Saints and Strangers. George F. Willison.

Saints and Strangers
George F. Willison
New York: Time, Inc. 1945/1964.

Why read it? The author set out so separate the myths from the truth about the Pilgrims. The author found that much of what he thought he knew about the Pilgrims was wrong and learned that he did not really know much about them. The Pilgrims, Separatists from the Church of England, had emigrated to Leyden, the Netherlands, and thence sailed on the Mayflower to found Plymouth Colony in 1620. While the Leyden group held the power and were the motivating force behind the voyage, the majority of the group consisted of “strangers,” non-Pilgrims. What were the Pilgrims really like?

Some sample ideas from the book: From the Pilgrim meetinghouse the New England town meeting would grow. The Pilgrims are confused with the Puritans who settled north of them around Boston Bay. The Pilgrims didn’t live in log cabins, which appeared some years later in the settlements of the Swedes and Finns along the Delaware. The Pilgrims preferred “spirits,” particularly beer, to water to drink. Elizabethans and Pilgrims never swam or bathed. Beer drunk with every meal by everyone. Milk was reserved for babies.

Henry VIII insisted that every church have a Bible written in English for people to read themselves without benefit of clergy, leading to freedom of conscience, to independence of judgment. There were no priests, bishops or archbishops in the Bible. The Separatists’ credo: every congregation has the right to choose its own pastor and other officers; discipline its own members; and control all actions of its officers by approving or rejecting their decisions—the seeds of democracy. No description of individual Pilgrims exists except for Edward Winslow, many times governor of Plymouth who did sit for his portrait.

The Separatists enjoyed engaging in controversy. Sermons were several hours in length. Afternoon services on Sunday included a text from the Bible, brief discussion by the leader of the service and then open to discussion—but only by the men. Women had no role in the church. Myles Standish, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins were “strangers,” not “saints.” To the Separatists Christmas and Easter were “human inventions.” Without Squanto and his native skills and knowledge of the country, the Pilgrims would have perished or been forced to flee the plantation for they would have had no crops. As it was the specter of starvation was never far away.

The Quakers were at the extreme left of the Separatists, the final revulsion against a religion of sacrament and spectacle. The Separatists treated the Quakers more humanely than the Puritans who sliced off ears, branded them, flayed them, beat them senseless, burned their books and confiscated everything they owned. No education of girls; women should cook, spin, wash, sweep and bear children—often.

Quote: Wm. Bradford: “They had no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain or refresh their weather-beaten bodies….”

Quote: “It was almost as if the Fates wished to see how much the Pilgrims could endure….”