They Came for Freedom by Jay Milbrandt

Author:Jay Milbrandt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2017-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

A Long and Difficult Winter

DECEMBER 1620

CAPE COD

The Mayflower tacked back and forth across Cape Cod Bay. Fighting a stinging mid-December headwind, the Pilgrims wanted to make a quick passage to the natural harbor they called New Plymouth. November had passed, leaving them well behind schedule and in need of immediate winter preparation on shore. Not only did they feel pressure from the changing seasons but also from the crew. Their mounting delays left Captain Jones increasingly eager to sail the Mayflower back to England.

Jones anchored the Mayflower in the New Plymouth channel, and Standish sent a well-armed party to explore the area. Humans had clearly occupied the area in recent years—but not any longer. Everywhere they looked, they saw signs of habitation: remnants of houses, fields left fallow, and large areas cleared of brush; but no people. This was a ghost town.

The Pilgrims could not understand why anyone would desert the area. The land had natural advantages beyond the harbor. The settlement site had a freshwater stream, clearings for fields, and promising soil. While the unusual vanishing gave them pause, urgency trumped investigation.

Most agreed that this place would suffice for their settlement, but they had lived on the Mayflower long enough that few objected to any opportunity to take up permanent residence on land. Those who protested raised concerns that the adjacent forest could camouflage Indian attacks, like their skirmish on the beach. The naysayers, however, could not suggest a better location, so the decision to settle New Plymouth came rapidly.

The Pilgrims chose a spot north of the stream that sloped up a hill to where they could build a lookout and defense post. From there they could overlook the harbor and village they planned to build below. They had brought a cannon on board the Mayflower for strategic defense.

Under Governor Carver’s command, the Pilgrims quickly developed a plan for New Plymouth. They would begin by building a common house, twenty feet by twenty feet square, which they would use for meetings, defense, and communal living the first winter. Next they would fashion a street running from the stream up to the cannon platform. Adjacent to the street, they would carve out skinny plots of residential land, approximately eight feet wide by fifty feet deep.

Then they developed a plan to allocate the land. Family units but not single men would be eligible to receive land. Single men would be assigned to join a family. Family units would receive one skinny tract for each man, woman, or child in their household. Thus, large families would receive the number of tracts proportionate to the size of their household. In total, they planned for New Plymouth to eventually host nineteen homes.

The Pilgrims had endured their first month well. They had developed a plan and started their construction projects. They anticipated some casualties but had sustained few. By late December, however, the weather turned on them. The weather grew colder, and their food rations dwindled. They still had not found a regular source of fresh food and continued to survive on the dried salted food they had brought from Europe.

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