Turner, who teaches religious studies at George Mason University, is clear about what it means to be a pilgrim. He cites the best-known leader of the group, Governor William Bradford, who in 1630 described the departure from Leiden, alluding to Hebrews 11:13: “They knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on those things, but lift[ed] up their eyes to the heavens, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits.”
The roots of this pilgrimage go back to the 1580s, when a small group of Protestant dissenters, despairing of reform, started to separate from the Church of England. Facing severe reprisals, including hanging, some emigrated to Amsterdam in search of relative religious freedom. By 1620, several hundred had done so. Finding Holland less hospitable than they expected, a minority determined to move on to the “new” world.
The decision was not undertaken lightly. They knew the peril of the journey and the odds of dying after arrival. Yet they took heart from the now often-quoted words of their pastor, John Robinson: “The Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth out of His holy Word.”
Aiming for northern Virginia but blown off course, they dropped anchor at the northern tip of Cape Cod on November 11. The occasion prompted both thanksgiving and sober recognition of grim days ahead. “They had now no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain or refresh their weather-beaten bodies,” Bradford remembered. Six weeks later, they sighted and then settled at the mouth of an inviting harbor in present-day Plymouth.
The first winter confirmed the Pilgrims’ worst fears. They perished of cold, disease, and malnutrition. But through determination, moxie, and considerable help from the Wampanoag, the Pilgrims managed. By the end of the summer they even enjoyed a measure of bounty, and the fall brought a generous harvest. Turkey (as well as fish, eel, and venison) abounded, although there is no primary record of anything like a formal Thanksgiving meal or celebration.
In 1691 the Plymouth Colony was quietly absorbed into its Puritan neighbor, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which had been founded in 1630 at Boston. Though Plymouth never rivaled the size, wealth, power, or educational clout of Massachusetts Bay, it persisted as a sturdy outpost of faith for the settlers. Turner details the Pilgrims’ story as an instructive case study of three important long-range trends: changing conceptions of religious liberty; mostly, though not always, tragic interactions with Native Americans; and the remarkable ordinariness of the lives of extraordinary people.