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Mayflower

The newly renovated replica of the historic ship was expected to make a celebratory journey home this summer, but COVID-19 had different plans.

The story of the Pilgrims’ journey 400 years ago, and the voyage of Mayflower II in 1957, are still sources of inspiration today.

Editor’s Note: We are delighted to publish another essay by Nathaniel Philbrick, author of such  outstanding books as In The Heart of the Sea and Sea of Glory.

As much as nine-tenths of the indigenous population of the Americas died in less than a generation from European pathogens.

In the summer of 1605, the French explorer Samuel de Champlain sailed along the coast of New England, looking for a likely spot to place a colony — a place more hospitable than the upper St. Lawrence River, which he had previously explored.

Strictly speaking, the high-spirited gathering was a harvest festival, not a thanksgiving.

  

The broad expanse of ocean that separated Plymouth from Mother England helped create a novel experiment in democracy that grew as the American colonies expanded.

Did the Fathers in 1620 really land on that famous slab of granite? Through the haze of myth that surround it, a profound truth may be dimly seen

Above the rush of wind and water could be heard their hymns of praise as they sprang from the shallop onto the rock, the stern-faced men in wide-brimmed pot hats, the women modestly poised between this world and the next.

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