Life is full of hardship and trials. Some people to choose to go on while some quit. Sometimes going in the wrong direction is better than going in the right one. For the first puritans, the unexpected happened. As they were sailing from the Netherlands in 1608 because “believing that Satan had begun to sow error in Europe…. and fearing that their children were being corrupted”. (Foner P66 L5-6) They set out sailing toward Virginia on the “Mayflower” except they were blown off course “hundreds of miles to the north, on Cape Cod” where they settled and establish their “own colony of Plymouth”. (Foner P66 L10-12). The pilgrims had arrived in a new land. They had no knowledge of geography and the danger the land posed to them. However, that didn’t stop the pilgrims from making themselves at home. The pilgrim were smart people and had leadership skills. They knew how to govern themselves and established laws that made everyone equal. According to Foner (P66 L13), “the pilgrim leaders drew up the Mayflower Compact, in which the adult men going on agree to obey just and equal laws”. The mayflower was the ground work and idea of a government for the pilgrims. It was one of the key components that bind the pilgrims together. …show more content…
(Foner P66 L5-6) The pilgrims establish Plymouth “on a site of an abandoned village whose field had been cleared and were ready for cultivation” which made it a little easier for the pilgrims having to seek out new lands that were just right to grow crops. Little did the pilgrims know they had arrived “six weeks before winter without food or farm animals” and this was extremely severe for the pilgrims because “half died during the first winter” decreasing their population as well as their production and size of military personnel. (Foner P66