The Pilgrims in Their Three Homes: England, Holland, America

Dr. Griffis writes most entertainingly of the Pilgrim fathers and mothers in their social life, before and after the founding of Plymouth Colony. He emphasizes more than most historians the value of the Dutch influence. Having visited England and Holland to study whatever could through light on the Pilgrims, their character, habits, and ways of life, the author has produced this splendid book. The story is told in a brief and popular style, which is intended to interest young readers, while at the same time it commands the respect of thoroughly equipped scholars and critics. It begins with the Pilgrims in their English home around Scrooby and the Robin Hood country. After a fine and valuable sketch of this English environment, the story concentrates itself on William Brewster and William Bradford, before passing on to the Amsterdam episode. No recent writer has gone to work with so much fresh material on hand or given us such minute and full details of the situation and personal life of the Pilgrim congregation. The same holds true of the account of the removal to the American continent: the inception of the plan, the reasons which led to its adoption, and the difficulties amid which it was carried out. What the Pilgrims found when they arrived, how they began their new housekeeping, the social habits they developed, their food, dress, customs, and the political society they formed is also considered. The dignity and interest of the story is fully sustained to the end, while the history is continually freshened by the new contributions the author’s personal explorations inject into it. It is especially gratifying in its brief but effective allusions to the admirable sanity which prevailed in the Plymouth Colony regarding the treatment of Quakers and witches. Read more