William Bradford

Lizzie Cole-Greenblatt

Early Life

• Born in 1590 in the Yorkshire farming community of Austerfield, England

• Both parents died when he was young

• He stayed among his relatives, but never permanently remained anywhere

Bradford’s Discovery of the Separatist Church

• At the age of 12, he ventured to the town of Scrooby.

Visited a church service and was astonished to see the lack of ritual and fellowship. Kept coming back because was drawn to

the congregation’s fervor for reform

• At the age of 17, Bradford was a fully committed member and shared the idea of separating from the Official Chruch of England

Describing the Pilgrim’s Separatists Religious Beliefs:

• "The one side [the Reformers] laboured to have ye right worship of God & discipline of Christ established in ye church, according to ye simplicitie of ye gospell, without the mixture of mens inventions, and to have & to be ruled by ye laws of Gods word, dispensed in those offices, & by those officers of Pastors, Teachers, & Elders, &c. according to ye Scripturs. The other partie [the Church of England], though under many colours & pretences, endevored to have ye episcopall dignitie (affter ye popish maner) with their large power & jurisdiction still retained; with all those courts, cannons, & ceremonies, togeather with all such livings, revenues, & subordinate officers, with other such means as formerly upheld their antichristian greatnes, and enabled them with lordly & tyranous power to persecute ye poore servants of God."

William Bradford

• The congregation learned that the king intended to run them out of England, so they fled to the Netherlands

• The congregation moved first to Amsterdam and then to Leiden

• The church was led by John Robinson

William Bradford

• The Netherlands teetered on the brink of war with Catholic Spain

• The Dutch government, pressured by their English ally King James, harassed the refugees:

Presses printing Separatist tracts were smashed and some of the English had

rocks thrown at them.• They decided to make a new home overseas in

the new world (locating slightly north of the Virginia Colony, aiming toward the Hudson River)

William Bradford

• In the New World the Separatist Congregation could:

• be loyal subjects of King• live by English law• live with English customs• be far enough from interference in their way

of worship

William Bradford

• Bradford (age of 30) became overwhelmed with the planning government permissions, financing, ship hire and provisioning, and a potentially dangerous first stop in England.

• Not everyone could go: majority of the congregation stayed behind in

Holland with Pastor Robinson. Bradford had to leave his four year old son, John, behind as well.

“Of Plymouth Plantation”

• A journal of Bradford’s carefully preserved notes and documents of his record keeping, correspondence with financial bankers, negotiations for a patent to give legal permission for a settlement, and a swarm of details connected with what he called

“the weighty voyage.”

“Of Plymouth Plantation”

• Originally written by Bradford as “Of Plimouth Plantation”

• Bradford began its actual construction in 1640• Records not only the events of the first thirty

years but also the reactions of the colonists• Bradford apparently never made an effort to

publish the manuscript during his lifetime but did intend for it to be preserved and read by others

“Of Plymouth Plantation”

• Describing the Pilgrims' safe arrival at Cape Cod aboard the Mayflower

“Being thus arived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees &

blessed ye God of heaven, who had brought them over ye vast & furious ocean, and

delivered them from all ye periles & miseries therof, againe to set their feete on ye firme and stable earth, their proper elemente…”

William Bradford

• A lack of money for the “Saints,” as they now called themselves, was the persistent problem

• Joined forces with the “Strangers,” people unconnected to the Church but willing to pay passage to the new world

William Bradford

• One of the two ships contained a heavy leak. This left 102 passengers (including 35 children, along with young teens and pregnant women) crammed beneath the deck of the Mayflower• On the journey, the great mask

continuously broke and had to be nailed down with a giant screw

William Bradford

• Due to a shortage of supplies, the Mayflower could not continue its journey up the Hudson River and settled near present day Cape Cod

• The settlers had no permission to settle their by the Crown

• They created the “Mayflower Compact” off the coast of Cape Cod

“The Mayflower Compact”

• Created by the settlers to avoid political anarchy and mutinous outbursts from some of the colonists

• A necessity for preservation of the new colony• Outlined the “Saints,” and “Strangers,”

decision of unity• Bound them into a “civil body politic”

“The Mayflower Compact”

• “…Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and 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 one of another, covenant and combine our selves together

into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance

of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such

just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time,

as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony,

unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we

have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the eleventh of November

[New Style, November 21], 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 Dom. 1620.”

“The Mayflower Compact”

• John CarverWilliam BradfordEdward WinslowWilliam BrewsterIsaac AllertonMiles StandishJohn AldenSamuel FullerChristopher MartinWilliam Mullins

William WhiteJames ChiltonJohn Craxton

John BillingtonRichard Warren

John HowlandSteven Hopkins

Edward TillyJohn Tilly

Francis Cook

Thomas RogersThomas TinkerJohn RigdaleEdward FullerJohn TurnerFrancis EatonMoses FletcherDigery PriestThomas WilliamsGilbert Winslow

Edmond MargesonPeter BrownRichard BitteridgeRichard ClarkRichard GardinerJohn AllertonThomas EnglishEdward DotenEdward LiesterJohn GoodmanGeorge Soule

SIGNATURES-

“The Mayflower Compact”

• The original compact did not survive• Luckily, Bradford made a true and exact copy• The agreement had ramifications far beyond

the Pilgrims’ immediate necessity• Provided the basics for self-government based

on the general good, tenets which would reappear many times in the future

“The Mayflower Compact”

William Bradford

• Once settled at Plymouth, the “Starving Time” shortly followed

• Within five months half of the company died including John Carver, the first elected governor, and all but four adult women

• William Bradford was chosen to succeed Carver as governor

• He remained governor almost until his death (1657), with a total of 36 years of public service

Describing the Starving Time:

• “…But that which was most sadd & lamentable was, that in 2. or 3. moneths time halfe of their company dyed, espetialy in Jan: & February, being ye depth of winter, and wanting houses & other comforts; being infected with ye scurvie & other diseases, which this long vioage & their inacomodate condition had brought upon them; so as ther dyed some times 2. or 3. of a day…”

The First Thanksgiving

• After the Starving Time and finally a successful growing season

• The Wampanoag tribes had helped the new Plymouth Plantation by donating food storages

• William Bradford's note that, "besides waterfowl, there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many,“ gave rise to the American tradition of eating turkey at Thanksgiving.

William Bradford

• 1650- Bradford finished piecing his journal together

• 1656- Bradford resigns as governor

• 1657- Death of William Bradford(68 years of age)

Works Cited• Kelso, Dorothy Honiss. "William Bradford." Pilgrim Hall Museum .

Pilgrim Hall Museum, 18 May, 2005. Web. 18 Oct 2010. <http://www.pilgrimhall.org/bradfordwilliam.htm>.

• "Of Plymouth Plantation." Wikipedia. 2010. Web. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Plymouth_Plantation

• Webber, David Jay. "Honoring the Life of William Bradford (1590-1657)." William Bradford Web Site. Web. 18 Oct 2010. <http://www.angelfire.com/ny4/djw/williambradford.html

• "William Bradford." C-SPAN American Writers. National Cable Satellite Corporation, n.d. Web. 19 Oct 2010. <http://www.americanwriters.org/writers/bradford.asp

• "William Bradford." Mayflower History. Mayflower History, n.d. Web. 18 Oct 2010. <http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/Passengers/WilliamBradford.php>.

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