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From: "Sally Rolls Pavia" <>
Subject: The Pilgrims as People: Understanding the Plymouth Colonists
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:26:02 -0700

The Pilgrims as People:
Understanding the Plymouth Colonists
By James Baker, former Director of Research

The people we know as the Pilgrims have become so surrounded with legends
that we tend to forget that they were real people. Against great odds, they
courageously made the famous 1620 voyage and founded the first New England
colony, but they were still ordinary English men and women, not super heroes
If we really want to understand them, we must try to look behind the
legends and see them as they saw themselves.

They were English people who sought to escape the religious controversies
and economic problems of their time by emigrating to America. Many of the
Pilgrims were members of a Puritan sect known as Separatists. They believed
that membership in the Church of England violated the biblical precepts for
true Christians, and that they had to break away and form independent
congregations which were truer to divine requirements. At a time when Church
and State were one, such an act was treasonous and the Separatists had to
flee their mother country. Other Pilgrims remained loyal to the national
Church but came because of economic opportunity and a sympathy with
Puritanism as well. They all shared a fervent and pervasive Protestant faith
that touched all areas in their life.

Continue this article at:
www.plimoth.org/learn/history/colonists/PilgrimPeople.asp


Sally Rolls Pavia

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