Mayflower
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 9/22/2020
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 9/22/2020 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this hardcover at a local Savers thrift shop, for another release copy - in honor of the 400th anniversary of the historic voyage. [The COVID-19 pandemic has hampered some of the planned celebrations, but others are still going on; see the replica Mayflower and its journey from Mystic Seaport in Connecticut to Plymouth Harbor in Massachusetts here.] I've enjoyed other books by Philbrick, including Sea of Glory and Revenge of the Whale, and this is another good one.
It's a fascinating (and often heart-wrenching) look at early colonial life, from the first landings at Cape Cod and Plymouth in 1620 to the end of King Philip's War in 1676. There are haunting scenes of the first landing, where the Pilgrims encountered beaches and wooded areas but "nowhere had they found any people." That would change, of course, and the book shows those encounters from the viewpoint of the native peoples as well as of the Pilgrims. There are personal tragedies as well as community-wide ones on both sides, with some tragic misunderstandings - and some deliberately evil choices too - triggering bloody vengeance.
There are tales of great kindness, too, and of good intentions and tremendous effort towards survival. One has to wonder how things might have turned out if diplomacy had worked...
The many illustrations, maps and photographs illustrate the setting, and there are a surprising number of artifacts from those days, so one can see a picture of the actual swords or goblets used by the early Pilgrims, and some items attributed to Metacom (King Philip) himself. Fascinating!
[Also recommended: Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates, which deals with some of the same people and events but with more focus on the Puritans who came over on the ship Arabella rather than the pilgrims on the Mayflower. And for another view of the early colonists, there's Stephen Vincent Benet's history-poem Western Star.]
It's a fascinating (and often heart-wrenching) look at early colonial life, from the first landings at Cape Cod and Plymouth in 1620 to the end of King Philip's War in 1676. There are haunting scenes of the first landing, where the Pilgrims encountered beaches and wooded areas but "nowhere had they found any people." That would change, of course, and the book shows those encounters from the viewpoint of the native peoples as well as of the Pilgrims. There are personal tragedies as well as community-wide ones on both sides, with some tragic misunderstandings - and some deliberately evil choices too - triggering bloody vengeance.
There are tales of great kindness, too, and of good intentions and tremendous effort towards survival. One has to wonder how things might have turned out if diplomacy had worked...
The many illustrations, maps and photographs illustrate the setting, and there are a surprising number of artifacts from those days, so one can see a picture of the actual swords or goblets used by the early Pilgrims, and some items attributed to Metacom (King Philip) himself. Fascinating!
[Also recommended: Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates, which deals with some of the same people and events but with more focus on the Puritans who came over on the ship Arabella rather than the pilgrims on the Mayflower. And for another view of the early colonists, there's Stephen Vincent Benet's history-poem Western Star.]
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Little Free Library, Hartford Brook Rd in Deerfield, New Hampshire USA on Friday, October 2, 2020
GoryDetails at Little Free Library, Hartford Brook Rd in Deerfield, New Hampshire USA on Friday, October 2, 2020
Released 3 yrs ago (10/2/2020 UTC) at Little Free Library, Hartford Brook Rd in Deerfield, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.I left this book in the Little Free Library on this rainy day, as 2020 is the 400th anniversary of the famous voyage. Hope someone enjoys the book!
[See other recent releases in NH here.]
*** Released for the 2020 Tick Tock challenge. ***
