The Mayflower: Why Did the Pilgrims Leave Europe?

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

More than 30 million people can trace their ancestry to the 102 passengers and 30 crew aboard the Mayflower when it landed in Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts in the harsh winter of 1620. On board were men, women and children from different walks of life across England and the city of Leiden in Holland. But why did the Pilgrims leave their old lives behind in the first place, chancing it all to cross the treacherous Atlantic and settle a strange alien land?

In today's episode Don is joined by Dr Anna Scott, heritage consultant and public historian at the University of Lincoln in the UK, to learn more about this 400-year-old tale of religious persecution, financial opportunity and a Puritanical fight for freedom that helped sow the seeds of a fledgling nation.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds/All3 Media.

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Transcript

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0:28.2	Abbott. I'm political editor John Lee and I'm exploring the history of Sinn Féin and the troubles.
0:35.9	Whatever you think of them, Sinn Féin continued to be shaped
0:38.6	by their past, by the conflicts that raged in Northern Ireland, and by their transition from the
0:44.9	political wing of the IRA to a mainstream party on the cusp of power in Ireland. I've spoken to
0:50.8	key players on both sides of the Irish border, and I've asked them all, who are Sinn Féin reading?
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1:04.7	It's mid-September, 1620, in Plymouth, England.
1:09.3	The wheels of a cart rattle along the narrow cobblestone street leading down to the harbor below. Overhead, in the bay window of a weathered Elizabethan house, a woman beats a dusty blanket as screeching gulls circle the sky. It is an unremarkable autumn day, here in this seaside village. Life as usual,
1:30.3	except for the recent arrival of a weary group of travelers, religious separatists in search of refuge.
1:37.3	One of their two ships, the Speedwell, is in dire need of repair, but on this day they've made the
1:43.3	fateful decision to abandon her
1:46.0	and crowd 102 passengers and 30 crew onto the other ship, the Mayflower.
1:52.0	And so the treacherous late-season passage will commence,
1:56.0	crossing the wide Atlantic Ocean in cramped unsanitary conditions,
2:00.0	searching for freedom on the shores of a
2:03.0	strange new world. So who are these people, these separatists, these pilgrims? What have they
	...

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