Career has focused on americas relationship with the sea in a aing of notable books, from. Y offshore to abrams eyes second, comprehensive in cover not just a voyage or the first war, all of which have recently been done, but in covering the entire story, allowing us, the readers, to enjoy the true benefits of history, which is the scope, to follow consequences of actions through generations and narratives because what nat does best is to tell a story an adventure story, but in many ways, and unexpected adventure story. Look at the cover. I, of course, love it because it is our painting. The mayflower on her arrival. But what i really love is that even though the book is entitled the mayflower, this cover does not put the mayflower front and center. It does not show a ship tossed by waves. That would be the expected adventure story. Instead, it focuses on this little group of pilgrims leading a ship that has brought them through storms and peril, headed off toward shore on the verge of starting new lives, and its there in the territory of these wideopen territories that the Real Adventure story begins. An adult adventure story dealing with mature themes like the nature of leadership, the with ashment of respect widely varying culture, and then the disintegration of that respect. This, of course, is why the pilgrims are relevant. Its why they matter. Its why this book matters. Because the mayflower tells the story of people facing difficult times, people facing difficult choices without knowing how the story would end. Im very pleased to introduce our author, not philbrick, a man has oncegh his book again started the conversation about the choices that were made by those 17thcentury voices, choices that affect us even now, living in a nation and a world that those mayflower pilgrims could not even begin to imagine. Nat philbrick. [applause] mr. Philbrick thank you. It is a true pleasure to return to plymouth and particularly pilgrim hall. It has been a very interesting month and a half going around the country talking about the book, but it really does seem like a homecoming to be not only by therim hall, but painting. For me, the thing about the painting is, as it is on the doesnt that look a lot like a whaleboat with that guy up front . For me, it was a great continuity. Like a lot of americans, i first learned about the pilgrims in elementary school. I think it was third grade, and it was thanksgiving time, and it the pilgrim unit. The teacher divided us in half, half of us indians, half of us pilgrims i wanted to be an indian, but she made me a pilgrim and we learned about the story of how in 1620, the mayflower sailed across the ocean, came to cape cod and then plymouth harbor, came to the were greeted by the native americans, and a year later celebrated the first thanksgiving. That was pretty much all i would learn about the pilgrims throughout my education, not only in high school but in college. About 20 years ago, i moved to nantucket island, and i became fascinated with the place. Having grown up in the Maritime Center of the world, pittsburgh, pennsylvania, i was a little overwhelmed having all this water around, and i was also overwhelmed because one of my favorite books in the world was moby dick, and i had stepped into the pages of my favorite novel. The more i learned about it, the more i realized that if i was ever going to write a book about the history of nantucket, i had to put it in the context of new england. If i was going to do that, i had to begin with the pilgrims, that story i assumed i already knew. I began to look into 17thcentury new england, and the more i looked into the story, the more almost indignant i became because what i learned in third grade did not do justice to the complexity and the real relevance of what happened in 17thcentury new england because the story of the pilgrims does not begin with the first thanksgiving. That is just the beginning of an intergenerational story that is truly epic in scope because yes, there was the first thanksgiving, and for the next 54 years, there was a remarkable thing in Plymouth Colony there was peaceful coexistence between the indians and the english in plymouth, and given the subsequent history of america, that is truly remarkable. But in 1675, 55 years after the sailing of the main power, war came to Plymouth Colony. The the sachem of wampanoags who agree the led his peopleon in a war against the sons and grandsons of the pilgrims, known today as king philips war. It is a conflict about which Many Americans know almost nothing. For me, it is what makes the story of the pilgrims all the more relevant. In just 14 months, what had been this remarkable bicultural total saw a war of annihilation in which there were military defeats and victories, and it looked like the english might be driven to the sea during the first year of the conflict. Almost half the towns of new england were burned and abandoned. There was true fear the english would be driven to the sea, but the war became a war not of military victories and defeats, but a war of attrition. In the spring of 1676, the indians were unable to plant their corn crops. In that summer, they began to starve. The resistance collapsed, and the english, who had the mother country to provide them with provisions and weapons, were able to outlast, and then philip was taken and killed, thus ending king philips war. This was no victory for the english because for decades to come, they would be paying for this conflict. The war was by no means over for the next century. There would be indian conflict after indian conflict throughout new england. Worst of all, from the standpoint of Plymouth Colony, soon after, it would be absorbed by massachusetts bay. In the years after the war, new england, which had been remarkably independent from the mother country throughout the first halfcentury of the 17th century there would be a royal governing royal governor, and that would really end imperial europe because by fighting this war with the native americans that had stood by their side for so long, the children and grandchildren had really destroyed their forefathers way of life. When you take the ark of the story from the mayflower to king philips war, you begin to see that you know, when i was a teenager in my pinnacle teenage years in the 1960s and 1970s, i began to look at the pilgrims as irrelevant to america, as a kind of stereotype with buckles on their shoes that people trotted out for thanksgiving. This is not the case. Context,put it in those first 56 years, the story is vital to showing what america would become. American history begins in the popular view with the voyage of the mayflower, but then there really is not much until 150 years later with the american revolution, the founding fathers. Well before the founding fathers, there were things happening that would determine things happening. For whatever reason, the pilgrims had become part of the founding myth of america. We need a beginning, and i think we owe it to ourselves to honor that beginning and see it as it was rather than terms of the legends and myths that have been passed to us from another age. I would like to begin by reading reflections from my book from the first chapter. The first chapter is entitled they knew they were pilgrims, and this is a quote from william greatrd in one of the books of American History and literature. Bradford was the true rock upon which Plymouth Colony would be built. Without his leadership, the settlement would never have been a success. The pilgrims never referred to themselves as the pilgrims. This comes from a phrase bradford uses of plymouth plantation, and it is as good a term as any to refer to them, i think, given the complexity of what was beneath that label. For 65 days, the mayflower had blundered her way through storms and headwinds. Her bottom, a shaggy pelt of seaweed and barnacles, her leaky deck leaking water onto the passengers heads. There were 104 passengers if you count the two dogs. I was recently contacted by a reader who was a massive owner who said they had to bring a towel wherever they take the dog, and when she read the opening of mayflower, she felt a vital connection to the pilgrims and Plymouth Colony. Most of their provisions and equipment were beneath them in a whole, the primary storage vessel beneath them in the whohull. Between decks was more of a crawlspace than a place to live, made even more claustrophobic by the passengers attempts to provide themselves with some privacy. A series of thinwhile cabins had been built, creating a cabin creating a war and of rooms a series of thinwalled cabins had been built, creating en of rooms. They were nearly 10 weeks into a voice that was supposed to be completed during the balmy days of summer. They had started late. It was now november and winter was coming on. They had long since run out of firewood and were reaching the slimy bottoms of their water cakes. Of even greater concern, they were down to their last kegs of beer. Due to the notoriously bad quality of Drinking Water beer was considered essential to a healthy diet. Sure enough, with the rationing , bleeding gums, loosening teeth, and owl smellingbreath foul breath, in the times of scurvy. If they did not reach land soon, many more would follow. They had set sail with three pregnant mothers. These are the true heroes of the mayflower. Elizabeth had given birth to a son, appropriately named us, and susanna and mary were well along in their pregnancies. A wave exploded on the old ships topside, straining a structural timber until it cracked like a chicken bone. The mayflowers master had considered turning back to england, but jones had to give his passengers their due. They knew next to nothing about the sea or the savage coast for which they were bound, but their resolve was unshakable. Despite all they had suffered agonizing delays, seasickness, cold, and the scorn and ridicule of the sailors they had done everything in their power to help the carpenter repair the fractured dreams. They had brought the screw jack, mechanical device to lift beams for building in the new world. With its help, the mayflower was sound enough to move on, and on they would go. The motivating force behind this voyage came from a group of religious enthusiasts we refer to as puritan separatists, who hollandd in exile in for more than a decade. They believed the church of england was not a holy church, they must separate from it and worship god as they felt god intended. Unfortunately, this was illegal in england at the time, so they had gone to holland. But things did not necessarily turn out the way they wanted. They had been there 10 years. Their congregation had grown wonderfully under the guidance of their pastor, but the pilgrims were forced to work lowland, backbreaking jobs because they were foreigners, and their health was suffering. They would work literally in a dust, often with their children by their side. A treaty with spain was about to go up, and there was a fear that war may come to holland, but their biggest concern was that the children were becoming dutch. Despite the fact that they had left england, these people were usually proud of their english ancestry, and they wanted to reconnect with it, but they cannot go home. What to do . Go to the new world, transplant the congregation wholesale into america where they could reconnect with their english ancestry but be free of the meddlesome rules of king james and his bishops. Sounds like a great concept. Unfortunately, like many great concepts, it would prove very difficult to implement. The pilgrims knew each other wonderfully well, but they had trouble relating to those outside of their circle. They became the objects of them as a group of religious radicals who wanted to go 3000 miles across the to the new world. Thomas weston would be a merchant from london, who would tell them everything they wanted to hear. He had sympathy for their religious convictions, and he had the contacts to provide them the money they needed, but he proved to be less than they advertised. By the spring of 1620, he had not yet come up with a ship. The provisioning of the expedition was in chaos, and more and more people began to worry that maybe this was not the right thing to do. As more and more people dropped out they would come eventually, but not in this first run this created a problem for the investors who needed to fill up the ship. They began to recruit people in london, people who did not necessarily share the pilgrims point of view. They would become referred to as the strangers, and this created a division aboard the mayflower almost from the beginning. And this is a troublesome thing because their whole worldview is based on drawing a line between themselves and the rest of the world. Sharethey were going to space with these strangers. Just before their departure from holland, John Robinson would write them a very important letter in which he would urge them not to prejudge these strangers, to try to make it work, because the future success of the settlement depended on that. That would have a huge impact on making things eventually work. Leaveyflower would terribly late. They were supposed to go early in the season so they would arrive with plenty of time to build structures for winter came on, but it was september before the mayflower finally left england. It would be a miserable voyage. Storm after storm after storm. The mayflower would average in the neighborhood of 1. 5 miles an hour as it made its way across the atlantic. It would take more than two months, and they were headed not for new england but for the hudson river. They could have been our first new yorkers, but they were 200 miles off course, and they came across what we now refer to as the backside of cape cod. Intendedh of their destination, but there were no trustworthy charts of new england at the time. Poligrip on can tellift, which i you from experience is still a frightening piece of water. Aint going to the hudson river. We are going to cape cod. I need to get these people off my ship and get myself back to england. Now callfor what we brownstown harbor. Becauseates an uproar the strangers, who are roughly half the passengers, realized their Legal Paperwork does not apply to a settlement this far north. They realize that the passengers aboard the mayflower are about to become americas first illegal immigrants. [laughter] if this is the case, why do we follow them . Why should we go with them . They say you guys can do what you want to do. We are going to do our own thing. This might mean the end of the settlement, if they divide this early on. This is a pivotal moment. What do they do . They do a remarkable thing. They put pen to paper, and borrowing many of the words from John Robinsons farewell letter, they draft what we now refer to as the mayflower compact. Given the future course of American History, it is tempting to see the mayflower compact as the u. S. Constitution in utero, and it is not that, but it is still an extraordinary document. Both sides, what would be called saints and strangers, agree to listen to their duly elected leaders, and this is civil government. This really is the First Step Towards the ultimate success of Plymouth Colony. They arrived finally after having drafted the mayflower contract the mayflower compact, and now they have a big question what do we have before us . They know nothing about the coast upon which they have arrived. Their biggest concern is what about the native people . Whats going to happen . I would like to now read from chapter three, into the void, which begins with the other side of the story. Explanation the pilgrims would refer to them. S the pocono can we refer to them today as the wampanoag, a seam a term that seems to have been coined a couple of decades after their arrival. Thet 60 miles southwest of harbor with the most powerful native leader in the region, he was in the prime of his life, about 35, strong and imposing, with the quiet dignity that was expected of the sachem. Despite his vigor and equity, he presided over a people who had been devastated by the disease. During the three years the pilgrims had been organizing for their village to america, they hit what had been referred to as a virgin soil epidemic, a contagion against which they have no antibodies. From 1616 to 1619, what may have been bubonic plague introduced by fishermen in modern maine spread south to the Eastern Shore of narragansett bay, killing in some cases as many as 90 of the regions inhabitants. So many died so quickly there was no one left to bury the dead. England of coastal new that had once been as populous as western europe were suddenly empty of people with only the bones of the dead to indicate a Thriving Community had once existed along these shores. In addition to disease, what had been called civil dissensions erected in the region. Native groups that have been uneasy neighbors in the best of times struggle to create a new order amid the hunted vacancy of new england. Area they occupied at the head of narragansett bay had been particularly hardhit. Before the plague, they had numbered about 12,000, enabling about 3000 fighting men. Reduced to a been few hundred warriors after the plague. Just recently, mesozoic wasted by disease and now under the thumb of a powerful and proud enemy, they were in a desperate struggle to maintain their existence as a people, but the station had his allies the massachusetts to the north. Were at a decided disadvantage, but this did not prevent the station the fromon the sechem attending to use his allies. A small bird is called sachem because of its princely command over other birds that a man put tooften see them flight crows and other larger birds. What he would do is rather than look to the pilgrims, who did many things not to necessarily ingratiate themselves with the local population in those first desperate months, he would say wait a minute, perhaps in alignment with the small group of english people to provide my of parityh a kind relative to the narragansetts, and he would forge an alliance. There were other things at work. Remember squanto . What i learned about squanto, he was the generous interpreter who took the pilgrims by the hand and taught them how to plant corn. Turns out squanto had an agenda of his own from the beginning. Squanto was born right here in plymouth harbor, known as natives. To the he was adopted by an english explorer, made his way back to makee and would eventually his way to london where he learned english. As she was abducted by an english explorer. Abducted by an english explorer. At some point, he began to see this as a possible opportunity. The natives were vulnerable because of the plague, and he sought to become the next sachem. He could say what he wanted them to think the english were saying until the english what they want to think the indians were saying, and for a year, that is what he would do. It would take a year for them to realize he had been telling indians in the region that the pilgrims possessed the plague within a barrel and buried underneath one of their houses and could unleash it at will. 17thcentury weapon of mass destruction, and that he, given his relationship with the pilgrims, was the one who had the power, that the indians in the region should come to him rather than the sachem. When the level of his ambitions was revealed, the sachem indignant. He demanded literally the head of the interpreter, but bradford had become dependent on him and was reluctant to give him up. This almost brought the end of the alliance. Gradually, things would settle down, in large part because squanto would die suddenly, unexpectedly perhaps poisoned will never know a year later. Once again the relations between the two peoples were back on track, but it was not a benign embrace between two cultures. It was a harrowing, often disturbing giveandtake between two people. Arrival of after the the pilgrims, they would receive word that there was a conspiracy against Plymouth Colony, that the massachusetts just to the conspiracypart of a and would send warriors to wipe them out. It was advised they send a group up to wipe them out. Bradford decided to send his military officer, myles standish, with about half a dozen pilgrims, and standish was all for this because there was a warrior nest there that he had not liked for a long time, and they would arrive, the pilgrims would invite this warrior and some others into a house, close the door, and as they sat down to eat, standish would reach over to the warriors chest, and grabbed his knife that was suspended by a string around his neck, and stabbed him to death with it, while pilgrims on the others of the structure did the same to another indian. By the time they were done, half a dozen indians had been killed and standish and others returned to plymouth in triumph with the head of that warrior rather than a piece of white linen. The heads would be placed on the roof of the fort where they worship every sunday. A few months after this, in the summer of 1620 three, bradford ld celebrate his marriage in the summer of 1623. During that first winter, 55 of 102 would die, but in the summer of 1623, bradford was celebrating his wedding. And many of the indians were invited over. It was decided that i flag should be raised in massasoits honor a flag should be raised. Up would go that bloodsoaked piece of linen. This was not the story that i learned in third grade. [laughter] that meant in many ways that makes 50 years of peace was very different than the snapshot we would get in elementary school. It was a difficult, often harrowing time of this giveandtake, but it worked. They worked very hard in trying to get through their differences. The indians and english did not necessarily like each other. They did not necessarily understand each other, but they both realized that their mutual existence was dependent on the other. But their work pressures but there were pressures building in new gwen. The native americans had the first trade in the beginning to provide them with the means to purchase western goods. Iron hoes and guns and things like this upon which they became diff pendant became dependent. But as beavers and other animals source ofrce, their goods dried up and the only thing they had the english wanted was their land. John howard would have 88 grandchildren, so the need for land was insatiable. By the middle of the 17th changed in newad england. Had acond generation very different attitude from the first. Began to englishmen covet what land the natives still possessed. Natives were asking what good these english were to them as they had taken their birthright. Both sides began to see the other as an impediment to survival. This created a real increasing tension in the colony. And yet, when war broke out in june 1675, it was not inevitable. In fact, it struck most people of the colony native and english alike by total surprise. For one thing, philip, son of just ill and winslow, son of Edward Winslow Plymouth Colony, did not get along. Josiah winslow. Josias had distinguished himself as one of the more unscrupulous death to get vast tracts of land. When violence broke out in june loath5, both leaders were to use a diplomatic solution. As a consequence, what was an isolated outbreak of violence began to spread rapidly. There were english men, women, and children killed, their bodies mutilated. Suddenly, the english were wracked with fear and anger and began to look to all the native americans that had once been their friends as potential foes. As the war broke out, there was someone among the english who was uniquely situated. Where bradford is the focus of the first half of the book, Benjamin Church is the focus of the second half. Church lived in the compton, rhode island at the outbreak. He was the only english settler amid several hundred indians. By necessity, he had gotten to know them well, was a very good friend of the female sachem. As the war was building, he realized most of the indians in the region wanted no part of it. Some were even willing to fight on the english side, but among the english, as with the first atrocities, the hatred and anger and the rate racial nature of this became such that all indians became the enemy. Early on in the fighting, several hundred native americans gave themselves up to the authorities in modernday new bedford. They thought this is what we have to do if we want to stay out of this. Josiah winslow and other leaders of the new colony would crowd them toships and sailed where they were sold as slaves. Me that slavery was an issue in the history of Plymouth Colony, i would have been surprised, but its true. In this 76year span, you see so much of what will be issues in america in this very confined space. When church heard about this enslavement of the indians, he was outraged. He said, if we do this, this means no indian in his right mind will surrender to us. This will only prolong the war, and that is exactly what happened. Native groups throughout new england that wanted no part of the war began to say that they may be right, and the only alternative we have is to fight. It became a selffulfilling prophecy. So half the towns in new england would be burned and abandoned. In that first year, it was just a terrifying time for everyone. This is a war about which most americans know very little. If you look at the losses, its truly horrendous. In newere 70,000 people england in 1675. 50,0000,000 indians, english. 5000 would die in this war. Three quarters of those losses native americans. The english losses alone, it was twice as bloody as the american civil war, the war that most of us think of as the worst in our history. For the native americans, it was much, much worse, and thats not counting the thousand slaves sent to the caribbean and beyond during this time. The fear was such that even those indians that were clearly loyal to the english, the d withg indians, who live a series of christian towns, were headed to internment camps in Boston Harbor and plymouth harbor, clark island, and towards the end of that first trip, people began to say this was crazy. Perhaps native americans hold the key to helping us turn the store. The with a smallading company primarily native the spring of in 1876, they would be begin more captives than all of new england and native americans combined. Its interesting that those puritan historians who would write the history of king philips war within months of the conclusion of the war many of what seem like outlandish things that church claims, and theres a wonderful letter written by William Bradfords son, william junior. He is very much his fathers son. He is one of the captains involved in the war. In the summer of 1676, church is out there, hes reckless, brazen, everything a pilgrim should not be. Sayss letter, bradford Benjamin Church is driving him a little crazy, but he says, this is not the way i conduct myself, without the benjamin forces, we might not all be here. Au see that church would be key factor of this war. Major battle. He was there, and it would be ,is group who would take philip almost in the shadow of his in august of, 1676. This was not a war that stopped the fighting. This was not a war that freed new england of the native threat. It really increased the threat for decades to come, and i think that is what makes the story ultimately a tragedy because their was Something Special in Plymouth Colony for that first halfcentury. It was not a utopia, but two very different peoples found a way to peacefully coexist, and i , wheren the world today this is a global scene full of competing nations, religious groups, ethnic roots that do not necessarily like or understand each other, but if we dont find a way to peacefully exist, the alternatives are not good for anyone. Forfirst generations of one no eggs and pilgrims have many lessons from which we can still learn. In clothing in closing, i would like to read a brief passage that speaks not only to the bicultural nature of what went on during that first halfcentury in Plymouth Colony, you know, where the pilgrims wanted to keep the indians at armslength, but inevitably, they were deeply influenced by their native neighbors, not only in foodways, but in their thatstanding of the land was Plymouth Colony. Native americans embraced the western goods. In some cases, their religion. This is a passage that also speaks to the nature of history. What is history . Is the past so remote from us there are nothing that those people were so different that there is a figurative plane of glass between us and maybe we can study it through a microscope, but ultimately has little meaning to us today . Native americans look at not only the past but the present and the future as it was revealed to the pilgrims in the early years of Plymouth Colony in this passage. , weory is not just about us humans. Its about the land on which we live. The land was here in the past is here now and will be here in the future. Early on, we had just forge the alliance with massasoit they had just forge the alliance. Out a delegation including Edward Winslow, who s bestcome massasoit friend among the pilgrims, and stephen hawkins, a stranger who appears to have been in jamestown prior to boarding the mayflower and had some experience with native americans. At this point, squanto is still alive. He goes with them, walking the hardpacked native trails that crisscross new england at this time. About 45mile walk from plymouth. They head out. Theres no horses yet in Plymouth Colony, so they had just left the settlement when they come across a group of native americans who had been collecting lobsters in plymouth harbor. They began to talk. As they conversed with their new companions, the english learned that to walk across the land in southern new england was to travel in time. All along, this narrow hardpacked trail, work circular, foot were circular, footdeep holes that occurred were anything remarkable had occurred. It was to inform fellow travelers what had happened in that place so many things of great antiquity are fresh in memory. Winslow and hopkins began to see that they were traversing a mythic land where a sense of community extended far into the so that ast travelers journey would be less by the and made so discourses related to him. Thenly hope is that we keep memory alive. Thank you very much. [applause] i would be happy to try to. Nswer some of your questions any questions . Yes . And if you could wait until the microphone comes over, thats great. That you your story just repeated, but i was fascinated with your almost 100 pages of notes and bibliographies. The details you found like the indians were expert at burning and creating an open forest. Can you talk a little bit about how you go to find all these details to put this story together . Mr. Philbrick thank you. It makes my heart feel warm when i read that someone has when i hear that someone has read the notes because i labor very mightily on them. [laughter] so thank you. Is at, writing a book bare minimum a threeyour process. The first is learning everything i can about the topic, throwing out the net, developing a bibliography, and getting a sense of where i think the book is going to go. The next two years are realizing that all those plans were totally wrong and as i begin to i amchapter by chapter, writing and researching where i end up going down those avenues i had never expected, and in some me, it is a continual act of discovery. Nonfiction, sove i am trying to tell a story, but i am also trying to do Due Diligence when it comes to the scholarship, and that is a true challenge, distilling the scholarship while maintaining a narrative that is as true as we can be to what actually happened. Yes . If you could just yeah. In learning about the process ofd the dispelling the pilgrim myth, what was the most surprising fact that you learned in this whole process . Mr. Philbrick yeah, this book was a series of surprises. A couple of things. One thing i was astonished to learn that the level of suffering that first year in Plymouth Colony i mean, i had written a book called heart of the sea so i thought i was injurednd mirrored to these tales, but i was surprised to find out what in that year. Both cultures had been effectively over the process of those years broken down and had to be put back together, and i think that building together process made possible the next 50 years of peace. Was it really renewed my understanding to see that the pilgrims did not come. S Empire Builders their ambitions were very humble. They wanted to transplant their congregation to the new world. They were never completely successful in doing that. Pastor robinson would die before he made it, and that initial vision was never fully realized. You see bradford very depressed toward the end of his life as plymouth expands, town after town. You would think that a success, but for bradford, that was defeat. What he wanted was that congregation recreated and as people like winslow and standish moved to duxbury and beyond, bradford saw this as a diminishment of what they should be, so that was a true surprise. The other side in the second half of the book was the impact of king philips war. Thehe other surprise in second half of the book. I was acquainted with king philips war, but you have to read the there are dozens if not hundreds of letters, many of them unpublished, about the war. An incredible treasure trove of information, not only narratives from the churches, but also mary rowlandsons narrative, and there are pretty strong women in the story. Mary rowlandson would invent the indian captivity narrative. She would have several meals with philip, need a cap for his son and provide firsthand information about what was going on. And yet, it is a very harrowing family saga, too. With all of this it is for me, it is a process of trying to connect as best we can with the people who lived this and a process by which, for me, with each chapter, i was continually surprised and ultimately amazed. Yeah . That massasoits philosophy when the english were coming was basically throw them back to the sea, and then when the disease came in, he was forced to change his plans and strategy and form the alliance. Was that true . Mr. Philbrick thats a little bit of an over supplication. There is evidence there was for example, john smith of pocahontas fame explored new england in 1614 and seems to have met with philip and his brother and had a fairly good conversation with him, but also of violence. Eups one of the other surprises, just to get back to your first question, was that when we are often taught the story, it is as if the indians had never seen the english before and the english had never seen the indians before. In the indians had vast experience with the english at this point. Fishermen had been arriving for years along the coast of new england up to maine. There had been explorers coming. But this was different. These were people not only but women and children who were moving here, and that is what made it different. Yes . What first got you into writing . Easter philbrick what first got me into writing . Philbrick writing was something i did when i was your age. I was scribbling a lot. I wrote some really embarrassing poetry in middle school. Kind of embarrassing to think about. And i a lot of books would get so excited about what i read, it made me want to ride. Want to write. What i realized is it is like anything, the more you write, the better you get at it, but you have to do it a lot. I was scribbling things in middle school and in high school. In college, i was an english major and writing papers and things like that and worked as a sailing journalist at a sailing magazine, and after moving to nantucket, became very interested in history and followed that course ever since. I dontfor me is if write something during a day, i really feel as if i have cheated myself in some way. Thank you. Yes . Any more questions . Over here . As you have traveled around the country now on your book tour, i know you have been from new england to chicago to San Francisco to dallas have you noticed any regional differences, either in the way people look at the book or ultimately the way they think about the pilgrims . Mr. Philbrick yeah. The question for those of you that did not hear it is i have been on this book tour that has taken me across the country and what have been the response what has been the response and the regional differences in that sponsor. Every place i have gone, there has been a generous portion of the audience who are mayflower descendents. It has shown me that this is a story that has a vital connection with who we are. Getting back to the surprises, one of the surprises for me was to learn that to be a descendent of the mayflower passengers is i kind of assumed it was an elite club, but, no, 10 of the American Population more than 34 Million People are descended from the mayflower passengers. Talk about a living legacy. It is everywhere in this country. To in ii spoke think it was milwaukee was part cherokee indian and part mayflower descendent, and she said she really feels like she is the living embodiment of what this country is about in many ways, and i think that is true. Was very interesting. In texas of all places, i found a really strong response to this story. Me, the story anticipates so much about what would happen in the 19th century. A think of the indian wars as 19thcentury story, americas remorseless push west, and yet, in this 76year span, you see unfold. Amic this is a story that i think does have relevance to all americans, no matter where you live. Yes . [inaudible] i will preface my remark with i have just begun your book, so perhaps the answer lies with what i have yet to read lies in what i havent read. The pequot war, do you see that as an anomaly in that period . Puritans were the the ones that arrived in boston decade after the sailing of the mayflower and quickly took over new england. In one year, Plymouth Colony goes from being the only English Settlement in the region to being a backwater. Thehat is now known as great migration brought thousands into the boston area and quickly spread not only through massachusetts and maine and New Hampshire but also to connecticut. It was the puritans that were really the motivators behind the pequot war. Plymouth colony, their soldiers did not arrive in time to be part of the conflict as they had been intended. Conflict sort of being the puritan version of wes a gusset, a conflict that would radically change the balance of power, particularly among the natives of the region, and would anticipate in many troubling ways what would happen next because the scale of what was troubling. Hundreds of men, women, and children would be massacred at a fort in what is now mystic, connecticut, and this brought a level of violence and brutality that was not a part of native warfare. This was a real wakeup call to the state of any kind of conflict that might spread beyond something that was very local. Thank you very much. [laughter] [laughter] [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] bookshelf teachers the countrys bestknown American History writers of the past decade talking about their books. You can watch our weekly series every saturday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern here on American History tv on cspan3. This is American History tv on cspan3, where each weekend, we feature 48 hours exploring our nations past. Every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan3, go inside a Different College classroom and hear about topics ranging from the american revolution, civil rights, and u. S. President s to 9 11. Thanks for your patience and for logging in to class. With most College Campuses close due to the impacts of coronavirus, watch professors transfer teaching to a virtual setting to engage with their students. Gorbachev did most of the work to change the soviet union, but reagan met him halfway. Reagan encouraged him. Reagan supported him. , whichdom of the press we will get to later i should mention medicine originally called it freedom of the use of the press. Lectures in history on American History tv on cspan3 every saturday. Lectures in history is also available as a podcast. On saturday, Eastern Connecticut State University professor teaches a class on two prominent 19thcentury politicians. Heres a preview. Observers, thern answer is simple these two bachelors were more than just friends. They were lovers. , you onlymages reveal need to search google for James Buchanan to discover the inevitable. American history has declared him to be the first gay president. From there, it does not take long to understand that this popular understanding derives from his relationship with one man in particular, William Rufus king. Special shoutve a out to an account on instagram for the imprint incredibly provocative art you see on screen. Engagements with social media can be both enlightening to understand popular opinion and rewarding as a way to validate the importance of your research subject. The sketches on this wonderfully illustrated points i made in my research. I recommend everyone follow this account that has its mission to illustrate accounts of the lives of the president s of the united states. All studyis that we the things that interest us, about which we are passionate. My interest in the story of James Buchanan and William Rufus king is no different in this regard. 20a gay man living in the first century, i admit to being quite intrigued when i first heard this characterization of this as lovers. We often study what we do because we want to relate to our Research Subjects in some way, but i also knew i needed to be more critical in how i approached this topic and to ask questions that might yield a fuller picture. I began to ask them as i ask you now what was the real nature of their relationship . Was each man gay as newsweek would have us spoiler alert ahead. As i have stressed, historians must follow research where it takes them. My research has led me to archives in the 28 states, the district of columbia and even london. My findings suggest that James Buchanan and king had an intimate friendship of the kind common in the 19th century. Scholarship has uncovered numerous such friendships that are mostly platonic among men. Sometimes they included an erotic element as well. This friendship included both platonic and erotic elements but not the way you think
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