They Knew They Were Pilgrims

Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty

De: John G. Turner

Narrado por: Bob Souer

Duración: 13 h y 1 m

Resumen del Editor

An ambitious new history of the Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony, published for the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower's landing.

In 1620, separatists from the Church of England set sail across the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower. Understanding themselves as spiritual pilgrims, they left to preserve their liberty to worship God in accordance with their understanding of the Bible.

There exists, however, an alternative, more dispiriting version of their story. In it, the Pilgrims are religious zealots who persecuted dissenters and decimated the Native peoples through warfare and by stealing their land. The Pilgrims' definition of liberty was, in practice, very narrow.

Drawing on original research using underutilized sources, John G. Turner moves beyond these familiar narratives in his sweeping and authoritative new history of Plymouth Colony. Instead of depicting the Pilgrims as otherworldly saints or extraordinary sinners, he tells how a variety of English settlers and Native peoples engaged in a contest for the meaning of American liberty.

©2020 John G. Turner (P)2020 Tantor

Oh my gosh

Well. This book is.... hard for me to articulate in my reaction. The information is researched, real, and undisputable. And, like so many books of the last 1/2 century, it exposes much of the negative underbelly of the founding of this nation. On the one hand, many of those Pilgrims were my ancestors, so we're talking about "family." Also, my family has fought, bled and/or died in every conflict beginning with those Pilgrims fighting the native inhabitants, the Native Americans, up through and including the Korean War. I consider myself a true-blue American, with patriotism and loyalty to spare. It hurts my heart to know of the dark side of our revered history. On the other hand, it's reality. It's Truth. I can't take credit for the good, nor blame for the bad. I can only see the whole picture. And rather than being told in a salacious or sensationalistic way, it's the truth in simple matter-of-fact reporting. I'm blown away and terribly impressed and recommend this book to anyone who is serious about having knowledge of "the rest of the story."