Day 5  Back to the Jenney Museum

We had to change campsites today -- to a primitive site.  No water or electric hookups?  No problem! The refrigerator will switch to gas and the camper heater and water heater run on gas, and we have a 28 gallon water tank to draw from.  And on the way out, we visit the "dump station"!

We said goodbye to our friends, Jerry and Kathy who headed back to Ephrata this morning.  It was great touring Plymouth with them and sharing meals at the campground.  Hopefully we can plan another camping trip together in the future.

Here are some of the historical displays about the pilgrims that didn't come out well in the post the other day. As Leo puts it -- the pilgrims efforts and sacrifices gave us our opportunities for spiritual liberty, religious liberty, political liberty, constitutional liberty, and economic liberty (free trade).

Enlarge the Mayflower drawing and see where the 104 passengers stayed below deck for 66 days!

William Bradford -- the 2nd governor of the Plymouth settlement.

The circumstances that forced the pilgrims to separate from the church in England.

Some of the people who didn't want to worship King James 1 as head of the Anglican Church, recognized that they needed to separate from that church.

Before they got off the boat, they realized that they needed a set of rules for self governance (not completely separate from the King of England -- yet).  But it was law made by and for the people --  the heart of democracy.

Just a few months after arriving in the new land, the pilgrims made another contract:  a peace treaty with the neighboring Wampanoag Indians.  This lasted 55 years -- longer than any treaty with the Native Americans in our history.  Gov. Winslow -- the 3rd governor of the colony became good friends with Chief Massasoit.  He even saved his life by walking a long way to minister to him when the Chief was dying of the plague.

These conclusions about socialism were made from Governor Bradford's writings.

The Jamestown colony approach

The Plymouth colony approach

The first Thanksgiving -- October, 1621.  Leo says that the pilgrims wore no buckles on their hats or their shoes -- all the coloring books in the world have it wrong!

The pilgrims and the Indians-- particularly Gov. Winslow and Chief Massasoit were friends and trusted each other.  Unfortunately, both had sons who ended up making war against each other.  And other colonies had unscrupulous people who warred against and destroyed many Native Americans and their cultures.  This plaque is where some New England Native Americans gather on Thanksgiving Day each year to commemorate, mourn, and protest these acts.

Tomorrow -- the Plimoth Patuxet Living History Museum