Sarah Crabtree, a historian at San Francisco State University, admits that she gets frustrated by the “slippage” between the Pilgrims and the Puritans. of wise institutions, of liberty, and religion." “Two thousand miles westward from the rock where their fathers landed, may now be found the sons of the Pilgrims. Writing in 1820, Daniel Webster used the Pilgrims as nostalgic symbols of Manifest Destiny, which was more of a Puritan thing: READ MORE: When Massachusetts Banned Christmasīecause the Pilgrims and the Puritans share a similar backstory, their legacies often got blurred in the minds of later generations of Americans, and not always accidentally.
We have to completely separate ourselves and have this congregational community separate from the state church.’” “The Puritans said, ‘It’s completely acceptable that this ecclesiastical structure is above us, but we’re going to operate as a congregation in this biblical way,’” says Vicki Oman, associate director of group participation and learning at the historic Plimouth Plantation. The biggest difference between the Separatists and the Puritans is that the Puritans believed they could live out the congregational way in their local churches without abandoning the larger Church of England. As an organizing principle, congregational churches are bound together by a “covenant” and make decisions democratically, including the selection of religious leaders. Sabbath worship doesn’t include sermons and preaching, but extemporaneous “testifying” by the Holy Spirit. In a congregational church, there is no prayer book, no formal creeds or belief statements, and the head of the church isn’t a Pope or the King, but Jesus Christ as revealed in the scriptures. Sometimes called non-separating Puritans, this less radical group shared a lot in common with the Separatists, particularly a form of worship and self-organization called “the congregational way.” So who, then, were the Puritans? While the Separatists believed that the only way to live according to Biblical precepts was to leave the Church of England entirely, the Puritans thought they could reform the church from within. With the help of the native Wampanoag people, the Pilgrims learned to fish and farm their new lands, resulting in the famous feast of Thanksgiving attended by natives and new arrivals in 1621.Ģ008 Proposition 8 is passed in California, banning same-sex marriage
Roughly half of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower died that first winter from starvation, exposure and disease. The Pilgrims, led by Bradford, arrived in New England in December. READ MORE: Colonists at the First Thanksgiving Were Mostly Men Because the Women Had Perished Before 1800, the Separatists who landed at Plymouth Rock were known as the “first-comers” or “forefathers.” The first usage of capital-P “Pilgrim” appeared around 1800, when a group of citizens in Plymouth proposed the creation of a Pilgrim Society to organize the annual celebration of the founding of the Plymouth Colony in 1620. “So they left that goodly and pleasant city which had been their resting place near twelve years but they knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits.”Ĭurtin points out that Bradford didn’t name his community “Pilgrims,” and wouldn’t have heard the term in his lifetime.