Bradford's History Of Plymouth Plantation 1606-1646

by William Bradford

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Historical

460 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1908

About the author

William Bradford was an English leader of the settlers of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, and was elected thirty times to be the Governor after John Carver died. The manuscript of his journal (1620–1647), Of Plymouth Plantation, was not published until 1856. Bradford is credited as the first to proclaim what popular American culture now views as the first Thanksgiving.

Reviews

[Steve Rochford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is history in the raw. Hardships, military actions, political goings on, merchant dealings. It is a long way from construction paper hand turkeys and cardboard blunderbusses. I admire these people, and I envy the challenge of settling an unknown land. In today's age, it seems this challenge is long gone.

When you read this book you read about people that were up to the challenge and people that were not. You can only help to ask yourself: "Are you?"

Documented in gritty detail are the underhanded dealings with people of every caste and faction. No race, civilization, or settlement is without it's bad apples. This wild frontier is ripe with opportunists, and some of them play very very dirty. People said often when I was growing up, when mentioning crime in America "things didn't used to be this way!", to which I wholeheartedly disagree. Humans can be rotten in 1620 as much as they can be in 2011.

But, people can be good too, and there are some great stories to be had in this historical document as well. The first winter was evidence of that. 1620. Tired, sickly, and weak from a journey across the Atlantic. With half their intended number, and well into December, those that had their strength still would provide for the sick and nurse them through every day.

Or what about Squanto, the Native American who would be captured and sold in to slavery in Spain, to be rescued by monks. He would find passage back to America, encounter and befriend these settlers in Plymouth, and teach them what he could to help them plant successful crops and guide them in their first years on this foreign soil.

These are the writings from inside the colony itself, so great pains are made, for the reputation of these settlers (which was under constant attack by liars and slanderers who would hope to gain a foothold and some power and wealth as a result within the colony), and for any legal evidence, to document the dealings with the merchants and partners back in England that financed this voyage. They would have to pay off every shilling of debt amongst them, and the attempts by some to exploit distance and travel time to gain benefit would complicate this to great effect.

I very much enjoyed reading this book. It has both answered and spawned in my mind many questions. It is available for free (public domain) electronically in various locations and formats. Amazon is where I acquired it, reading alternatively on Kindle App for Blackberry, and Kindle Cloud Reader (which is newly compatible with Firefox).

[Serge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This certainly complemented my understanding of the people and events surrounding the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (very indebted to Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!). I think what I lacked most was an appreciation for the number of self-inflected wounds that the "adventurers" and the colonists visited upon themselves. The challenges of self-government arise immediately after the signing of the Mayflower Compact and every subsequent article of agreement seems a temporary solution to the long-term problems of colliding cultures ( with the Pequots, The Penobscot and the Narragansett). Rivalries among leaders, grievances over poor business deals, a self-interested Squanto and even tales of drunkenness and murder make this an unlikely captivating look at life in the United Colonies of New England. John Bradford and John Winthrop stand out as sober and diligent administrators when compared to the host of shills and opportunists who negotiate poor contracts on behalf of the religious refugees from Leyden. Happy to be reading this with my AP US History students

[Steven Yoder · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Bradford had finished this history of Plymouth Plantation by 1650 but it was not published until 1856. It had been discovered piecemeal over the years and put together. Some of what should have been in it was lost because a merchant was wrapping things in Bradford's correspondence. Bradford covers events every year from their time in England and Holland and their decision to go to America and the voyage to Cape Cod. Then he covers every year from 1621 to 1646. One theme is how the colony kept trying to pay off their debt and people back in England kept adding new charges. They didn't discharge their obligations until 1644. There were deaths from disease, the arrival of Squanto, the switch from socialism to capitalism (though they didn't call it that), murders and executions, clergymen who were wolves in sheep's clothing, along with Indian attacks. Bradford always brought things back to God's Providence. It was a fascinating read.

[Sierra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for my New World Narratives class. I liked the historical information that this piece was absolutely stuffed full of. It felt very accurate to real events, and I love learning from primary sources. A solid piece, 3 stars.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting to look into the lives, hardships, and blessings of the pilgrims. Great book to read right before Thanksgiving.

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

N

[Stacy Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is what you need to increase your knowledge of the founding of the U.S. it goes into detail the struggles of the pilgrims. It ends with the creation of the articles of confederation.

[Clinton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have had an interest in the Plymouth colony since discovering that I am descended from at least 5 of the Mayflower passengers. There are only 3 documents written by any of the Mayflower passengers and two of them are best described as marketing materials, leaving Bradford as the only reliable source material. My main interest in reading this was to get an original account of the trials of my ancestors.

But it was still a difficult read for me. Unlike other reviewers, I had no issues with the spelling. There were few linguistic rules back then and I found this much easier to read than Chaucer or Shakespeare. My complaint is with Bradford's writing style. This is one author that could surely have benefited from a good editor. There are run-on sentences galore. The work is divided into two books. The first is devoted to the history of the Pilgrims, the voyage of the Mayflower and the early years of the colony. This part I enjoyed. The second discusses the next 25 years or so, the bulk of which details various business disputes. If you have an interest in contract law, you may find it interesting. But even this retired CPA found it tedious, despite a long discussion of sex offenses tucked away in the middle.

As a historical document, this rates 5 stars, but the writing quality is only 2. I highly recommend that you become familiar with the history of the Pilgrims, including their experiences in England and Holland, before tackling this work. Bradford writes assuming that the reader is already familiar with the history. I would have been hopelessly lost if I had not just finished a general history of the Pilgrims. I recommend Bunker's "Making Haste from Babylon." It covers the politics, economic, social and religious issues that drove the Pilgrims from England to a desolate wilderness.

[William S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never would have read this book without having made a New Year's promise to read more classics, and that would have been my loss. Governor Bradford writes clearly, and on occasion with eloquence. His survival tactics for the beleaguered colony are praiseworthy, pursued as he was not only by disease and the elements and potentially hostile natives, but by grasping investors. One can see why the peace was kept with native Wampanoags throughout his lifetime, and only became unsustainable after he died, in the colonial holocaust of King Philip's War. It is interesting to note that over 30 years in office as Governor and Chief Magistrate he presided over two witchcraft trials - and both resulted in acquittals. The story of the nearly accidental population of Connecticut (due to Indian diseases, there was a population vacuum) is interesting - and the town they had founded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Newtown, then became Cambridge with Puritan settlement. All in all this is full of interest. The original document is kept at the State House in Boston, having been returned by Great Britain after more than a century there, where it had been "liberated" by British soldiers during the Revolution. It is kept under lock and key, but a copy is on view, and is well worth viewing. This is, after all, where democracy on thie continent began. Highly recommended.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fascinating to read this account of the Pilgrims' founding of Plymouth Colony, written by their long time governor William Bradford. After reading some histories of Plymouth Colony you realize that what we really know boils down to a very small number of primary documents recorded by people with firsthand experience and this text is the pretty much the definitive source and nearly everything else is just speculation. So its interesting to read the 'real story' of what has been dramatized so much over the past 400 years. Its a bit tough to wade through in parts given the differences in use of the English language, but all in all it is a pretty lively tale. I don't recommend starting with this book, but if you are digging into the story of the Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony then this is worth a read!

[Collin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is what it's supposed to be - a sampling of the diary entires of Sir William Bradford currated for historical reference. It's a reasonable approximately hour long read for those with a decent reading speed.

I gave it 4/5 since there were some places where printed letters were light. Some letters did not exist at all, but this was a rare occurance.

I'll be also checking out the Websites www.Forgottenbooks.com to see if it's worth paying for; though I admit I wont be updating this review with my opinion on that. Whatever I write now will almost certainly not hold when you see this.

[Amber S · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was much more involved in the settling of Plymouth Plantation than I thought. I was surprised how many issues they had with people coming in and trying to cause problems amongst them. God is merciful and brought them through all their trials! It was a good book and I highly recommend it.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book at a library book sale. It is a slow read. The spelling and style is so different than I am used to reading. Glad I read it for the historical data, but not a book I will read again.

[Fred Provoncha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another one of those, how we got here books, must read..fvp

[R Jxn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This only a short intro to Bradford's notes, not his actual writings.

[Rosemary]

Difficult edition to read. Reading edition edited by Samuel Eliot Morison.

[Judi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly easy to read and includes a lot of characters from early American history. The Appendix is a list of names of everyone who came over on the Mayflower.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

As others have noted, this is a difficult edition to read. I couldn't get through more than half if it.