Puritans and Pilgrims Crossing to the American Continent

English translation

AI-assisted English translation. The Japanese original remains authoritative.

AI-assisted English translation. The Japanese original remains authoritative.

Originally published: 2025-10-18

This material was published on the Japanese website. Dates and notices in the text reflect the original publication.

Puritans and Pilgrims Crossing to the American Continent

Research Note 1

Author: 河合洋人

1. The Mayflower Lands at Cape Cod

In November 1620, the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth, Mass., carrying 102 people from Britain. Those aboard consisted principally of Puritan graduates of Oxford and Cambridge universities and farmers who were Pilgrim Christians of a “pilgrimage” character. Later called collectively the “Pilgrim Fathers,” these were a mixed group whose origins differed greatly even within the status system. The British Empire of the time consolidated that class system through the Church of England and appeared to use religion for political purposes. Believers from lower ranks therefore called themselves Puritan, criticized the national church and often held university symposia, inviting Queen Elizabeth to listen as they developed their claims. These activities instead worsened their position and ultimately led to expulsion.

Unable in the end to live in Britain, the Puritan persuaded the similarly discriminated-against Pilgrim to leave with them. Seeking an ideal new land, they went to the Netherlands, but after being rejected there too, had no choice but to head for the undeveloped American continent. By then Queen Elizabeth had died and James I was king. They set sail, even obtaining a royal charter, for Jamestown—“the town of James I”—on the Atlantic coast of what is now Virginia in the American South. Research thus reveals their delicate position: although rebelling against the establishment, they still had to obtain imperial authorization. To put it somewhat bluntly, this was a compromise. They judged that the seeds of Puritanism could be sown in Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia, where English settlement had already succeeded.

They departed the port of the City of Plymouth in Britain in September 1620. Seasonal winds carried the Mayflower off course, however, and after a sixty-five-day voyage they arrived at Cape Cod, far north of Jamestown. Examining the location, one finds conditions comparable to Hokkaido: it was cold, with light snow falling. Food was exhausted, and many people were utterly worn out by the long voyage. Believing that the Mayflower, without mechanical power, could not reach the original destination of Jamestown before the year's end, they abandoned the move and attempted to winter where they were.

The winter after arrival brought suffering akin to shipwrecked people barely escaping death, and nearly half died. This is recorded in the diary Of Plymouth Plantation(1856), written by their leader William Bradford (1590–1657). He also describes cooperation and disturbances involving the Indigenous inhabitants.

2. Pilgrim Fathers

“Pilgrim” means one on a pilgrimage; the collective name is rendered in Japanese as “pilgrim forefathers.” At the time, a new wind of democracy was beginning to stir in England. The movement criticizing and seeking reform of the Catholic Church, originating in the sixteenth-century Reformation, likewise demanded change in the Church of England. The group seeking governance through a religion more closely aligned with doctrinal principles and more thoroughly purified was the Puritan. For them, the religious reforms under Elizabeth I were insufficient. The English Reformation was motivated less by reform of the content of faith than by conflict involving the Pope and the churches and monasteries under his authority. Thus, although worship and articles of faith were said to have changed from Catholic to Protestant, the actual church system inherited the Catholic episcopal structure. From the 1570s, therefore, the greatest disagreement between the English government and the Puritan concerned the desirable form of church government.

Although regarded as a Protestant church, the Church of England retained an episcopal system governed by clergy who inherited Catholic tradition. The Puritan, by contrast, wanted presbyterian government by people elected from ministers and ordinary believers, as in other Reformed churches. Oxford and Cambridge admitted the sons of royalty and aristocrats along with highly able commoners, who studied in the same classes. Exchanging views freely across differences of status led them to question the religious domination of the established Church of England. They actively sought to change the existing relationship between politics and religion, including inviting Queen Elizabeth I to the universities to provide occasions for exchanging views. After her death and the accession of James I, however, their domestic position worsened (1). The king considered himself the state's supreme ruler on the basis of the divine right of kings. James I had also received a Catholic education from childhood and was a catholic believer to the core. He consequently accepted little of the Puritan position. They divided into Presbyterians who aimed to reform the established church from within and Separatists determined to break with it. The Puritan aboard the Mayflower were Separatists. Regarded by the government as a radical group even among the Puritan, they were closely watched and severely persecuted.

The Separatists, meanwhile, believed James I identified religion with politics and used religion to rule his subjects. They considered reform difficult within a harshly repressive England, and sought abroad a land where they could practice Christianity as a principled, pure faith. After temporarily migrating to Nederland and soon being rejected, they heard of the success of the Colony of Virginia. Deciding that the American continent suited their ideals, they resolved to migrate. Religious independence was their goal, but they naturally considered stable food production necessary to support life. Many ordinary townspeople and farmers likewise opposed England's political system and the Church of England, and many sympathized with the Separatists and became believers. From among them, workers were selected to undertake farming in the new land and accompany the emigrant ship.

They spent the winter aboard the Mayflower. About half died of malnutrition and illness by the following April (1). In these harsh circumstances, the land where they had arrived was inhabited by the Wampanoag. One of them, Squanto, had been to England and knew English. With this good fortune, they received corn seed, food and supplies from the Wampanoag. When they harvested crops the following year, they invited the Indigenous people to a feast. This is said to be the origin of today's Thanksgiving.

3. Jamestown

Before Elizabeth I, England lost Calais in the Italian Wars under Mary I, losing all its territory on the European continent. The succeeding queen ended the Italian Wars by a peace settlement in 1559, soon after her accession, and thereafter turned territorial ambitions toward new lands.

Jamestown began in 1607 when England's Virginia company received a charter from King James I, sent three ships to the American continent and landed 105 people to establish a settlement. Yet it can hardly be called a smooth success. Although the first settlers were welcomed by the local Indigenous people and given food, only thirty-eight were alive when a support party arrived from England the following year. They are said to have disliked engaging in the farming essential to settlement and consequently failed to winter adequately. Changes of leadership sometimes improved conditions temporarily, but disease and other problems prolonged the failures. The winter of 1609–1610 was particularly extreme, with some people resorting to human flesh to stave off hunger. Only sixty of five hundred settlers survived, and those survivors too were starving. On June 7 that year the colony decided to abandon Jamestown and return to England. Two days later, however, the fourth support expedition arrived, providing supplies and medical examinations and instructing them not to abandon the colony. Subsequently, successful tobacco cultivation in 1610 and other developments enabled production of profitable exports. By the 1620s, results as a stable colony were finally achieved.

4. Mayflower Compact

The Mayflower Compact is the agreement made by the Pilgrim Fathers aboard the Mayflower on November 21, 1620, just before landing on the American continent. Bad weather had made settlement at their intended Jamestown destination impossible, so they could no longer settle under James I's charter (2-1). Some passengers outside the religious group consequently argued that authority had lapsed and wished to act independently in the new land. To prevent the settlers from breaking apart, they considered it necessary to establish their own self-governing government. They drew up the Mayflower Compact on the basis of covenant theology (2-2) and mutually agreed to it aboard ship (2-3). In it they promised to establish a new colonial government in the name of the reigning English king, James I, and to provide laws, order and security. The settlers voluntarily agreed to follow the pledged rules and regulations for their survival; it is regarded as an agreement based on social-contract theory.

5. William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was their contemporary, and interesting aspects of his writing emerge when set against conditions within the British Empire at the time. While Elizabeth I lived, he wrote mainly comedies; in James I's reign, mainly tragedies. He is believed to have begun working as a playwright around 1592, publishing chiefly histories based on historical episodes and comedies. Amid plague and a dark social atmosphere in England, he also wrote poetry, allowing his poetic talent to blossom. After the tragedy 「ロミオとジュリエット」 in 1595, he successively produced comedies such as 「ヴェニスの商人」 and 「夏の夜の夢」. His style grew more complex. Following 「ジュリアス・シーザー」 in 1599, his work gradually centered on tragedy. The so-called four great tragedies of the early 1600s all focus on human conflict and portray it intensely. Comedies published during the same period likewise incorporate contradictions between people and society and the irrationality of human feeling. These comedies with dark social themes later came to be called “problem plays.” In any case, from this period Shakespeare is said to have lost his enthusiasm for the richly romantic works he had written before, focusing more on human suffering and society's irrationality (3).

Conclusion

About four hundred years ago, the United States was found and progressively settled by people seeking freedom of faith. At first, the immigrants devoted much time to securing food production and crops for export in the new land. Records show their suffering from epidemic disease and hunger, yet they accomplished the great aim of putting down roots. This was the very resolve to create their own ideal society with their own hands, whatever it took. We must not ignore, however, that in the process various Indigenous peoples and existing civilizations were destroyed or displaced. I also came to feel strongly that we should recognize how the conventional question of the year in which America was “discovered” is told from Western countries' perspective.

Notes

(1) Plymouth was rich in nuts, wild birds and seafood, and they boiled lobster and cod for food. Yet a lack of fresh vegetables caused scurvy to spread. (大西, 50)

(2-1) Although their original destination was the Colony of Virginia, they are said to have aimed near the mouth of what is now called the Hadson River in the source, some distance from its center, Jamestown. This was because Jamestown was under the Church of England's control and they feared attack or persecution. (大西, 30)

(2-2) The Mayflower Compact reads: “IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, …” This suggests that their agreement was based on a command of the English king, favored by the grace of the God they believed in.

(2-3) The agreement was made not by all 104 people aboard the Mayflower, but only by forty-one believers called “Saints.” Others aboard included workers who were also believers, called “Pilgrim”; merchants and workers responding to a trading company's call, called “Strangers”; and servants.

(3) 大西 takes works by William Shakespeare as examples, arguing that their characters also allow us to imagine the corruption of clergy belonging to the Church of England. For example, Sir Oliver Martext in “As You Like It” is to marry a questionable woman at the denouement. Friar Laurence in “Romeo and Juliet” is gentle and kind and helps the young couple, but on stage he researches a secret potion capable of moving between life and death, recalling connections with magic since the Middle Ages. (大西, 17)

(4) Today a distinction is made between the Puritans of Plymouth Plantation, called “Pilgrim,” and those of Massachusetts Bay Colony, called “Puritan” in the narrower sense. (大西, 23)

Bibliography

1. Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, 1606-1646. Ed. William T. Davis. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1908

2. 石原兵永, 「清教徒」, 山本書店, 1963

3. 佐藤順夫, 「ピルグリム・ファーザーズの足跡―the Path of the pilgrim Fathers－」, 松柏社, 1980

4. 大西直樹, 「ピルグリム・ファーザーズという神話」, 講談社, 1998

Translation note: dates, figures, spellings and historical claims follow the source and have not been independently corrected in this translation. In particular, the text gives 102 passengers at the opening and 104 in note (2-3), and spells the river “Hadson.” The duplicated note reference (1) is retained.