Anna Scott
speaker
160 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Nov 2024
Anna Scott’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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They didn't stay off the tip of Provincetown. a harbour, a natural harbour where they could moor the ship while they worked out where they were actually going to live and so they spent some time scouting that area looking for that place.
Yeah, so on the map they had, it was called Plymouth, we talked about. The two Plymouths and that was there, but it was Betuxet. And it was directly across, if you like, from where they had been moored, where Provincetown now is. And there was an area where it was easier to park the ship effectively.
I think it was really to address the risk of conflict among the passengers and probably among those leading men particularly.
Yes, and it did ultimately do that. It did go back to England, but I think much later than they'd intended.
Yeah, they couldn't do that straight away.
I think there's a lot less known about the crew than there are about the passengers. And the passengers who we know the most about are the ones who had descendants. So logically, some of the crew, they did go back, you know. But actually, the period in the six months following the landing was dire in terms of survival. So some of them will have died as well because this is when disease occurs.
set in for a lot of them.
Okay, well, I talked about John Quincy Adams a little bit and his speech that he made in 1802. And it was at this point that the Pilgrim's story which had been a story of religious significance. It was about faith and the foundation of churches where people were free to worship for themselves up to that point.
And this is when the religious story becomes used in a more political way and it becomes a civic story. And this is when America, the United States of America, is creating its own origin narratives based on the stories of the people who came there first, who were European. This obviously overlooks the significance and importance of the indigenous people who were there already.
So John Quincy Adams, his own father, John Adams, had been one of the founding fathers of that United States of America. And so he talks about the compact in this political way by linking it to the recently drafted Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. This is what he says in his speech. He gives this speech at Plymouth Ravcon for Father's Day.
One remarkable incident is the execution of that instrument of government by which they formed themselves into a body politic the day after their arrival upon the coast. This is perhaps the only instance in human history of that positive original social compact which speculative philosophers have imagined as the only legitimate source of government.
Here was a unanimous and personal assent by all the individuals of the community to the association by which they became a nation. So they're using this story to represent the origins of the new nation.
And it becomes significant even more following the Civil War because Thanksgiving is adopted nationally as a holiday. Okay.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's interesting to think about what we understand their vision for the colony was and possibly how it developed. Because there's quite significant shifts between the first generation who land there and establish the colony. And then what's happened as you get to the next generations is, and the feeling that they need to spread that next generation.
And so the core ideals of the colony and the religious practice that were held by the original leading pilgrims effectively break down over time as those other generations follow.
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's really important to think how the story is being used and why it's being used. And so you can look at that depending on who is telling the story and which bits of the story they choose to tell. One of the things that for many years, particularly in Britain,
the pilgrims have been known as the pilgrim fathers, which I've challenged by pointing out the fact that actually there were some women on that boat. You know, it seems like a basic thing. And the idea of pilgrim fathers creates as well, I think, an image in your head of elders, perhaps wise older men.
And so beyond the idea of there being women there contributing to ultimately the success of the colony, It's also, I think, important to remember that when they were fleeing England and Leiden, to some extent, they were young. So they weren't these elders, which are often represented, particularly from the American side, because they were older when they were in America.
But when they were here and when they were making decisions to leave England and Holland, they were young, they were radical. It's a lot easier to risk things, I think, for younger people sometimes. And that has got to be part of this story. William Bradford was 18 when he fled England. He was 30 when they left Holland. And he was the leader of the colony within a year.
And so he shaped that story. They were having children. They were young children. You know, that's a significant thing to think about in terms of why were they doing what they were doing and how did they manage to achieve it?
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