William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation

II. Of Plymouth Plantation: Summary and Commentary

Bradford, William was one of the Pilgrim leaders and American colonial governor, born in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England. In 1606 he joined the Separatists, a dissident Protestant sect. Three years later, in search of freedom of worship, he went with them to Holland, where he became an apprentice to a silk manufacturer. Bradford sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, and after his arrival in America he helped found Plymouth Colony. In April 1621 he succeeded Governor John Carver as chief executive of Plymouth Colony. Except for five years, Bradford served as governor almost continuously from 1621 through 1656, having been reelected 30 times. In 1621 he negotiated a treaty with Massasoit, the chief
Bradford's text seems to have created something that would provide the foundation both for a new country and a nascent New World identity. Like the journal writers of the period, Bradford records details of early obstacles and colonial life; even more that other historians, however, Bradford develops in Of Plymouth Plantation a large sense of meaning and importance of colonial history. Creating an awareness of history while the colonists were yet engaged in the process of establishing their society gave colonial America a cultural foundation. In addition, he offers the colonists a written document ("The Mayflower Compact") as a conerstone of government, and he associates their origins with sacred rebirth, typologically interprets events as signs of connection with a higher authority, and , in the later chapters of Book II, conveys a sense of prophecy that serves to link his own historical text with the colonists'
Bradford's account reveals the necessity for self-reliance among the first Puritan settlers. We are surprised to discover how secular and pragmatic the Puritans had to be in the process of crating their spiritual New World. Among the excerpts from Of Plymouth Plantation, "The Mayflower Compact" (Book II, Chapter XI) deserves close analysis. Bradford writes that the document was "occasioned partly by the discontented and mutinous speeches that some of the strangers [non-Puritans aboard the Mayflower] amongst them had let fall from them in the ship." Putting their first agreement into written form was an act of major significance for the Puritans--who believed in the Bible's literal truth and authority. Written words, from the beginning of American culture, carry the associative power of God's word. The writing of "The Mayflower Compact" has significance for the Puritans' need for divine authority. From the point of landing in the New World, the Puritans were already setting into motion the necessity of inventing for themselves solutions to material concerns that the Bible does not address. In "The Mayflower Compact," we see them trying to create other documents that would, like the Bible of their covenant theology, possess the power to compel respect and