Plimoth Plantation,Plymouth,MA-September 9th and 10th

Janae and Stefan were ordered to get wood

Helping Mary Winslow in her garden.

 Friday, September 9th we finally had sunshine.  After three long days of steady rain, it was nice to enjoy the outdoors.  We spent the day at the Plimoth Plantation/Mayflower in Plymouth and enjoyed it immensely.  We all learned so much.  The plantation is very well done with the Indians and Pilgrims in character the whole time.  What a way to bring history alive!  William Bradford spelled words at leisure so Plimoth was spelled many ways. This spelling was adopted for the plantation to differentiate from town of Plymouth.  We had such a great time here, that we ended up spending the night in the parking lot (not something they advertise but  let people do from time to time)and we went back in to spend more time with and say good-bye to Mary Winslow before driving to Boston.

We first started off in the Indian Village and learned that they lived in cattail thatched huts by the coast in the summer.  They had large vegetable gardens and ate mainly shellfish and fish.  Lobsters were considered poor man’s food.  The Indians only slept in their homes, the outdoors they told us were where they lived.  That is like us.  We mainly sleep in Miss Jim B and our living room is the outdoors so we could all relate.  In the winter, the Indians would move inland and live in large winter lodges.  These were made in the spring out of saplings that were set three feet into the ground and then bent over to make a roof. Large sheets of bark were used to insulate which was tied into place by bark rope.  These lodges would get so warm in the winter that the pilgrims would not want to go in.  These homes had roof rain flaps that could be adjusted with a pole.  We learned how they made the canoes.  They would burn the base of a tree and put clay up three feet from ground to keep rest of tree from burning.  The tree would fall over and they would then put it up on pegs and burn under the tree to dig out the opening for the canoe.  Stefan was shocked to learn that all boys started training to be a warrior when they were 7.  At 14, if they passed this test, they would get to be a warrior.  The test:  You would have to sit between  both grandmas who would pluck out the hair on your head one at a time.  If you didn’t flinch, you passed the test.  The headdresses were made out of porcupine hair and trimmed with painted deer fur.

Since grandpa is a wood carver, Mark and Stefan enjoyed watching the demonstration.  The craftsman made very intricate chairs with no nails and hand made tools.  It would take him a week and 1/2 to make these $4000 chairs.  The clamps were ingenious as they were made of metal elbows and inserted into holes in the table that varied in size.  They would use birch strips to adjust the height of the clamp.

We spent quite a bit of time in the Pilgrim settlement where we would go into people’s homes and ask them about their lives.  The old English was hard to understand but make the experience very realistic.  Janae had just finished reading a book that had many of the prominent Pilgrim’s names in it so she was enlightening us as we went.  We first visited Mary Winslow and she was orphaned on the Mayflower at 13 and lived with a family helping for a few years before marrying John Winslow (Edward Winslow’s younger brother).  Stefan ground the pepper for the food she was making for supper.  She shared how her mother got excommunicated from the church in England for helping bury a baby that hadn’t been baptized.  They soon left for Holland to join a different church. It was interesting to learn that only 1/3 of pilgrims were separatists but that was an insult to call them this.  They respected each other as neighbors but not all shared the separatists view point.  Other 2/3 were Christians but part of the Church of England.  However, everyone repected Brewster’s sermans which were different than in England.  In  England, all the serman’s on a given Sunday were from the same text.   Brewster, chose freely.  Church was all day on Sunday breaking only for meals.  Weddings took place by the governor on the green and then a feast.  No weddings in church.  Fort and the church were the same building.  The fort was upstairs with cannons facing out to the harbor.  All buildings looked similar and there was no differentiation on the outside between homes, barns, churches, etc..  All the homes had a little fenced in yard with their own gardens.  There was one bread oven in town for all to bake their bread. (Humiliseation) spelling? we learned was a fast that the seperatists did and then would have a feast afterwards.  Thanksgiving fell into this tradition.  However, no other holidays were celebrated.  The lineage was Calvin-Robinson-Brewster.  Brewster started his church in England while employed for the Queen in her court but was required to leave.  Children expected to take orders from elders. Janae and Stefan ordered to pick up wood and take to man’s wife, Mistress Billington.  We enjoyed visiting with her for quite awhile.  She really knew her history.  When she asked Mark, and Master,  what is your name, he replied “Israel and that his ancestors had come from Jordan. She replied that she had a friend with a Bible with pictures of the holy land and of the Jordan River but she said the Turks are there now.

Mayflower II-Very small, dark and cramped.  The passengers had to stay in complete darkness for most of the trip.  It stormed 6 out of the 9 weeks.  The women wore bodies (type of corset) and people didn’t change clothes on the trip.  Chip log-put rope out with knots in it and would count for 30 seconds with an hour glass.  Sailors would go to bathroom on the leeward side.(Sailor joked with Stefan about this).  Sailors drank out of a leather cup so wouldn’t break.  Gal downstairs told us the joke about the crane with one leg.  Shallop  had sail, 2 rudders and oars.  Had to read adult books if children and children had to sit still in the dark and not  run around for 2 months.  Most impressed with their fortitude and courage. So many hardships but they didn’t give up.  The Speedwell it turns out had been sabotaged and the captain of the ship ran off with his money because he didn’t want to be gone for a year.  Therefore, the Mayflower ended up with more people than planned and set-off later than scheduled.  Because of this, they weren’t able to get enough sellable goods in the proposed time to send back to the investors.   Since they had to send the ship back mainly empty, the investors were furious.  They therefore, sent a ship back to Plymouth with more people and no provisions.  When the Pilgrims got enough goods gathered to send back to England, it got hijacked by Pirates.