September 2020 marks the 400th anniversary of the departure from Plymouth of the ship the Mayflower which transported the Pilgrims from England to the New World.
This extract from John G. Turner’s They Knew They Were Pilgrims explores the preparations for departure, the crossing and the signing of the Mayflower Compact.
They Knew They Were Pilgrims
Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty
John G. Turner
“What Turner achieves, in what will surely become the definitive history of the Plymouth Colony, is a double perspective…He is excellent at exploring the paradoxes of Calvinist determinism…and deftly untangles knotty concepts such as Arminianism and the Halfway Covenant. He allows us to admire the Pilgrims’ persistence, endeavour and energy…while giving a clear-eyed assessment of their intolerance and occasional inhumanity.”—Richard Francis, Spectator
Find out more about the book here
Also of Interest
Following in the Footsteps of the Puritans with Francis J. Bremer
James West Davidson’s on A Little History of the United States
