They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty

by John G. Turner

Overview

An ambitious new history of the Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony, published for the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s landing

In 1620, separatists from the Church of England set sail across the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower. Understanding themselves as spiritual pilgrims, they left to preserve their liberty to worship God in accordance with their understanding of the Bible.

There exists, however, an alternative, more dispiriting version of their story. In it, the Pilgrims are religious zealots who persecuted dissenters and decimated the Native peoples through warfare and by stealing their land. The Pilgrims’ definition of liberty was, in practice, very narrow.
 
Drawing on original research using underutilized sources, John G. Turner moves beyond these familiar narratives in his sweeping and authoritative new history of Plymouth Colony. Instead of depicting the Pilgrims as otherworldly saints or extraordinary sinners, he tells how a variety of English settlers and Native peoples engaged in a contest for the meaning of American liberty.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300252309
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	04/07/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

John G. Turner is professor of religious studies at George Mason University and the award-winning author of Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet. He lives in Burke, VA.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Notes on the Text ix

Introduction 1

1 The Lord's Free People 7

2 Leiden 27

3 Mayflower 47

4 Thanksgiving 62

5 Good News 85

6 Sacraments 105

7 The Lord of Misrule 120

8 Out of Small Beginnings 136

9 Soul Liberty 145

10 Hope 155

11 Freemen and Freedom 177

12 Salamanders 192

13 Friends 216

14 Subjection 243

15 War 270

16 Cannibals 288

17 Children of Life and Death 299

18 Bitter Cups 321

19 Taxation and Representation 338

Conclusion 362

List of Abbreviations 367

Notes 373

Index 427

Editorial Reviews

John G. Turner’s superbly detailed new history of the colony looks at what Turner calls the ‘contest for American liberty.’”—Rebecca Fraser, Times Literary Supplement

“[An] excellent new history of the colony. . . . While validating some criticisms, [Turner] asserts that the Pilgrims matter for more than their legend, and he deftly uses the history of Plymouth to explore ideas of liberty in the American colonies.”—Nathanael Blake, National Review

“What Turner achieves, in what will surely become the definitive history of the Plymouth Colony, is a double perspective. . . . He is excellent at exploring the paradoxes of Calvinist determinism . . . and deftly untangles knotty concepts such as Arminianism and the Halfway Covenant. He allows us to admire the Pilgrims’ persistence, endeavour and energy . . . while giving a clear-eyed assessment of their intolerance and occasional inhumanity.”—Richard Francis, Spectator

“They Knew They Were Pilgrims tells this story anew through an even-keeled and extensive history.”—James Panero, New Criterion

“Informative, accessible, and compelling, They Knew They Were Pilgrims is a welcome invitation to rediscover the Mayflower voyage and the founding of Plymouth Colony at a distance of four centuries.”—Daniel N. Gulotta, Christianity Today

“Turner has produced a commendable, cogent, and readable history of Plymouth colony—one that is critical of past traditions and begins the important work of decolonizing this formative narrative.”—Drew Lopenzina, Early American Literature

“[Turner’s] close attention to detail . . . distinguishes his work and makes it an important addition to the literature of colonial New England.”—Julie Anne Sweet, Journal of Church and State

Received the Christianity Today Award of Merit for the history/biography category, sponsored by Christianity Today

Finalist for The Gospel Coalition 2020 History Book Prize, sponsored by The Gospel Coalition

Shortlisted for the New England Society Book Award, sponsored by the New England Society in the City of New York

“This highly important book will become the new standard work on the Plymouth Colony.”—Thomas Kidd, author of Who Is an Evangelical?

“They Knew They were Pilgrims is a deeply-researched must-read for anyone interested in the Pilgrims and in the history of 17th-century Plymouth Colony.”—Michael P. Winship, author of Hot Protestants

“Turner takes readers deep into the complex world the Pilgrims inhabited, giving an old familiar story remarkable new life and power. The story he tells is at once entertaining, erudite, and wonderfully human.”—Margaret Bendroth, author of The Last Puritans

“Precisely crafted and far-ranging, They Knew They Were Pilgrims resets Plymouth’s significance in a rapidly evolving colonial world and deftly probes the Pilgrims’ complex relationship to liberty.”—Donna D. Curtin, Pilgrim Hall Museum

“On this 400thanniversary of Plymouth Colony, John G. Turner offers a masterful narrative that reassesses the ‘Thanksgiving Story,’ detailing a poignant yet complicated legacy that resonates in our time of social and political turmoil.”—Walter L. Powell, General Society of Mayflower Descendants

From the Publisher

03/06/2020

In December 1620, a band of pilgrims landed on the western shores of Cape Cod Bay, MA. Most of the 132 men, women, and children on board the Mayflower were English religious separatists. After more than two fraught-filled months at sea, they faced even greater, harrowing challenges in establishing Great Britain's second North American colony under their own terms. These Puritans longed for a Christian society completely purged of every vestige of Catholic doctrine regarding church government, discipline, and worship. Failing to achieve these goals under the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I, they sailed for America to create a social order of their own making. Turner (religious studies, George Mason Univ.; Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet) offers a complete and complex history of Plymouth Colony. This is a two-fold story of a courageous religious refugee community struggling to define the meaning of liberty and that of Machiavellian invaders who betrayed their Native American allies by stealing their land, warring against them, and treating them as subjects under their rule. VERDICT This history of the Pilgrim's story will be accessible to general readers and scholars alike. Using underutilized primary sources, Turner weaves a fresh history of the Plymouth Colony with an expanded cast of characters.—Glen Edward Taul, formerly with Campbellsville Univ., KY

Library Journal

2020-01-26
A professor of religious studies argues for reinstating the Plymouth Pilgrims at the forefront of the fight for "liberty of conscience" on American soil.

Usually relegated to the margins of academic history as the "smallest, weakest, and least important of the English colonies" compared to John Winthrop's Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, notes Turner, forged the first sense of American identity and mythology in terms of a participatory political framework and fierce commitment to liberty. But what did the concept of “liberty” mean to them? Separating from what they perceived as the corruption of the Church of England—from the "bondage" to "monarchs, magistrates, bishops, or synods"—they were determined to form their own congregations and elect their own officers. They were continually hounded for these desires, especially under the new king, James VI of Scotland, who ascended to the throne in 1603 and was unsympathetic to puritanism because he associated it with "limits on royal prerogatives." Moving to the Netherlands did not prove satisfactory in the long run. Wherever they went, notes Turner, the author of Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet (2012), “English separatists were disunity specialists.” Making the arduous journey across the Atlantic Ocean, however, was an act of pure faith, and their “Mayflower compact” was an attempt at establishing “a civic body politic” that did not hinge on church membership. On one hand, they were able to fashion an important defense treaty with Massasoit, which benefited both the settlers and Wampanoags and established the settlers as “the foremost military power in the region.” On the other hand, church attendance was compulsory, and the colony’s leaders banished anyone who wanted to worship by other principles, such as the Quakers. Ultimately, Turner concludes, the “Colony leaders took it for granted that some groups of people were entitled to more liberties than others.” Though rather dry, the author’s study offers original scholarship that academics will appreciate.

A sturdy history of an insular people that will appeal mostly to students of early American history.

Kirkus Reviews