The Women Who Came in the Mayflower | Page 4

influences would thus fall upon
their families. [Footnote: The England and Holland of the Pilgrims,

Henry M. Dexter and Morton Dexter, Boston, 1905.] On the other hand,
others were recorded as "too poor to be taxed." Until July, 1620, there
were two hundred and ninety-eight known members of this church in
Leyden with nearly three hundred more associated with them. Such
economic and social conditions gave to the women certain privileges
and pleasures in addition to the interesting events in this picturesque
city.
In The Mayflower and at Plymouth, on the other hand, the women were
thrust into a small company with widely differing tastes and
backgrounds. One of the first demands made upon them was for a
democratic spirit,--tolerance and patience, adaptability to varied natures.
The old joke that "the Pilgrim Mothers had to endure not alone their
hardships but the Pilgrim Fathers also" has been overworked. These
women would never have accepted pity as martyrs. They came to this
new country with devotion to the men of their families and, in those
days, such a call was supreme in a woman's life. They sorrowed for the
women friends who had been left behind,--the wives of Dr. Fuller,
Richard Warren, Francis Cooke and Degory Priest, who were to come
later after months of anxious waiting for a message from
New-Plymouth.
The family, not the individual, characterized the life of that community.
The father was always regarded as the "head" of the family. Evidence
of this is found when we try to trace the posterity of some of the
pioneer women from the Old Plymouth Colony Records. A child is
there recorded as "the son of Nicholas Snow," "the son of John
Winslow" or "the daughter of Thomas Cushman" with no hint that the
mothers of these children were, respectively, Constance Hopkins, Mary
Chilton and Mary Allerton, all of whom came in _The Mayflower,_
although the fathers arrived at Plymouth later on The Fortune and The
Ann.
It would be unjust to assume that these women were conscious heroines.
They wrought with courage and purpose equal to these traits in the men,
but probably none of the Pilgrims had a definite vision of the future.
With words of appreciation that are applicable to both sexes,

ex-President Charles W. Eliot has said: [Footnote: Eighteenth Annual
Dinner of Mayflower Society, Nov. 20, 1913.] "The Pilgrims did not
know the issue and they had no vision of it. They just loved liberty and
toleration and truth, and hoped for more of it, for more liberty, for a
more perfect toleration, for more truth, and they put their lives, their
labors, at the disposition of those loves without the least vision of this
republic, or of what was going to come out of their industry, their
devotion, their dangerous and exposed lives."
CHAPTER II
COMMUNAL AND FAMILY LIFE IN PLYMOUTH 1621-1623
Spring and summer came to bless them for their endurance and
unconscious heroism. Then they could appreciate the verdict of their
leaders, who chose the site of Plymouth as a "hopeful place," with
running brooks, vines of sassafras and strawberry, fruit trees, fish and
wild fowl and "clay excellent for pots and will wash like soap."
[Footnote: Mourt's Relation] So early was the spring in 1621 that on
March the third there was a thunder storm and "the birds sang in the
woods most pleasantly." On March the sixteenth, Samoset came with
Indian greeting. This visit must have been one of mixed sentiments for
the women and we can read more than the mere words in the sentence,
"We lodged him that night at Stephen Hopkins' house and watched
him." [Footnote: Mourt's Relation.] Perhaps it was in deference to the
women that the men gave Samoset a hat, a pair of stockings, shoes, a
shirt and a piece of cloth to tie about his waist. Samoset returned soon
with Squanto or Tisquantum, the only survivor of the Patuxet tribe of
Indians which had perished of a pestilence Plymouth three years before.
He shared with Hobomok the friendship of the settlers for many years
and both Indians gave excellent service. Through the influence of
Squanto the treaty was made in the spring of 1621 with Massasoit, the
first League of Nations to preserve peace in the new world.
Squanto showed the men how to plant alewives or herring as fertilizer
for the Indian corn. He taught the boys and girls how to gather clams
and mussels on the shore and to "tread eels" in the water that is still

called Eel River. He gathered wild strawberries and sassafras for the
women and they prepared a "brew" which almost equalled their ale of
old England. The friendly Indians assisted the men, as the seasons
opened, in hunting wild turkeys, ducks and an occasional deer,
welcome additions to the