REVIEW: Of Plymouth Plantation ~ Bradford's History of the Plymouth Settlement 1608-1650

Timely reading for Thanksgiving!!!

(Original review written in May 2004 for The Old Schoolhouse magazine)

I have to tell you that I had to re-write this review after I saw the PBS "reality show" Colonial House. While watching nearly every show (out of 6 parts) with my daughters, after the narrator would make her comments I would have to say to them, "Of course, you realize that that's not what they believed...how that happened...why they did that..." Having read Of Plymouth Plantation, I was sorely disappointed in their revisionist history...even while trying to re-live it!!

One of the myths that was supported by the show is that the Pilgrims really didn't come here for freedom of religion, but for money making ventures. Apparently, the producers/"historians" hadn't gotten hands on this real, honest-to-goodness diary of someone who was there! A truly original source! Not only did the Pilgrims come to America for their religious freedom, but after having left England and spending 12 years in Holland and Leyden they wanted to protect their children from the negative peer pressure and the effects that they saw the culture having on them. Sound familiar?

This diary not only covers the reasons they came here, but what happened to them for over 40 years afterwards. These entries include such things as the trip over on the Mayflower, the settlement at New Plymouth, marriages, births, deaths, their friendships with the Indians, hardships, victories, new arrivals, disappointments, trials and triumphs...all the while giving God the glory for having provided and led.

This is an outstanding way to teach our children the truth of God's providence in the settling of our great country.

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Blessings from Ohio...Kim<><