Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation': From the Original Manuscript. With a Report of the Proceedings Incident to t.

The man who governed Plymouth wrote its story in his own hand, and no later account has replaced it. This is the Pilgrims' history told by one who lived every year of it.

What it's about

Of Plymouth Plantation is William Bradford's history of the colony he helped found and long led, here printed from the original manuscript together with a report of the proceedings surrounding its recovery and publication. Bradford narrates the Separatists' flight to Holland, the Mayflower voyage, the landing, the devastating first winter, relations with the Native peoples, and the slow struggle of the settlement to establish itself over the following years.

Themes

The chronicle is shaped by Bradford's Puritan faith, which reads hardship, survival and setback alike as providence. It is a meditation on covenant and community, on endurance in a strange land, and on the tension between the colonists' spiritual ideals and the practical, sometimes harsh realities of building a new society. Memory and moral reckoning give the later portions a reflective, elegiac tone.

Why it still matters

This is the single most important source for the founding of Plymouth Colony and one of the earliest and finest works of American historical writing. It underlies the national story of the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving, and rewards those who go past the legend to the plain, powerful words of the man who was there.

Who it's for

Students of American colonial history, readers interested in Puritanism and early New England, and anyone who wants the founding narrative direct from its primary source. A cornerstone document, humanly told.