The History of the Americans

By fall 1622, the new settlers sent by Thomas Weston – except those who were sick and remained in the care of the Pilgrims — left to settle in Wessagussett, twenty-two miles to the north of Plymouth at the site of today’s Weymouth.  It was in fact a great location for a settlement with one important qualification:  It was decidedly in the territory of the Massachusetts tribe, and by no means unoccupied or abandoned as Patuxet had been.  This would turn out to be a catastrophic decision, and yet it would paradoxically lead to a more durable peace for the Pilgrims at Plymouth and the tribes following Massasoit at Pokanoket.  But only after the Pilgrims made gutsy decisions and acted boldly. Along the way Squanto would die under mysterious circumstances, and a miracle of healing would change everything. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War John G. Turner, They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty Edward Winslow, Good News From New England William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation Trading Places (“I can see!”)

After some English killed one of Opechancanough’s most celebrated warriors, Nemattanew, in the belief that he had killed an English trader, the great chief Opechancanough reassured Sir George Yeardley, the governor of the English in Virginia, that “the Sky should sooner fall than Peace be broken.” This was part of Opechancanough’s extraordinarily disciplined eight year campaign to lull the overconfident English into complacency, and then ambush them. The sky would indeed fall on March 22, 1622, and the Powhatan Confederacy would kill 347 English, other Europeans, and Africans in an all-out push to eject the English from their lands. It almost succeeded. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode James Horn, A Brave and Cunning Prince: The Great Chief Opechancanough and the War for America David Price, Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation Helen C. Rountree, Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown Jamestowne Society

Opechancanough, successor to paramount chief Powhatan, deserves to be remembered as one of the great indigenous leaders in American history, on the same rank as Massasoit, King Philip, Pontiac, Logan the Orator, Joseph Brant, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Geronimo. His biography, the important prerequisite to his war on the English in 1622, is nothing less than astonishing. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode James Horn, A Brave and Cunning Prince: The Great Chief Opechancanough and the War for America Carl Bridenbaugh, Early Americans Anna Brickhouse, The Unsettlement of America: Translation, Interpretation, and the Story of Don Luis de Velasco, 1560-1945 Charlotte M. Gradie, “Spanish Jesuits in Virginia: The Mission That Failed” William R. Gerard, “The Tapehanek Dialect of Virginia,” American Anthropologist, April – June 1904.

It is the fall of 1621. After the show of force at Nemasket, the cementing of relations with Massasoit, and the three day feast we now regard as “the first Thanksgiving,” the Pilgrims confront enemies within. The Pilgrims did not yet know it, but for the next year and a half they would battle perfidy, betrayal, and enemies within who would threaten them existentially.  The perfidy would come from Thomas Weston, the same investor who changed the terms of their deal at the last minute back in London, forcing them to sell critical supplies in order to make up for Weston’s unfulfilled promises, and a new batch of settlers who would shortly arrive in Plymouth at Weston’s behest. The betrayal would come, sad to say, from Tisquantum, who would play both sides against the middle and disrupt the alliance with Massasoit just when it was most important.  Before we do any of that, though, I talk about the topic of presentism, which became a social media kerfuffle in the last week or two following an opinion piece by Professor James Sweet, the current president of the American Historical Association, and his rapid apology after a backlash. [Addendum added 12/4/2022: For a well-written and balanced recap of the Sweet controversy, including thoughts on why he provoked such a strong reaction among “very online” historians, you might read “What AHA President James Sweet Got Wrong—And Right“.] Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode James H. Sweet, “Is History History?” and appended apology. Lynn Hunt, “Against Presentism.” [Commission earned on sales through the following links] Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War John G. Turner, They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty Nick Bunker, Making Haste From Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World: A New History William Bradford and Edward Winslow (presumed), Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Edward Winslow, Good News From New England

In the spring of 1621, the Pilgrims have met Samoset and Tisquantum, and were learning from Squanto to feed themselves. This they would be able to do within one growing season, something the settlers at Jamestown took many years to accomplish. They had also signed a peace treaty with the grand sachem of the Wampanoag, Massasoit. Now they are learning that Massasoit was weaker than he postured, and that even some of his own sachems were planning to rebel, just as the Narragansetts to his west were increasing the pressure on him. From May to August 1621, the Pilgrim leaders would make decisions and take actions, all very much in the fog of pre-war, that would cement the peace with the tribes closest to them, and strengthen their ally Massasoit immeasurably. They did this without any loss of life, all while constructing their settlement, growing their own food, rebuilding their families, and worshiping their God. They concluded their miraculous year with a great three-day feast, in which they were joined by almost 100 Indian warriors. Even at that “first Thanksgiving” they might have been slaughtered at any time, but had so established themselves as measured and, it should be said, useful, that no trap was sprung, no ambush launched. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War John G. Turner, They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty William Bradford and Edmund Winslow (presumed), Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth

“Welcome, Englishmen!” The Pilgrims had had been building houses and establishing defenses for Plymouth for three months before Samoset, an Abenaki sagamore representing the Wampanoag chief Massasoit, marched boldly into town. Until that moment, they had seen a few Indians watching them, but had made no contact. Now, Massasoit had to decide whether to seek a treaty with the Englishmen, or to fight them. Along the way we reconnect with Tisquantum, and tell one of the most famous stories in early English-American history with, of course, a couple of twists. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Errata: Oops, at one point I said “ancestors” once when I meant “descendants.” You’ll figure it out… Selected references for this episode Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War John G. Turner, They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty William Bradford and Edmund Winslow (presumed), Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Jonathan Mack, A Stranger Among Saints: Stephen Hopkins, The Man Who Survived Jamestown And Saved Plymouth Caleb H. Johnson, The Mayflower and her Passengers Lynn Ceci, “Fish Fertilizer: A Native North American Practice?”, Science, April 4, 1975. The Charter of New England The Three Sisters (agriculture)

It is November 11, 1620. The Mayflower has anchored in the harbor at today’s Provincetown, Massachusetts. The passengers and crew of the Mayflower had been stuffed into the small ship for at least ten weeks, and for those who didn’t go ashore in England longer than that. They were eager to get off the ship, explore the region, and find a permanent place to settle. That would prove to be more difficult than they expected, in no small part because winter in New England was much colder than at the corresponding latitude in Europe. Nevertheless, after three dramatic expeditions along Cape Cod, they found a place to call home. Unfortunately, winter was coming, and hard. If you are looking at these show notes on the website, the credit for the featured photograph for the episode, the marker at Pilgrim Spring, belongs to listener Adam Page. Thank you! Link to more of Adam’s photos of Pilgrim Spring as it is today. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War John G. Turner, They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty William Bradford and Edmund Winslow (presumed), Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth

Who were the Pilgrims, and how was it that they settled in the Netherlands, only to sail on the Mayflower for the lower Hudson River? And having done that, what was it like on board, and how was it they ended up in New England? All will be revealed, including the story of John Howland, who narrowly escaped death on the crossing and who is today ancestor to more than two million Americans, roughly 0.6% of all of us. Errata: I obviously misspoke when I said the Mayflower II sailed in the 1590s. It was the 1950s, doh! Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation John G. Turner, They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty

This episode starts at the end of the story of the Pilgrims at Plymouth by looking at the famous “Mayflower Compact,” and how Americans have spoken and written about it for more than 200 years. Was it a “document that ranks with the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution as a seminal American text,” or merely an expediency for heading off the possibility of mutiny? Everybody from John Adams to historians writing today – and now the History of the Americans Podcast! – have debated that first grassroots American social contract. Twitter: @TheHistoryOfTh2 Facebook: The History of the Americans Podcast Selected references for this episode (If you buy any of these books, please click through the links on the episode notes on the website.) Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War George Bancroft, A History of the United States From the Discovery of the American Continent to the Present Time (Vol 1) Winston Churchill, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples: The New World Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People Paul Johnson, History of the American People Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States Alan Taylor, American Colonies: The Settling of North America Walter A. McDougall, Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History 1585-1828 Jill Lepore, These Truths: A History of the United States Louis P. Masur, The Sum of Our Dreams: A Concise History of America Wilfred M. McClay, Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story The American Yawp (Vol 1) Mark L. Sargent, “The Conservative Covenant: The Rise of the Mayflower Compact in American Myth,” The New England Quarterly, June 1988.

This year’s Independence Day “Sidebar” episode is about 18 year-old Daniel Webster’s first public speech, on the 4th of July, 1800, in front of an audience of good citizens in Hanover, New Hampshire.  The speech is interesting for a number of reasons, including that it shows how early in our history the 4th of July became the national holiday for ordinary Americans, and also that it is an early indicator that Webster would go on to become perhaps the greatest orator in American history. References for this episode Daniel Webster, “An oration, pronounced at Hanover, New-Hampshire, the 4th day of July, 1800; being the twenty-fourth anniversary of American independence.” Robert V. Remini, Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time Dierks Bentley, “Home”