Pilgrims, Puritans, and the Promised Land

Section of the Frieze of American History depicting the Landing of the Pilgrims. — Constantino Brumidi, “Landing of the Pilgrims, detail of the Frieze of American History,” U.S. Capitol Rotunda, 1877.

As David Michael Smith notes, national origin stories, such as that of the Pilgrims and Puritans, “provide an idealized representation of the nation – its membership, its defining features, its fundamental values and principles.”[1] Such stories are elastic, helping to support a positive vision of the nation through changing historical circumstances. National origin stories are perpetuated through narrative, iconography, and ritual. How might we apply these insights to the story of the Pilgrims as a Chosen People arriving in a New World? Why are the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay settlements celebrated in U.S. history while other colonial settlements are not? How has the observance, iconography, and storytelling surrounding the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving persisted, and how has it changed over time? And how has John Winthrop’s characterization of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a “City on a Hill” been invoked by later generations to frame the United States as a beacon of righteousness and liberty to the world? Finally, how have ideas of America as a “Promised Land” engendered counter-narratives of peoplehood, such as the National Day of Mourning observed by Wampanoag and other Indigenous people?

Week 2

Day 1 (2/16): The Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony

Eli Bortman, “Pilgrims,” Encyclopedia of American Studies, ed. Simon J. Bronner (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018).

Envisioning the Pilgrims (Story Map 1)

William Bradford, “Of Plymouth Plantations” excerpts.

The Promised Land: Mythmaking and Erasure in Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation” (Story Map 2)

Daniel Webster, “The First Settlement of New England,” 1820 (excerpt)

The Pilgrim Myth: The Enduring Power of the Pilgrim Story (Story Map 3)

Recommended (not required): Abram Van Engen, “Pilgrims and 19th-century history textbooks,” C-SPAN Lectures in History, October 9, 2018.

Discussion questions[1][2][3][4] [post your own]

Day 2 (2/18): Thanksgiving and White Protestant Hegemony

Linus’ speech in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, first aired November 20, 1973.