Of Plymouth Plantation

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The front page of the Bradford journal

Written over a period of years by the leader of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation is the single most complete authority for the story of the Pilgrims and the early years of the Colony they founded. Written between 1620 and 1647, the journal describes the story of the Pilgrims from 1608, when they settled in the Netherlands, through the 1620 Mayflower voyage, until the year 1647. The book ends with a list, written in 1650, of Mayflower passengers.

Bradford, along with Edward Winslow and others, contributed material to George Morton, who merged everything into a book published in London in 1622, nicknamed Mourt's Relation, which was primarily a journal of the colonist's first years at Plymouth. The text of Bradford's journal is often mistakenly referred to as "History of Plymouth Plantation." It is also sometimes referred to as "William Bradford's Journal."

Bradford’s history is a blend of fact and interpretation. The Bradford journal records not only the events of the first 30 years but also the reactions of the colonists. The Bradford journal is regarded by historians as the preeminent work of 17th century America. It is Bradford’s simple yet vivid story, as told in his journal, that has made the Pilgrims the much-loved "spiritual ancestors of all Americans" (Samuel Eliot Morison).

Bradford apparently never made an effort to publish the manuscript during his lifetime. He did intend for it to be preserved and read by others, writing at the end of chapter 6:

I have been the larger in these things, and so shall crave leave in some like passages following, (though in other things I shall labour to be more contract) that their children may see with what difficulties their fathers wrestled in going through these things in their first beginnings, and how God brought them along notwithstanding all their weaknesses and infirmities. As also that some use may be made hereof in after times by others in such like weighty employments; and herewith I will end this chapter.

In the years following his death, the manuscript was referenced by several New England historians, including Bradford's nephew Nathaniel Morton who published New England's Memorial in 1669. After remaining in the hands of the Bradford family for nearly a century, the manuscript passed to the Reverend Thomas Prince who used it in his writing of Chronological History in 1736.

After Prince's death, the manuscript was left in the tower of the Old South Church of Boston. During the Revolutionary War, British troops occupied the church and the manuscript was lost for another century. In the 1850s, it was discovered in the Bishop of London's library at Fulham Palace, and was published in print in 1856. Formal proposals to return the manuscript were not successful until the 1897 initiative of the Hon. George Hoar, United States Senator from Massachusetts, supported by the Pilgrim Society, the American Antiquarian Society, and the New England Society of New York. The Bradford journal was presented to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and is on deposit in the State Library in the State House in Boston. In 1912, the Massachusetts Historical Society published a "final" authorized version of the text.

Early in the 16th century, rag-based paper replaced parchment book pages. Both parchment and rag paper are very durable. Documents from the 17th century usually outlast those written on the highly acidic 19th and 20th century wood pulp-based paper. William Bradford's manuscript journal is a vellum-bound volume measuring 11 1/2" by 7 3/4." There are 270 pages, numbered (sometimes inaccurately) by Bradford himself. The ink is slightly faded and has turned brown with age, but it is still completely legible. The pages are somewhat foxed (discolored) but otherwise the almost 400-year-old document is in remarkably good condition.

Bradford, like all writers of his time, uses a variety of spelling. A rule code for spelling was unknown then and dictionaries uncommon. Consistency in spelling was not a virtue, even important state papers might reflect regional speech. In addition, there were a number of particular customs used, as for example the f-shaped s which was used when the letter s was doubled or used initially. Bradford also uses common abbreviations such as wt for with, and yt for that.

[edit] From the journal

(Describing the Pilgrims safe arrival at Cape Cod aboard the Mayflower)

Being thus arived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees & blessed ye God of heaven, who had brought them over ye vast & furious ocean, and delivered them from all ye periles & miseries therof, againe to set their feete on ye firme and stable earth, their proper elemente. And no marvell if they were thus joyefull, seeing wise Seneca was so affected with sailing a few miles on ye coast of his owne Italy; as he affirmed, that he had rather remaine twentie years on his way by land, then pass by sea to any place in a short time; so tedious & dreadfull was ye same unto him. But hear I cannot but stay and make a pause, and stand half amased at this poore peoples presente condition; and so I thinke will the reader too, when he well considered ye same. Being thus passed ye vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as may be remembred by yt which wente before), they had now no friends to wellcome them, nor inns to entertaine or refresh their weatherbeaten bodys, no houses or much less townes to repaire too, to seeke for succoure. .. Let it also be considered what weake hopes of supply & succoure they left behinde them, yt might bear up their minds in this sade condition and trialls they were under; and they could not but be very smale. It is true, indeed, ye affections & love of their brethren at Leyden was cordiall & entire towards them, but they had little power to help them, or them selves; and how ye case stode betweene them & ye marchants at their coming away, hath already been declared. What could not sustaine them but ye spirite of God & his grace? May not & ought not the children of these fathers rightly say : Our faithers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this willdernes; but they cried unto ye Lord, and he heard their voyce, and looked on their adversitie…