The Mayflower | Saints and Strangers | 1

0:00Jenny L. Williams:Hello, American History Teller listeners. I have an exciting announcement. I'm going on tour and coming to a theater near you. This live show is a thrilling evening of history, storytelling, and music, with a full band accompanying me as we look back to explore the days that made America. And they aren't the days that you might think. Sure, everyone knows July 4th, 1776. We'll be hearing a lot about that date this year. But there are many other days that are maybe even more influential. So come out to see me live. More shows to be announced soon. So for information on tickets and upcoming dates, go to AmericanHistoryLive.com.

0:34Jenny L. Williams:That's AmericanHistoryLive.com. Come see my Days That Made America tour live on stage. Go to AmericanHistoryLive.com.

0:56Jenny L. Williams:Imagine it's October 1620. It's late at night, and you're on board the Mayflower, somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. You're the captain of the ship, and you and your crew are trying to navigate your way through a violent storm. Rain lashes your face as you cling to a rope ladder, bracing yourself as another gigantic wave batters the hull. Bring the light closer! One of your sailors, a greenhorn named Thomas, holds a swinging lantern above you. You lean down to inspect the main timber beam that runs from one side of the hull to the other. You catch your breath as you discover a large crack running down the center.

1:32Jenny L. Williams:Oh, God help us. We can't go on like this. You and Thomas climb back down the rope ladder as half a dozen members of your crew gather around you. Thomas plants his boots wide on the lurching deck, raindrops running off the brim of his hat. What do you mean, Captain, we can't go on? She won't hold. I won't risk our lives any longer. These autumn westerlies are making this voyage impossible. It's time to turn back. Crew members stir uneasily. Thomas steps closer, his eyes burning with anger and confusion. We can't turn back. We've gone too far for that, Captain. No, we must keep pushing west. Look around you.

2:08Jenny L. Williams:It's been one disaster after another ever since we set sail. Delays, sickness, and now these endless gales. Never should have agreed to sail so late in the year. But we can't turn around. The passengers will have our hides if we don't get them to America. That's if any of them are left. No, but don't you understand? If we don't do the job we were hired for and see this voyage through, we won't see a penny. The ship groans under the force of another wave, and water sloshes across the deck. Every instinct is telling you to turn back, but in the lantern light, you see the desperation in the faces of your crew.

2:43Jenny L. Williams:Oh, God bless. Very well. We'll see if the beam can be mended. Someone fetch the screw jack from the hold and we'll try to clamp it back together somehow. Quickly! Thomas rushes off with the other sailors, leaving you staring at the crack in the beam. Against your better judgment, you've bent to your crew's will. But deep in your gut, you know the truth. This storm is only the beginning of your troubles.

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4:04Mike O'Connor:Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, or early and ad-free on Audible.

4:36Jenny L. Williams:On our show, we'll take you to the events, the times, and the people that shaped America and Americans, our values, our struggles, and our dreams. We'll put you in the shoes of everyday people as history was being made, and we'll show you how the events of the times affected them, their families, and affects you now. In the fall of 1620, an aging merchant ship called the Mayflower battled fierce storms as they carried 102 passengers on a fateful voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The men, women, and children known as Pilgrims risked their lives, traveling thousands of miles to build a spiritual community where they would be free to worship without fear of persecution.

5:15Jenny L. Williams:Following a treacherous transatlantic voyage, they founded Plymouth Colony on the rocky shores of New England. And in the harrowing months that followed, the Pilgrims sought to build a strong and unified settlement, survive the harshest winter they had ever known, and make peace with the Native people who had inhabited the region for thousands of years. These events would echo down the centuries as America's founding myth, a sacred cornerstone of a national identity built around freedom, grit, and the pursuit of the American dream. But the Pilgrim's story was not only one of courage and collaboration, but a complex saga marked by intrigue, conflict, and brutal violence.

5:53Jenny L. Williams:This is Episode 1 in our four-part series, The Mayflower, Saints and Strangers.

6:02Jenny L. Williams:In 1590, William Bradford was born in the tiny farming village of Osterfield in northern England. He came from a family of relatively prosperous farmers, but his childhood was marred by the loss of nearly all of his loved ones. By the time he turned 12, his mother, father, sister, and grandfather had all died, forcing him to move in with a pair of uncles who had struggled with one failed harvest after another. These uncles hoped that Bradford would help them with their farm work, but he was soon struck by a debilitating illness that kept him bedridden for months. Lonely and faced with the reality of a harsh and uncertain world, Bradford turned to the Bible for solace.

6:41Jenny L. Williams:By the time he was well again, he had become a passionate believer. But he felt his local church in Osterfield had strayed from the purity and simplicity of the teachings of the Bible. Disenchanted, the 12-year-old Bradford soon found his way into a regular prayer meeting held three miles down the road in the village of Scrooby. There, a group met every Sunday to worship in secret under a charismatic Puritan minister named John Robinson. Robinson was part of a sect of devout Christians who had grown unhappy with the Protestant Church of England. Despite reforms, they believed the Church was still too Catholic because of its continuing emphasis on rituals and hierarchy.

7:19Jenny L. Williams:Robinson and other Christians like him became known as Puritans because of their desire to purify the Church of what they saw as corruption and excess. Looking for a more direct and intimate connection to God, they wanted to take Christianity back to its roots. They emphasized faithfulness to Scripture, rejecting any religious practices not found in the Bible. And Puritans also believed in predestination, the idea that from birth, God chose certain people, the elect, for salvation. They referred to themselves as saints. All others were sinners destined for damnation. And soon after joining the meetings led by Robinson, Bradford decided that he had found his new spiritual home.

7:59Jenny L. Williams:He was impressed by the Puritans' lack of ritual and formality compared to the mainline church he attended at Osterfield. Struggling with loneliness, he was drawn also to the strong sense of fellowship he found in Robinson's congregation. And more than anything, the prospect of a direct, personal connection to God was a powerful idea to someone who had lost nearly everyone he had ever loved. The meetings also gave Bradford a mentor and father figure in the postmaster who owned the house where the congregation met, William Brewster, who was 25 years Bradford's senior. Before becoming postmaster, Brewster had attended Cambridge University and served as an assistant to the English Secretary of State.

8:38Jenny L. Williams:He took Bradford under his wing, lending him books, tutoring him in Latin, and offering him a sense of security and belonging that Bradford had been searching for ever since the death of his parents. And like many in the congregation, Bradford also grew to love and respect Reverend John Robinson for his wisdom, sensitivity, and good judgment. He fostered a spirit of unity and resolve that would sustain them in the years ahead. Bradford later wrote, Such was the mutual love and reciprocal respect that this worthy man had to his flock and his flock to him that it might be said that he was hard to judge whether he delighted more in having such a people were they in having such a pastor.

9:15Jenny L. Williams:But as Bradford would discover, the Puritans were not a uniform group. Most Puritans believed in reforming the Church of England from within. The Scrooby congregation was part of a radical fringe who believed that the Church was so corrupt that the only way forward was to break away from it entirely. They were known as separatists. And Bradford's embrace of separatism came at a dangerous time. After King James I took the throne in 1603, he began a sweeping crackdown on separatists, ending a period of relative religious tolerance. Because the king was the head of the Church of England, defying the church meant defying the monarch and viewing the separatists not only as spiritual dissenters but as threats to his authority.

9:57Jenny L. Williams:King James launched a campaign of harassment and persecution. At a 1604 gathering of church leaders, he shouted, I shall make them conform or I will harry them out of this land, or do worse. In the years that followed, separatists risked heavy fines, jail time, or even death for holding religious gatherings. And in late 1607, the Bishop of York became aware of the separatist meetings in Scrooby. Some members of the congregation were thrown in prison. Others discovered that their houses were being watched. William Brewster lost his job as postmaster and was summoned to appear in court for being disobedient in matters of religion.

10:34Jenny L. Williams:He was fined 20 pounds, or nearly$8 ,000 in today's money. It quickly became clear that the only way for the Scrooby separatists to worship as they saw fit would be to leave England entirely. Robinson and Brewster decided to lead the congregation to Holland, then known for its religious tolerance. But under long-standing English law, there was no way to legally leave the country without an official license, and government authorities refused to grant the necessary permissions to religious dissenters. So to flee persecution, the separatists would have to escape in secret. The move was a daunting prospect for Bradford and the fellow members of the congregation, most of whom had never left northern England.

11:16Jenny L. Williams:But they felt that it was the only way to preserve their religious community. Bradford, who was now 17, saw the relocation as not just a physical move, but as one step in a lifelong spiritual journey. So despite the risks, In the fall of 1607, the group slipped away from Scrooby in secret, traveling 60 miles southeast to the port town of Boston, England. There, they bribed a captain, who told them he would take them out to the North Sea and across the English Channel. But when they arrived at the appointed time, they found a ship waiting for them, but the captain was nowhere to be found. Anxiety gripped the Separatists, wondering if they had been discovered, until the captain finally arrived late that evening and quickly loaded the passengers onto the ship.

11:59Jenny L. Williams:After years of living in fear, the Separatists sensed that freedom was almost in their grasp.

12:09Jenny L. Williams:Imagine it's a cold November night in 1607. You're a Puritan Separatist minister, and you and the men, women, and children of your congregation are huddled on board a small vessel drifting down the muddy waters of Scotia Creek in Lincolnshire, England. You've hired a sailor to take you out to the North Sea and across the English Channel to Amsterdam, where you can finally be free to worship as you wish. You step closer to the captain at the helm, a gruff, broad-shouldered man with a short black beard. Well, I thank you, captain, on behalf of all of us. Were it not for you, we might be rotting away in a jail cell by now.

12:42Jenny L. Williams:You've shown us great kindness, and may God bless you for it. The captain avoids your gaze, making you wonder if he even heard you. His jaw tightens. Without a word, he pulls on a length of rope. chains spill into the water and the boat shudders faintly under your feet. Are you dropping anchor? Aye, Reverend. But why? We've only just left port. We must go quickly. We must gain as much distance from England as we can. Again, the captain refuses to meet your gaze. A frown creases his weathered face as he stares out into the night, scanning the water for something. The tide's turning. Better to wait it out.

13:19Jenny L. Williams:I don't understand. I'm no seaman, but the tide is clearly with us now. Why wait? It's then that you hear the sound of oar splashing in unison, and a pit forms in your stomach. Dogs then bark, and lanterns light up the evening darkness. What is this? What's happening? The captain ignores you, leaning over the gunwale to hail the rowboats. The truth strikes you like a blow, and you stagger back. You've betrayed us. What about the money we've paid you? That was supposed to guarantee our safety. We were counting on your discretion. The captain finally glances your way, and then shrugs. But what can I tell you?

13:54Jenny L. Williams:The king's men paid more. You turn around to face your flock. These people trusted you with their lives, and now your chance at freedom has slipped away. All you're left with is the shame of having led them into this trap.

14:12Jenny L. Williams:Only moments after the separatists finally set sail for Holland did they realize that the captain they had hired had double-crossed them. He surrendered them to local customs officers, who quickly boarded the ship and bundled them into boats back to Boston. William Bradford later described how along the way the officers rifled and ransacked them, searching their shirts for money and searching the women further than became modesty. After stripping the separatists of their possessions, these officers marched them through town and handed them over to the king's magistrates, who packed them into jail cells.

14:44Jenny L. Williams:After spending a month in prison, most of the congregation was released on bail. By then, winter weather made a second attempt at escape impossible, so it was not until the spring of 1608 that the Separatists were ready to try again. This time, the group hired a Dutch captain to take them to Holland. They prepared to sail from the port of Grimsby, 60 miles up the coast from where they made their first escape attempt. They set off on a cold and cloudy evening that May, but the plan again quickly unraveled when the local militia arrived in the middle of the boarding process. Fearing capture, the captain set sail with only part of the group on board.

15:22Jenny L. Williams:All the women and children were left standing on the shore and were quickly arrested and carted off to jail. In the end, the authorities quietly released them, fearing potential public backlash against the imprisonment of women and children. And several months later, they made another crossing, finally reuniting with the rest of the congregation in Amsterdam. At long last, the separatists had fled England and the watchful eyes of royal authorities. But John Robinson and William Brewster confronted a new problem. They worried the congregation would splinter in the large Dutch city. Amsterdam was home to several English separatist congregations, with various ministers supporting different interpretations of scripture.

16:02Jenny L. Williams:Robinson and Brewster feared that if their own group became involved in these conflicts, they would be in danger of coming apart. So in the spring of 1609, they decided to lead their congregation to the university town of Leiden, 20 miles to the south. Once again, they would uproot themselves in the hope that they might finally find the freedom to worship on their own terms. They would soon face new challenges that would test the limits of their unity, resilience, and faith.

16:34Mike O'Connor:As Americans, we're constantly grappling with the fundamental question. Do we settle for the world as it is, or do we strive to create the world as it should be? Our answers tend to ebb and flow through the decades. But once, just after a war that nearly tore us apart, we came as close as we've come to answering it. And it's a story worth a closer look. I'm Michelle Obama, and I'm proud to announce Higher Ground's new podcast, Reconstruction, The Unfinished Promise. Guided by best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell and featuring my husband, Barack Obama, This limited series uncovers the untold stories of Reconstruction, what they mean for us today, and how our past can shape the future we choose to build.

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18:11Mike O'Connor:And that plot would make him the most infamous traitor in US history. Follow The Spy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen to the full season of The Spy Who Betrayed the American Revolution early and ad-free on Audible.

18:40Jenny L. Williams:In May 1609, the 100 men, women, and children who made up John Robinson's separatist congregation arrived in the thriving town of Leiden, the heart of the Dutch textile industry. Robinson purchased a large two-story house where he began holding twice-weekly prayer meetings. Over time, the congregation built 21 small apartments in the large garden behind this home. Lydon's canals and densely packed streets were a far cry from the rolling hills of northern England, and the separatists quickly discovered that life in Lydon was hard. As foreigners, they were forced to take low-paying factory jobs that required them to work from dawn till dusk six days a week, often alongside their children.

19:20Jenny L. Williams:But the hardships deepened their shared sense of spiritual purpose. William Bradford would later reflect fondly on their early years in Leiden, writing that their community came closer to the primitive pattern of the first churches than any other separatist congregation, describing their true piety, humble zeal, and fervent love towards God and his ways. Bradford took up lodgings in a poor neighborhood called Stink Alley and supported himself by working long hours as a weaver. When he turned 21 in 1611, he received an inheritance from his parents that he used to purchase a small house in Leiden and start his own weaving business.

19:57Jenny L. Williams:Two years later, he married a fellow separatist, an Englishwoman named Dorothy May. By then, he had become one of the leading members of Robinson's congregation. But by 1617, the separatists began to sense that Leiden was not the promised land. Although they had enjoyed religious freedom, they struggled with the grueling manual labor of the textile industry. They also worried that time was running out on the safety and peace that Holland offered. A 12-year truce between the Netherlands and Spain was about to expire, raising the threat of war. Most troubling of all was the sense that the Separatist children were losing their English identities and becoming more and more Dutch.

20:35Jenny L. Williams:Fearing for their community survival, the Separatist leaders sought out a new home where they could protect their children, preserve their English heritage, and create a godly society free from persecution. They began to consider the possibility of voyaging across the Atlantic in hopes of finding refuge in the New World. This was a bold proposition. In the early 17th century, what Europeans referred to as America or the New World was overwhelmingly native land, inhabited and governed by diverse Indian nations. The French had settlements and trading posts along the St. Lawrence River, and the Spanish had a foothold in the southwest.

21:11Jenny L. Williams:But nearly every attempt to establish a viable English colony in America had failed. The only existing settlement was in Jamestown, Virginia, founded in 1607 by English soldiers and adventurers seeking gold. In the decades since, thousands of Jamestown colonists had perished from starvation, disease, and violence. The separatists had heard gruesome tales of Indian encounters, and they knew that Jamestown was still struggling to find its footing. And unlike the men who founded Jamestown, the separatists were mostly farmers and artisans with no military experience or political backing. They also planned to bring their women and children along with them.

21:50Jenny L. Williams:But despite the dangers of life in America, the Separatists firmly believed that God wanted them to go. In November 1618, Europe was on the brink of a massive religious conflict, pitting Protestants against Catholics, the beginning of what would become the Thirty Years' War. The Separatists sensed that the world was on the verge of a cataclysmic battle between good and evil, between Protestant Christianity and Catholicism. They believed that God intended them to carry the English Protestant faith to America, establishing a godly community in a land populated by heathens and French and Spanish Catholics.

22:25Jenny L. Williams:They saw their colony as a patriotic exercise as well as a religious one. And while they knew that life in America would not be easy, they trusted that their years in Leiden had prepared them for the challenges that lay ahead. So to obtain the legal right to create a new English settlement in America, the Separatists secured a patent from the Virginia Company, the London trading company that had laid claim to a large swath of America's mid-Atlantic coast. The Virginia Company had sponsored Jamestown, but its royal charter gave it rights over a much larger expanse of land, too. After weighing their options, the Separatists set their sights on the northernmost part of this territory at the mouth of the Hudson River near present-day New York.

23:04Jenny L. Williams:But they still needed to organize funding. And to that end, they sent two of their men to London to solicit potential investors for support. But soon, these agents sent news that sparked feelings of fear and doubt.