated world.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43Lonely and intelligent,
0:10:43 > 0:10:46in a world that felt increasingly precarious to him,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48William fell ill when he was 12,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51with what he called "a long sickness",
0:10:51 > 0:10:55which took him from the fields, kept him bedridden for months,
0:10:55 > 0:10:57and drove him to seek solace in the Bible.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03The reading of Scriptures, he said, made a great impression upon him.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06The more that he read, the more troubled he became,
0:11:06 > 0:11:09and the gulf between the world he saw around him
0:11:09 > 0:11:12and the simplicity and purity of the Gospel.
0:11:12 > 0:11:17Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...
0:11:17 > 0:11:20He had this profound sense as a 12-year-old
0:11:20 > 0:11:23that the congregation he was a part of was corrupt.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29That the Church was moving them in a direction that was not right.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33That they prayed to the depraved beliefs of mortal men
0:11:33 > 0:11:38that were moving them away from God, and so this was a deep conviction.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41I think there you have the beginnings of
0:11:41 > 0:11:45a very complex and inward-looking person,
0:11:45 > 0:11:48who was improbably preparing for the ultimate journey.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56When he was well again,
0:11:56 > 0:11:58William began to fall under the spell
0:11:58 > 0:12:02of an evangelical Puritan preacher named Richard Clyfton.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06Not long after, he found his way to the home of William Brewster,
0:12:06 > 0:12:11the warm-hearted, Cambridge-educated postmaster, and bailiff
0:12:11 > 0:12:16of Scrooby Manor, where he came to feel he had found a spiritual home
0:12:16 > 0:12:19and where, each week, a private congregation gathered to hear
0:12:19 > 0:12:23Clyfton and another charismatic minister, named John Robinson.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28They preached on the need to purify the Church of England
0:12:28 > 0:12:33of all Roman Catholic influence and everything worldly,
0:12:33 > 0:12:37of anything not contained in Scripture.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39Your carcasses shall fall.
0:12:39 > 0:12:44'I think the sense of faithfulness to Scripture is at the heart of it.
0:12:46 > 0:12:52'They want to go right back to the roots and strip away all the human
0:12:52 > 0:12:56'accretions that have come into the worship and the life of the Church
0:12:56 > 0:12:58'and get back to a primitive purity.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00'It's no accident that the larger movement
0:13:00 > 0:13:02'from which the Separatists came
0:13:02 > 0:13:05'were called Puritans by their opponents,
0:13:05 > 0:13:09'because that's what they were campaigning for - greater purity,
0:13:09 > 0:13:11'greater faithfulness,'
0:13:11 > 0:13:14to what they believed they read in Scripture.
0:13:17 > 0:13:20Nothing he read made a deeper impression on him
0:13:20 > 0:13:22than a passage from the book of St Matthew
0:13:22 > 0:13:25in which Christ explains to his disciples
0:13:25 > 0:13:27where the true Church lies.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34"For where two or three are gathered together in my name...
0:13:37 > 0:13:39"..there am I in the midst of them."
0:13:44 > 0:13:47That's obviously the key Separatist text,
0:13:47 > 0:13:51that Christ will be with you without a bishop, without a Church,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54without any ecclesiastical organisation,
0:13:54 > 0:13:56and that prayer, conversion,
0:13:56 > 0:14:01commitment is enough for the presence of Christ.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05That's an extraordinarily radical text, when you think about it.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10'They reject hierarchy in the Church,
0:14:10 > 0:14:13'the hierarchy of bishop, priest and deacon that has come
0:14:13 > 0:14:17'from Catholicism, that still exists in the Church of England.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22'So they look for an equality among members of the Church,
0:14:22 > 0:14:26'that's an equality of members of the body of Christ.'
0:14:26 > 0:14:28Everybody's got equal access to it.
0:14:36 > 0:14:38By 1603,
0:14:38 > 0:14:41William was on the road to being committed to the radical idea that
0:14:41 > 0:14:43the true love of God might mean
0:14:43 > 0:14:47separating from the Church of England altogether.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51And that's when the real trouble begins,
0:14:51 > 0:14:55because you look at who is the head of the only Church in England,
0:14:55 > 0:14:58the head of the Church from Henry's time is the monarch.
0:14:58 > 0:15:01It's not just the Church, it's the monarch that you are flying
0:15:01 > 0:15:04in the face of. That's what makes this so dangerous
0:15:04 > 0:15:06and so worrying for the authorities.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09If you are going to make a stand on religion and get away with it,
0:15:09 > 0:15:12then what else are you going to make a stand on?
0:15:14 > 0:15:16Your carcasses will fall...
0:15:16 > 0:15:19'The issues at stake are literally more important than life and death,
0:15:19 > 0:15:23'it's your eternal life, or your eternal death.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27'If your monarch is jeopardising your eternal life,
0:15:27 > 0:15:29'you are a very unreliable subject,
0:15:29 > 0:15:32'because anyone who separates from the Church
0:15:32 > 0:15:35'is not just separating from the Church
0:15:35 > 0:15:37'but they're separating from royal authority,'
0:15:37 > 0:15:40and that's potentially very dangerous.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45Bottom line - what was at stake?
0:15:47 > 0:15:50You can punish somebody for not attending the church,
0:15:50 > 0:15:52you can be fined.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54If you persisted, you could be imprisoned,
0:15:54 > 0:15:56so you could think about it.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01And Elizabeth, after the act against Puritans, in 1593,
0:16:01 > 0:16:05had made the next step banishment.
0:16:06 > 0:16:11But I think, with James, these folk were risking everything.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16He was newly to the throne, not popular,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19he wasn't going to have any dissenters.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24You can't really understand the Pilgrims' story
0:16:24 > 0:16:27without understanding James I, King of England at the time,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30the man from whom they were fleeing.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33James I was a man who passionately believed in unity,
0:16:33 > 0:16:36he believed it was immensely important that the kingdom
0:16:36 > 0:16:39should be unified under a single canopy of law and order,
0:16:39 > 0:16:42and he didn't want to see any form of discord
0:16:42 > 0:16:46or the creation of rival factions, rival centres of power.
0:16:46 > 0:16:50There were explicit rules that said you couldn't have private religious
0:16:50 > 0:16:54meetings in houses, ministers should not convene
0:16:54 > 0:16:56private groups of people.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00These conventicles were judged illegal and subversive.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05In the spring of 1607,
0:17:05 > 0:17:07with nothing worldly left to lose
0:17:07 > 0:17:10and convinced their souls were hanging in the balance,
0:17:10 > 0:17:14John Robinson led the congregation at Scrooby Manor across
0:17:14 > 0:17:16the last fateful barrier,
0:17:16 > 0:17:19to outright separation from the Church of England.
0:17:21 > 0:17:25Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers?
0:17:27 > 0:17:30For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
0:17:33 > 0:17:37And what communion hath light with darkness?
0:17:40 > 0:17:44And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?
0:17:46 > 0:17:53For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said,
0:17:53 > 0:17:55"I will walk in them.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58"I will dwell in them.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02"And I will be their God.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05"And they will be my people.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12"Wherefore come out from among them
0:18:12 > 0:18:15"and be ye separate."
0:18:19 > 0:18:22So, many, therefore...
0:18:24 > 0:18:28..whose hearts the Lord had touched with heavenly zeal for his truth,
0:18:28 > 0:18:33they shook off this yoke of anti-Christian bondage,
0:18:33 > 0:18:36and, as the Lord's free people,
0:18:36 > 0:18:41joined themselves by a covenant of the law into a Church estate
0:18:41 > 0:18:44in the fellowship of the Gospel,
0:18:44 > 0:18:49to walk in all his ways according to their best endeavours whatsoever it
0:18:49 > 0:18:50should cost them.
0:18:52 > 0:18:53The Lord assisting them.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58And that it cost them something,
0:18:58 > 0:19:00this ensuing history will declare.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02THUNDER RUMBLES
0:19:06 > 0:19:09By the autumn, when William Brewster himself
0:19:09 > 0:19:12was fined and threatened with imprisonment,
0:19:12 > 0:19:14it was clear that only one option remained.
0:19:16 > 0:19:18To worship God as they saw fit,
0:19:18 > 0:19:22they must separate not only from the English Church
0:19:22 > 0:19:24but from England altogether.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28The conventicle began to discuss
0:19:28 > 0:19:30where they might go to find the freedom
0:19:30 > 0:19:33that they so earnestly sought.
0:19:34 > 0:19:37They settled, for the moment at least, on Holland.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43Holland had emerged as the Protestant part of the Netherlands,
0:19:43 > 0:19:46opposed to Catholic rule in the south.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49It was a place of refuge for evangelicals
0:19:49 > 0:19:51in a time of threat and challenge.
0:19:51 > 0:19:52That looked like the place
0:19:52 > 0:19:55where God's purposes might be being served.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57It was also a boom time,
0:19:57 > 0:20:00because peace brought an expansion in the cloth trade.
0:20:00 > 0:20:02So you can see the attraction -
0:20:02 > 0:20:06from here to the Humber Estuary and to Amsterdam is not very far.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13And so they join the radical Protestants of their time, the Dutch.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17But James, for the monarchy, let them go there.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21If that's where they're happy, no reason why they shouldn't go there.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24The Dutch are our allies, we've been fighting on the side of the Dutch.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26If you want to live there, fair enough.
0:20:26 > 0:20:28Good riddance!
0:20:28 > 0:20:31And no doubt, many of them would have thought
0:20:31 > 0:20:34that they would settle there quite happily, and that would be it.
0:20:39 > 0:20:43Holland was a completely different environment from what they were used to,
0:20:43 > 0:20:44and because they were foreigners,
0:20:44 > 0:20:47they ended up getting really lousy jobs.
0:20:47 > 0:20:49Instead of farms,
0:20:49 > 0:20:53they ended up basically in little factories creating clothing,
0:20:53 > 0:20:56and they would work literally from dawn till dusk.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58A bell would go off in the morning
0:20:58 > 0:21:03and they'd work to the very end of the day, often with their children.
0:21:06 > 0:21:09But for all the trials and hardships,
0:21:09 > 0:21:12at least they were free for the first time to worship
0:21:12 > 0:21:16as they wished, in accordance with God's will.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21Such was the true piety,
0:21:21 > 0:21:25the humble seal and fervent love of this people
0:21:25 > 0:21:28whilst they thus lived together,
0:21:28 > 0:21:31towards God and his ways...
0:21:33 > 0:21:38..that they came as near the primitive pattern of the first Churches
0:21:38 > 0:21:42as any other Church of these latter times have done.
0:21:49 > 0:21:51In late November 1618,
0:21:51 > 0:21:56a brilliant blue-green comet appeared in the night skies.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00"We shall have wars," the English ambassador to the Netherlands wrote,
0:22:00 > 0:22:02and he was right.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05Europe was on the verge of an enormous conflict,
0:22:05 > 0:22:09the beginning of what we now refer to as the Thirty Years' War.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13A great religious conflict involving all the great powers of Europe,
0:22:13 > 0:22:16which Protestants such as the Pilgrims saw as a great confrontation
0:22:16 > 0:22:19between good, in the shape of Protestant Christianity, and evil,
0:22:19 > 0:22:21in the shape of Roman Catholicism.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23And this, in the eyes of many,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26was a cataclysmic global confrontation
0:22:26 > 0:22:29which might very well lead to the end of the world.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32It might herald, if you like,
0:22:32 > 0:22:34the Second Coming of Christ and the Day of Judgment.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38Things were that urgent, the stakes were that high.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42Everything seemed to be on the edge of complete meltdown,
0:22:42 > 0:22:48and so they decided it's time to pull the ripcord once again,
0:22:48 > 0:22:52even if it meant leaving everything they had known all their lives.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56But where do you go? You are Englishmen, after all.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59But you can't go back to England.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03And I think that's why they plumped for the New World.
0:23:03 > 0:23:05If you can't go back to England,
0:23:05 > 0:23:09at least maybe they could find the freedom they're looking for there.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14After weighing and rejecting numerous options,
0:23:14 > 0:23:16they settled in the end on an area
0:23:16 > 0:23:20at the mouth of the Hudson River, near present-day New York.
0:23:21 > 0:23:26What they had to do to get there required an awful lot of them.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29They really had to figure out how they were going to do this.
0:23:31 > 0:23:32Like many people from cults,
0:23:32 > 0:23:36they were really naive when it came to the rest of the world.
0:23:36 > 0:23:38These were not wealthy people.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48They had all but despaired of finding anyone willing to finance
0:23:48 > 0:23:52the hugely costly, high-risk undertaking when, in early 1620,
0:23:52 > 0:23:56they were approached in Leiden by a 35-year-old cloth merchant
0:23:56 > 0:23:59from London named Thomas Weston,
0:23:59 > 0:24:02who offered to organise financing for the expedition
0:24:02 > 0:24:05through a group of businessmen hoping to break into
0:24:05 > 0:24:08the transatlantic trade in fish and fur.
0:24:10 > 0:24:14And that is the beginning of all sorts of trouble for them.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19The right time to make that westward crossing of the Atlantic to
0:24:19 > 0:24:22the New World is to set out in the spring
0:24:22 > 0:24:24and certainly no later than the summer,
0:24:24 > 0:24:28because of the way that the prevailing winds are working, and so on.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32So the Pilgrims get themselves ready in Leiden in the spring,
0:24:32 > 0:24:36and it's June when they discover that Weston hasn't organised any transport.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41With no word about either financing,
0:24:41 > 0:24:45supplies or the ship that would take them across the Atlantic,
0:24:45 > 0:24:46trusting in God,
0:24:46 > 0:24:51the Pilgrims pulled up their roots and set off for England anyway.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56And so, they left...
0:24:57 > 0:24:59..that goodly and pleasant city
0:24:59 > 0:25:02which had been their resting place for nearly 12 years.
0:25:04 > 0:25:09But they knew they were Pilgrims and looked not much on these things
0:25:09 > 0:25:12but lift up their eyes to the heavens...
0:25:13 > 0:25:15..their dearest country...
0:25:18 > 0:25:20..and quieted their spirits.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29The journey across the Channel was swift and uneventful
0:25:29 > 0:25:32and when they arrived, to their enormous relief,
0:25:32 > 0:25:35they found waiting for them at the dock a second ship,
0:25:35 > 0:25:40which Thomas Weston had secured for them at the last possible moment.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43It was called the Mayflower.
0:25:46 > 0:25:50Here, they had their first encounter with the Mayflower's master,
0:25:50 > 0:25:53Christopher Jones, and with its hard-bitten,
0:25:53 > 0:25:56rough-and-tumble crew, and with the strangers,
0:25:56 > 0:25:59the motley assortment of non-Separatist recruits
0:25:59 > 0:26:02the investors had insisted go with them.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08Suddenly, these Leideners, who had spent ten years cultivating
0:26:08 > 0:26:11their own spiritual, very inward bond,
0:26:11 > 0:26:13found themselves on a ship,
0:26:13 > 0:26:17sharing their space with the strangers who came from a completely
0:26:17 > 0:26:20different place, with the understanding that,
0:26:20 > 0:26:22we're not just sharing this ship with them,
0:26:22 > 0:26:26we're going to be living with these people for the foreseeable future.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34It was a long process before they could finally get away to sea,
0:26:34 > 0:26:37out onto the open Atlantic, and it was far too late in the year.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41If you wanted to go to America, Virginia or New England,
0:26:41 > 0:26:45you should try to leave February or March at the latest so you could get
0:26:45 > 0:26:48there in the spring and give yourself a full spring and summer to
0:26:48 > 0:26:49become accustomed to the New World
0:26:49 > 0:26:52and to do all the things you had to do before the winter set in.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55In fact, of course, they ended up leaving in September,
0:26:55 > 0:26:57which was about as bad as it could be.
0:26:59 > 0:27:04On September 6th 1620, fearfully late in the season,
0:27:04 > 0:27:06undersupplied and overcrowded,
0:27:06 > 0:27:10with autumn storms already whipping the North Atlantic into menacing
0:27:10 > 0:27:12furrows of white-capped waves,
0:27:12 > 0:27:15the Mayflower left Plymouth Harbour
0:27:15 > 0:27:18and set out on her own across the Atlantic.
0:27:20 > 0:27:21Edward Winslow,
0:27:21 > 0:27:25a 24-year-old printer travelling with his wife Elizabeth,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28never forgot the moment they set sail.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Wednesday, 6th September.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35The wind, coming east, north-east,
0:27:35 > 0:27:37a fine small gale,
0:27:37 > 0:27:40released from Plymouth,
0:27:40 > 0:27:44having been kindly entertained and courteously used by diverse friends
0:27:44 > 0:27:46there dwelling.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53The Mayflower lost sight of Land's End sometime towards the end of
0:27:53 > 0:27:56the first week of September 1620.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02William Bradford remembered her finally setting forth
0:28:02 > 0:28:04under a prosperous wind.
0:28:04 > 0:28:07But the journey would be far from easy.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25When they finally set sail,
0:28:25 > 0:28:28they are going against the prevailing westerly winds,
0:28:28 > 0:28:31then struggling against the Gulf Stream...
0:28:32 > 0:28:35..and they made incredibly slow progress,
0:28:35 > 0:28:372mph across the Atlantic.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43Some of them tried to create little cabins within this,
0:28:43 > 0:28:47which just made these little suffocating cells,
0:28:47 > 0:28:49and chamber pots everywhere.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52There was a boat that had been cut up into pieces that some people were
0:28:52 > 0:28:55trying to use for a bed.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59There were two dogs, a spaniel and a giant slobbery mastiff.
0:29:00 > 0:29:02And it is a voyage from hell.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05Push!
0:29:05 > 0:29:09Somewhere far out in the Atlantic, Stephen Hopkins' wife Elizabeth
0:29:09 > 0:29:14gave birth to a baby boy, who they named Oceanus.
0:29:16 > 0:29:18They almost turned back.
0:29:18 > 0:29:19The sailors, at one point,
0:29:19 > 0:29:23said they'd be happy to earn their wages but they are not going to risk
0:29:23 > 0:29:25their lives.
0:29:25 > 0:29:27Bradford spells it out.
0:29:27 > 0:29:29He describes it as awful.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34And these terrible sailors, who were a blight on humanity,
0:29:34 > 0:29:40and the strangers, some of whom were worse, loaded up with all this gear,
0:29:40 > 0:29:41animals, people.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44It's amazing that they came out alive.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49And by the end of it, people are getting sick.
0:29:49 > 0:29:54And so there was a real sense of urgency aboard,
0:29:54 > 0:29:57particularly for Master Jones, who knew, at some point,
0:29:57 > 0:30:00he had to get these people off his ship.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06Two people had died and more were failing fast when,
0:30:06 > 0:30:10early on the morning of Thursday November 9th 1620,
0:30:10 > 0:30:13after more than two months at sea,
0:30:13 > 0:30:17a crew member spied a line of high bluffs gleaming far off
0:30:17 > 0:30:22in the early dawn light, and shouted out excitedly to Captain Jones.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27It was the first land they had seen in 65 days.
0:30:27 > 0:30:30They've arrived off the coast of Cape Cod,
0:30:30 > 0:30:32but they're 200 miles off course,
0:30:32 > 0:30:37and so Master Jones heads them south towards the Hudson River and,
0:30:37 > 0:30:39unfortunately, there are no reliable charts,
0:30:39 > 0:30:42and they unsuspectingly find themselves
0:30:42 > 0:30:45in one of the most dangerous pieces of shoal water
0:30:45 > 0:30:47on the Atlantic coast,
0:30:47 > 0:30:49and it looks like this is going to be the end of them.
0:30:49 > 0:30:52And Jones makes a very historic decision.
0:30:52 > 0:30:54He says, "We're not going south.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56"We're going to take this breeze to the north,
0:30:56 > 0:30:59"around the rest of what they called Cape Cod,
0:30:59 > 0:31:01"to whatever harbour is there,
0:31:01 > 0:31:04"and I'm getting these people off my ship."
0:31:09 > 0:31:10On November 11th,
0:31:10 > 0:31:14they rounded the tip of Cape Cod and sailed into the relative calm and
0:31:14 > 0:31:19safety of the great bay where, even before they dropped anchor,
0:31:19 > 0:31:23long-festering tensions between the strangers and the Pilgrims
0:31:23 > 0:31:26broke out into the open.
0:31:27 > 0:31:31This day, before we came to harbour,
0:31:31 > 0:31:35observing some not well affected to unity and concord,
0:31:35 > 0:31:39it was thought good there should be an association and agreement that we
0:31:39 > 0:31:44should combine together in one body and submit to such government and
0:31:44 > 0:31:49governors as we should by common consent agree to make and choose,
0:31:49 > 0:31:52and set our hands to this that follows,
0:31:52 > 0:31:53word for word.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01The point of the compact was to ward off the danger of division
0:32:01 > 0:32:04and dissolution after they'd got to the other side.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08The thing that is key about it is, it's a contract.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11We're going to agree on this particular goal
0:32:11 > 0:32:12and get everybody's name
0:32:12 > 0:32:16on this document and make a commitment to this.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22On the morning of November 11th 1620,
0:32:22 > 0:32:26the Mayflower compact was offered up for signature.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30The first to sign was John Carver, one of the wealthiest men on board.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35The last, a servant named Edward Leicester.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41In the end, the vast majority of the men on board put their names to
0:32:41 > 0:32:45the paper. 41 adult men in all,
0:32:45 > 0:32:4890% of the adult male population of the Mayflower.
0:32:51 > 0:32:53Once the signing was complete,
0:32:53 > 0:32:56the colonists acted collectively for the first time,
0:32:56 > 0:32:59and elected John Carver to be their governor.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05And against all odds, here they are, off this very dangerous coast,
0:33:05 > 0:33:09knowing that there is this huge continent ahead of them.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12This was an alien environment.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15It's as if they have been set down on another planet.
0:33:15 > 0:33:19And there it is, in all its mystery, before them.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25Then, with their ship safely anchored off Cape Cod,
0:33:25 > 0:33:2916 armed men ventured ashore in a small boat
0:33:29 > 0:33:33and stepped on dry land for the first time in two months.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39Being thus past the vast ocean
0:33:39 > 0:33:41and a sea of troubles,
0:33:41 > 0:33:47they now had no friends to welcome them or inns to repair to
0:33:47 > 0:33:51for to refresh their weather-beaten bodies, no houses,
0:33:51 > 0:33:55much less towns, to repair to to seek for succour.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02As for the season, it was winter,
0:34:02 > 0:34:05and they that know the winters of that country
0:34:05 > 0:34:07know them to be sharp and harsh...
0:34:09 > 0:34:11..subject to cruel and fierce storms.
0:34:14 > 0:34:22Besides, what could they see but a hideous, desolate wilderness,
0:34:22 > 0:34:23full of wild beasts...
0:34:25 > 0:34:27..and wild men?
0:34:31 > 0:34:33When they arrived in this territory,
0:34:33 > 0:34:37they believed that their journey was ordained by God,
0:34:37 > 0:34:41that they had a mission that they were to fulfil,
0:34:41 > 0:34:44and the desolation that they found
0:34:44 > 0:34:46was God's Providence.
0:34:46 > 0:34:49It was meant to be that way for them.
0:34:56 > 0:34:58On his return to the Mayflower,
0:34:58 > 0:35:02William Bradford was greeted with staggering news.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07Five days earlier, his 23-year-old wife Dorothy
0:35:07 > 0:35:11had somehow fallen overboard while the ship lay at anchor
0:35:11 > 0:35:13and drowned in the icy waters of the harbour.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19But in Bradford's history, it is nothing more than a footnote.
0:35:20 > 0:35:22He has this double job.
0:35:22 > 0:35:26He has to be true to the events but also bring them into
0:35:26 > 0:35:31a larger narrative of Providence and care.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35Many of the things that he doesn't tell
0:35:35 > 0:35:37simply don't fit into that design,
0:35:37 > 0:35:41and I think that the death of his wife was one of those.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44He couldn't not honour it,
0:35:44 > 0:35:48but there was no way to honour it,
0:35:48 > 0:35:50so it disappears from the history.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58Late in life, Bradford penned the lines of a simple poem.
0:36:00 > 0:36:02Faint not, poor soul
0:36:04 > 0:36:06In God still trust
0:36:08 > 0:36:10Fear not the things thou suffer must
0:36:12 > 0:36:15For whom he loves he doth chastise
0:36:16 > 0:36:21And then all tears wipes from their eyes.
0:36:30 > 0:36:32On Friday December 15th,
0:36:32 > 0:36:36with its cargo of sickened and sea-weary passengers and crew,
0:36:36 > 0:36:40the Mayflower sailed west across the vast windswept bay
0:36:40 > 0:36:44towards the dark, wintry shore that awaited them.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47They called it Plymouth.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54It was an Indian settlement that had been abandoned.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58It seemed, physically speaking, a proper place.
0:36:58 > 0:37:02It had a nice slope down to the harbour and fields beyond,
0:37:02 > 0:37:04and that seemed to be a convenient place.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10The Mayflower had to anchor a mile offshore,
0:37:10 > 0:37:12because the harbour at Plymouth
0:37:12 > 0:37:14wasn't deep enough to let the ship right up,
0:37:14 > 0:37:18so that they had to ferry the supplies,
0:37:18 > 0:37:21the goods, so slowly, in from the Mayflower.
0:37:25 > 0:37:26Friday, 22nd.
0:37:28 > 0:37:30Storm still continued.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33But we could not get a land,
0:37:33 > 0:37:35nor they come to us aboard.
0:37:36 > 0:37:42This morning, goodwife Alison was delivered of a son,
0:37:42 > 0:37:43but dead born.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49Sunday, 24th.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52Our people on shore heard a cry of some savages,
0:37:52 > 0:37:54which caused an alarm
0:37:54 > 0:37:56and to stand on their guard,
0:37:56 > 0:37:58expecting an assault.
0:38:00 > 0:38:01But all was quiet.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09The Pilgrims had just set to work
0:38:09 > 0:38:11building a 20-foot-square common house
0:38:11 > 0:38:16for protection against Indian attack when the temperature began to drop
0:38:16 > 0:38:18and the weather to close in mercilessly.
0:38:20 > 0:38:25One by one, the weakened immigrants began to succumb to dysentery,
0:38:25 > 0:38:27pneumonia, scurvy.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35By February, people were dying in droves,
0:38:35 > 0:38:37some huddled in the makeshift settlement,
0:38:37 > 0:38:40many more back on the Mayflower.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47The conditions on board that ship must have been absolutely awful.
0:38:48 > 0:38:53They can't go ashore, they're all suffering from scurvy.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57That sweet ship, the Mayflower,
0:38:57 > 0:39:00at the end, it was like a death house on the water.
0:39:02 > 0:39:07It pleased God to visit us then with death daily,
0:39:07 > 0:39:10and with so general a disease...
0:39:12 > 0:39:14..the living were scarce able to bury the dead...
0:39:16 > 0:39:19..and the well in no measure sufficient
0:39:19 > 0:39:20to tend the sick.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33The days were growing longer and the death rate
0:39:33 > 0:39:35had finally begun to subside
0:39:35 > 0:39:40when, on Friday March 16th, cries of panic and alarm rang out,
0:39:40 > 0:39:42as a lone Wampanoag warrior,
0:39:42 > 0:39:46naked except for a loincloth and carrying a bow,
0:39:46 > 0:39:49broke cover from the line of trees near their huts
0:39:49 > 0:39:52and walked boldly into the camp.
0:39:54 > 0:39:58He saluted us in English, and bade us welcome.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01He was the first savage we had met withal.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03He said his name was Samoset.
0:40:04 > 0:40:08He told us the place we now live is called Patuxet,
0:40:08 > 0:40:11and that about four years ago all the inhabitants died
0:40:11 > 0:40:13of an extraordinary plague.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18The Wampanoags are looking for an ally.
0:40:18 > 0:40:22They're suspicious of the Pilgrims when they first come,
0:40:22 > 0:40:25they stay away from them at first, they watch them,
0:40:25 > 0:40:28but eventually they realise that an alliance
0:40:28 > 0:40:30is going to be best for them as well,
0:40:30 > 0:40:34because they're being dominated by other Indian tribes who are
0:40:34 > 0:40:40not affected by the epidemic, who are forcing them to pay tribute.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45It was not just political convenience, it was survival.
0:40:45 > 0:40:50If you do not have power backing you, and you are a weakened people,
0:40:50 > 0:40:54then the enemies that naturally exist around you
0:40:54 > 0:40:55will take advantage.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00Our leadership knew very well the tough decisions
0:41:00 > 0:41:02that needed to be made at the time,
0:41:02 > 0:41:06in order to ensure that Wampanoag people continued to exist
0:41:06 > 0:41:08in Wampanoag territory.
0:41:12 > 0:41:16Six days later, the emissary returned,
0:41:16 > 0:41:20bringing the principal leader of the Wampanoags and 60 of his men,
0:41:20 > 0:41:22including one named Tisquantum,
0:41:22 > 0:41:28who served as interpreter as the two sides concluded a remarkable accord,
0:41:28 > 0:41:31agreeing not to harm each other's people,
0:41:31 > 0:41:34and to come to each other's aid in the event of attack.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41Tisquantum would remain with the struggling group on the site of
0:41:41 > 0:41:45his former home, to help with the spring planting.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50The Pilgrims were obviously very close to losing everything
0:41:50 > 0:41:52after that first winter,
0:41:52 > 0:41:56and I think there was a recognition that they both needed each other.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59Not that they understood each other terribly well,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02but they were desperate, they were both desperate.
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Two weeks after concluding the treaty,
0:42:18 > 0:42:20the immigrants gathered at the harbour
0:42:20 > 0:42:23to bid a sombre farewell to the Mayflower,
0:42:23 > 0:42:27which, on April 5th 1621, set sail for England
0:42:27 > 0:42:32with Master Jones, an empty hold and a drastically diminished crew.
0:42:34 > 0:42:37It was one of the last voyages she would ever take.
0:42:37 > 0:42:42Two years later, the Mayflower, rotting at anchor on the Thames,
0:42:42 > 0:42:46would be sold for scrap and disappear to history.
0:42:48 > 0:42:52The Pilgrims' only anchor and lifeline was gone.
0:42:52 > 0:42:54They were on their own.
0:43:00 > 0:43:05Autumn came and the days dipped down into darkness.
0:43:05 > 0:43:09With William Bradford now at the helm as their new governor,
0:43:09 > 0:43:13the Pilgrims had finished erecting 11 crude structures in all,
0:43:13 > 0:43:16seven dwelling houses and four common buildings.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22They had also managed to bring in a successful harvest of corn,
0:43:22 > 0:43:27thanks to Tisquantum, and as the leaves began to turn, they prepared,
0:43:27 > 0:43:29Edward Winslow reported,
0:43:29 > 0:43:31to, "in a special manner, rejoice together
0:43:31 > 0:43:35"after we had gathered the fruits of our labours."
0:43:38 > 0:43:41No-one at the time called it Thanksgiving.
0:43:42 > 0:43:45William Bradford made no mention of it in his history.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51There isn't much of a record, there's a paragraph, I think,
0:43:51 > 0:43:53in Winslow, that describes what's come to be known
0:43:53 > 0:43:56as the first Thanksgiving.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58It says nothing about an invitation,
0:43:58 > 0:44:01it was just that the English were doing this thing
0:44:01 > 0:44:04and Massasoit showed up with these 90 men.
0:44:04 > 0:44:06They stayed for three days,
0:44:06 > 0:44:08they went out and got five deer
0:44:08 > 0:44:11to add to what the English were cooking.
0:44:11 > 0:44:13They played games together.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18There's, like, four little facts of what happened,
0:44:18 > 0:44:20and then the rest of it is fluff
0:44:20 > 0:44:23that's been added over the centuries.
0:44:26 > 0:44:28Over time, the humble event,
0:44:28 > 0:44:32all but disregarded by the Pilgrims themselves,
0:44:32 > 0:44:36would be recast as one of the most important and defining moments
0:44:36 > 0:44:38in American history.
0:44:42 > 0:44:47We love the story of Thanksgiving because it's about alliance and
0:44:47 > 0:44:53abundance and envisioning a future where Native Americans
0:44:53 > 0:44:57and colonial Americans can come together
0:44:57 > 0:45:01and celebrate the Providences of a single God.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05But part of the reason that they were grateful
0:45:05 > 0:45:08was that they had been in such misery,
0:45:08 > 0:45:13that they had lost so many people - on both sides.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18But we don't think about the loss, we think about the abundance.
0:45:20 > 0:45:22CANNON FIRES
0:45:22 > 0:45:24On November 9th 1621,
0:45:24 > 0:45:28a shout went out from a lookout on Burial Hill,
0:45:28 > 0:45:31followed by the loud booming of a cannon
0:45:31 > 0:45:33as, far out in the bay,
0:45:33 > 0:45:36the first sails they had seen since the departure of the Mayflower
0:45:36 > 0:45:39loomed on the eastern horizon.
0:45:40 > 0:45:44They'd had no contact with the outside world for more than a year.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50It turned out to be an English relief ship called the Fortune,
0:45:50 > 0:45:52sent by Thomas Weston.
0:45:53 > 0:45:55A third the size of the Mayflower,
0:45:55 > 0:45:58the tiny vessel carried 35 new recruits
0:45:58 > 0:46:02and a stinging letter from Thomas Weston himself,
0:46:02 > 0:46:05rebuking the colonists for having failed
0:46:05 > 0:46:08to send back any cargo with the Mayflower.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12They desperately needed to find something
0:46:12 > 0:46:14they could ship back to England to pay their debts,
0:46:14 > 0:46:18and that just wasn't available in those early years in New England.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20So there were all kinds of challenges
0:46:20 > 0:46:22which they were not well prepared for.
0:46:30 > 0:46:35Work on a massive fortification had been completed just four months when
0:46:35 > 0:46:40two new ships, also sent by Thomas Weston, appeared in the harbour.
0:46:44 > 0:46:47Their arrival would trigger the darkest crisis
0:46:47 > 0:46:49in the Pilgrims' history.
0:46:51 > 0:46:54None of the 60 new colonists were Separatists.
0:46:54 > 0:46:59They had come to set up what amounted to a rival trading post
0:46:59 > 0:47:02at Wessagusset, 30 miles up the coast.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06They were not there for religious reasons,
0:47:06 > 0:47:10they did not have a social cohesion, they did not have family structures,
0:47:10 > 0:47:12they were there for financial reasons,
0:47:12 > 0:47:15and it was a collection of young men.
0:47:15 > 0:47:19And things very, very quickly start deteriorating there.
0:47:21 > 0:47:23In March 1623,
0:47:23 > 0:47:26news reached Plymouth that the settlement
0:47:26 > 0:47:30was in the gravest danger from a region-wide conspiracy,
0:47:30 > 0:47:34whose aim was to eradicate all English settlements in New England.
0:47:37 > 0:47:42Mr Weston's colony had by their evil and debauched courage
0:47:42 > 0:47:44so exasperated the Indians among them,
0:47:44 > 0:47:47as they plotted their overthrow.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51And because they knew not how to affect it
0:47:51 > 0:47:54but fear we would revenge it upon them...
0:47:54 > 0:47:56they secretly instigated other peoples
0:47:56 > 0:47:58to conspire against us also...
0:47:59 > 0:48:01..thinking to assault us
0:48:01 > 0:48:03with their force at home.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08But their treachery was discovered unto us,
0:48:08 > 0:48:13and we went to rescue the lives of our countrymen and take vengeance on
0:48:13 > 0:48:15them for their villainy.
0:48:16 > 0:48:21The veterans of the Thirty Years' War were brutes, hammerers...
0:48:23 > 0:48:28..and they went up there, a young Indian boy, they hung,
0:48:28 > 0:48:31and then the rest they stabbed to death,
0:48:31 > 0:48:33and cut off one of their heads,
0:48:33 > 0:48:37and brought it back and put it on a pole in the middle of Plymouth.
0:48:43 > 0:48:45Five months later,
0:48:45 > 0:48:49William Bradford married a recently arrived 32-year-old widow
0:48:49 > 0:48:54named Alice Southworth in a ceremony attended by the entire community.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59The Pilgrims usually shunned decoration, ornamentation.
0:48:59 > 0:49:03But when Bradford gets married,
0:49:03 > 0:49:06people notice one piece of ornament.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09A piece of linen soaked in Wituwamat's blood.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13Visitors to Plymouth commented upon it.
0:49:22 > 0:49:26In 1627, the Pilgrims faced a new problem.
0:49:26 > 0:49:31Their investors in London, convinced of the colony would never
0:49:31 > 0:49:35show a profit, cut their losses and wound up their partnership.
0:49:35 > 0:49:41Most of the massive debt left behind was assumed by eight of the colony's
0:49:41 > 0:49:43most stalwart members.
0:49:43 > 0:49:48But salvation was at hand in the surprising form of the beaver trade.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53The demand for beaver skins arose entirely from
0:49:53 > 0:49:55the demand for beaver hats.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58The price rocketed up because
0:49:58 > 0:50:02England found itself at war with France and Spain.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05And beaver fur became more scarce in Europe
0:50:05 > 0:50:07and so the price went up dramatically.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13So, everything came together in 1627 and 1628.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16Price had gone up, Pilgrims had found the furs.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18The opportunity presented itself
0:50:18 > 0:50:21and back came beaver skins in their thousands.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27Investors in London saw that if you took this business model
0:50:27 > 0:50:30the Pilgrims had developed, then you might be able to build
0:50:30 > 0:50:33a much, much bigger colony with not hundreds of colonists
0:50:33 > 0:50:35but thousands of colonists.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39And so they took the Plymouth Colony prototype and they turned it into
0:50:39 > 0:50:41something far, far bigger on a far bigger scale.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46In the spring of 1630,
0:50:46 > 0:50:49the first of a massive fleet of 18 ships
0:50:49 > 0:50:51left England for a bay
0:50:51 > 0:50:5440 miles north of New Plymouth,
0:50:54 > 0:50:56bringing 1,000 well-supplied
0:50:56 > 0:50:58Puritan immigrants.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02They named the bay Boston.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08All through the summer, the great ships continued to arrive.
0:51:10 > 0:51:12By mid-September,
0:51:12 > 0:51:17the new settlement already had a population of nearly 1,000,
0:51:17 > 0:51:21three times larger in ten weeks than the tiny community Plymouth had
0:51:21 > 0:51:24gathered to itself in ten years.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28Those are just small beginnings.
0:51:30 > 0:51:33Greater things have been produced by his hand
0:51:33 > 0:51:35that made all things of nothing.
0:51:36 > 0:51:39And gives being to all things that are.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46And as one small candle may light a thousand,
0:51:46 > 0:51:49so the light here kindled hath shone to many...
0:51:52 > 0:51:54..yea, in some sort,
0:51:54 > 0:51:56to our whole nation.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02Let the glorious name of Jehovah...
0:52:03 > 0:52:05..have all the praise.
0:52:15 > 0:52:20Well, in some ways, of course, it is a success story,
0:52:20 > 0:52:24because, completely against the odds, they survived.
0:52:24 > 0:52:26They put down roots.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30They established a colony.
0:52:30 > 0:52:33So, in that sense, it was a success.
0:52:36 > 0:52:41The sense in which it is poignantly not a success is, I think,
0:52:41 > 0:52:45for Bradford, the sense that the community he had hoped for
0:52:45 > 0:52:49didn't materialise in the sweet way that he had hoped it would.
0:52:52 > 0:52:57In 1630, not long after the founding of the colony at Boston,
0:52:57 > 0:52:59William Bradford, 40 now,
0:52:59 > 0:53:02and beginning his tenth year as governor,
0:53:02 > 0:53:06sat down to write a history of Plymouth Plantation,
0:53:06 > 0:53:10sensing, perhaps, from the moment the new settlement began,
0:53:10 > 0:53:14how dramatically his own community would be transformed,
0:53:14 > 0:53:18and determined to leave an account of who his people were,
0:53:18 > 0:53:21and what had happened to them, and why they mattered.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27As an historian writing for posterity,
0:53:27 > 0:53:30he can tell the story and preserve the meaning
0:53:30 > 0:53:35of their vision and their implantation...
0:53:36 > 0:53:39..even as that vision is being dissipated
0:53:39 > 0:53:42and not being held by others.
0:53:42 > 0:53:45And this is a great despair for Bradford,
0:53:45 > 0:53:47that they've gone through all of this hell
0:53:47 > 0:53:51to create this wonderful, exceptional community of saints,
0:53:51 > 0:53:53but it doesn't happen.
0:53:53 > 0:53:55It just fragments and blows apart.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59Instead of his little congregation of saints,
0:53:59 > 0:54:02he has his best friend moving off, forming other towns,
0:54:02 > 0:54:05leaving the Mother Church.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11Oh, poor Plymouth.
0:54:13 > 0:54:14How does thou moan.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19My children all from thee are gone.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23And left thou art in widow state.
0:54:26 > 0:54:28Poor, helpless...
0:54:29 > 0:54:33..sad and desolate.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40At the end of his life,
0:54:40 > 0:54:45in what to me is especially moving,
0:54:45 > 0:54:47he turned to Hebrew.
0:54:47 > 0:54:49He learned Hebrew.
0:54:51 > 0:54:57He thought he'd get closer to God in conversation with the sacred script.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01Anything to deepen his understanding of what was happening.
0:55:07 > 0:55:08Though I am grown aged...
0:55:10 > 0:55:14..I've had a longing desire to see with mine own eyes
0:55:14 > 0:55:19something of that most ancient language and holy tongue...
0:55:22 > 0:55:26..in which the law and oracles of God were writ.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32My aim and desire is to see
0:55:32 > 0:55:36how the words and phrases lie in the holy text.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41And to discern somewhat of the same...
0:55:44 > 0:55:46..for my own content.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01HE SPEAKS HEBREW
0:56:18 > 0:56:22William Bradford died on May 9th 1657,
0:56:22 > 0:56:26having served as governor for 31 of the 37 years
0:56:26 > 0:56:29he had lived in the New World.
0:56:30 > 0:56:32He was 67 years old.
0:56:35 > 0:56:37In the years to come,
0:56:37 > 0:56:40the world his people had come to in search of a new Jerusalem would be
0:56:40 > 0:56:42transformed utterly,
0:56:42 > 0:56:46and the Pilgrim experience itself could easily have been forgotten.
0:56:49 > 0:56:51Bradford's book was lost.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56It was taken by the British during the Revolutionary War.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59And people tried to recover it, people tried to find it,
0:56:59 > 0:57:01people tried to trace it.
0:57:01 > 0:57:05And nobody knew what had happened to their history,
0:57:05 > 0:57:10their great gospel of the founding of the nation.
0:57:11 > 0:57:17All hope of the book's recovery had been lost when, in 1855, a scholar
0:57:17 > 0:57:21browsing in a book store in Boston chanced upon a recently published
0:57:21 > 0:57:25English history of the Anglican Church in America,
0:57:25 > 0:57:28and his eye fell upon an unmistakable quotation
0:57:28 > 0:57:31from the missing Bradford journal.
0:57:31 > 0:57:34Excited enquiries revealed that the long-lost manuscript
0:57:34 > 0:57:38had somehow found its way, no-one knew how,
0:57:38 > 0:57:42into the library of the Bishop of London at Fulham Palace.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46And eventually they petitioned to bring the book back to America.
0:57:46 > 0:57:48That petition was granted.
0:57:48 > 0:57:55And when the text itself returned, it was a scriptural event.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59So it was another kind of plantation.
0:57:59 > 0:58:05It was re-implanting that first history back in its home,
0:58:05 > 0:58:07and nationalising that story.
0:58:09 > 0:58:12The Pilgrims' story was complete.
0:58:12 > 0:58:17The journey was over, and the Pilgrims themselves, 250 years on,
0:58:17 > 0:58:19had prevailed.
0:58:20 > 0:58:24Somewhere, William Bradford might have smiled.
0:58:25 > 0:58:29But then a place did God provide
0:58:29 > 0:58:34in wilderness, and did them guide onto the American shore...
0:58:36 > 0:58:38..where they made way for many more.
0:58:41 > 0:58:44They broke the ice themselves alone...
0:58:46 > 0:58:48..and so became a stepping stone...
0:58:49 > 0:58:52..for all others who, in like case...
0:58:54 > 0:58:57..are glad to find a resting place.