Of Plimoth Plantation (Plymouth)

Today Stephanie and I went to the Plimoth Plantation Visitors Center. "Plimoth" is the spelling used by William Bradford, one of the Pilgrims, in his book Of Plimoth Plantation.  Since most of you know the basic history of the Pilgrims, I will skip the history lesson and walk you through this incredible site.

The Wanpanoag People

  The Pilgrims settled in an area belonging to the Wampanoag people (tribe).  The village of Patuxet had been wiped out due to European disease that spread among the various tribes due to exposure to European traders.  The Pilgrims and the Wampanoag had a fairly friendly, but cautious, relationship.  At the visitors center, a typical Wampanoag village has been set up.  Actual members of the tribe dress up and explain the various jobs the people at that time did to maintain a village.  These Wampanoag are dressed as they would be 400 years ago, but they explain everything in modern English.  They are not acting.  In the above pictures, the women are skewering quail and cooking it over a fire.

The Pilgrims

  The 1627 village recreation would show Plymouth as it looked seven years after the Pilgrims arrived.  This time the "interpreters" are not only dressed in 17th century clothing, they speak as if they were the actual Pilgrims.
  The homes are small and stuffy.  They would be hot in the summer and cold in the winter.  The floors are earthen.  The parents slept downstairs and children and servants slept upstairs, via a ladder to the "attic".

  There is a lot of information I am leaving out.  It is just so overwhelming to write about.  The visitors center wants to educate people about the two different cultures that lived on this land.  Equal part is given to the Wampanoag.  This is a place to dispell American mythology.  After the first sucessful harvest in 1621, the remaining Pilgrims had a harvest festival.  Massasoit, and 90 men from his tribe, joined the festivities. This gathering was noted in the journal of William Winslow, a Pilgrim.  The Pilgrims did not consider this a thanksgiving day.  Had it been one, there would have been no food, and an all day religious service.  The first mention of "thanksgiving" was for the rain they received in 1623.