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William BradfordOf Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1651A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaBook 2, Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 2
Book 2, Chapter 1 Summary
Bradford skips backward to explain the origins of the Plymouth government. The Pilgrims decide to draw up a compact in part to prevent opportunists from taking advantage of the confusion surrounding the abandoned contract with the Virginia Company. The compact, which Bradford includes in the text, states the Pilgrims' intention to establish a government as well as laws suitable to their goals as a colony, and this leads to the selection of John Carver as governor for the first year. Although this does not entirely put a stop to dissension among the settlers, it does mitigate it.
The first few months of settlement, however, also give rise to a much more immediate problem: a sickness that Bradford attributes to a combination of cold weather and the lingering effects of scurvy from the voyage. Over the course of January and February, roughly half the Pilgrims die. Those who remain well diligently care for the ill—including sailors who had previously refused to do the same for the Pilgrims—at what Bradford describes as considerable personal risk.
Meanwhile, the Pilgrims continue to sporadically encounter Native Americans, including a man named Samoset, who had learned to speak some English through contact with English fishermen. Samoset in turn introduces the Pilgrims to members of a local tribe, including the sachem, or leader, and a man named Squanto, who speaks English even more fluently. The Pilgrims and this group—the Pokanoket—sign a peace treaty, and Squanto remains with the Pilgrims, teaching them how to fish and grow corn.
Squanto's account of himself also provides the Pilgrims with valuable insight into the region and their neighbors. After being kidnapped and nearly sold into slavery, Squanto was eventually able to return to America with a man named Captain Dermer, who had been in Plymouth just a few months prior to the Pilgrims' arrival. In his journal, Dermer reported that the soil in the region was good, but that the Pokanoket had been hostile ever since several members of their tribe were slaughtered on an English ship. Bradford claims that the Pilgrims' survival in the face of this danger proves that God was protecting them. Nevertheless, Bradford says that the Pokanoket did ultimately prove untrustworthy; he later learned that immediately before meeting with the Pilgrims, the Pokanoket had "got all the Powows of the country together for three days to curse and execrate [the English] in a horrid and devilish manner with conjurations, holding their assembly in a dark and dismal swamp" (54).
Book 2, Chapter 2 Summary
Widespread sickness and other problems delay the departure of the Mayflower, but the Pilgrims do eventually send it back to England in March 1621. With the ship gone, they step up their efforts to create a habitable colony, planting corn and (on Squanto's suggestion) using fish to fertilize the soil. Changes are also underway in the government: Governor Carver dies in April and Bradford himself replaces him, although he relies heavily on the help of a man named Isaac Allerton while recovering from his own illness. The establishment of a government means that marriages can now take place in Plymouth, and the first one does in May 1621.
Meanwhile, the Pilgrims continue to have various dealings with local tribes—for instance, sealing their alliance with the Pokanoket Sachem, Massasoit. On this expedition, the Pilgrims learn that while many of the Pokanoket had died in a recent plague, the nearby Narragansetts are still very numerous. The Pilgrims also encounter the group of Native Americans that they had earlier taken corn and beans from and give them "full satisfaction" (56) for the crops.
In addition to Squanto, the Pilgrims also begin to rely on the help of a man named Hobbamok. At one point, Squanto and Hobbamok's loyalty to the Pilgrims lands them in trouble with a Sachem called Corbitant, who threatens to kill both of them. Hobbamok escapes and notifies the Pilgrims, who decide to avenge Squanto if he had in fact been killed, "for if they allowed their friends and messengers to be harmed, none would associate with them or give them intelligence or do them service afterwards" (57). As it turns out, however, Squanto is still alive when the Pilgrims reach him, and his captors eagerly make peace with the Pilgrims. Overall, the Pilgrims are able to negotiate friendly relationships with most of the surrounding tribes.
In November, a ship carrying Cushman and thirty-five new settlers arrive. The Pilgrims are "glad of this addition of strength, but could have wished that many of [the new settlers] had been of better class, and all of them better furnished with provisions" (58–59).Cushman also brings a letter from Weston complaining that the Pilgrims sent the Mayflower back empty—a decision Weston attributes to "weakness of judgment [rather] than weakness of hands" (59). Nevertheless, Weston says he will keep his agreement with the Pilgrims if they hold up their end of the bargain. In response, the Pilgrims send back a ship stocked with clapboard and otter and beaver skins, along with an explanation of the circumstances that delayed the Mayflower's return. Despite this, Bradford says that Weston ultimately reneged on his promises.
The winter of 1621 proves difficult for the Pilgrims. Although the Pilgrims had begun to store supplies in autumn, the settlers who arrived with Cushman had not similarly prepared for the winter, and the Pilgrims fear they will run out of food. In addition, the Narragansett threaten war by sending the Pilgrims arrows wrapped in snakeskin; the Pilgrims respond with bullets wrapped in snakeskin, and nothing comes of the exchange. Nevertheless, it convinces the Pilgrims to take precautions, including enclosing homes within garrisons and forming a militia. The chapter closes with an anecdote about the Pilgrims asking for time off on Christmas on the grounds that working on a holy day goes against "their consciences” (62), only to end up playing in the streets. The governor—that is, Bradford—scolds them and tells them that they should remain at home if they consider "keeping […] the day a matter of devotion" (62).
Book 2, Chapter 3 Summary
Although the Pilgrims continue to rely on Native American help, tensions begin to emerge. A member of Squanto's family, for instance, warns a trading party of an imminent attack by the Narragansett, Corbitant, and Massasoit, but nothing comes of it. This, combined with suspicions voiced by Hobbamok, convinces the settlers that Squanto might be exploiting his position as a go-between to gain power and influence. When Massasoit himself learns what is going on, Squanto's fear of reprisal makes him eager to help the Pilgrims, and they continue to employ him.
Meanwhile, the Pilgrims are still in danger of running out of food. A ship from Weston arrives in May, but it only carries letters and settlers—in other words, no supplies. Weston's letters ask the Pilgrims to share their resources with the new settlers and declare his intention to send further ships, including one for the Pilgrims to keep for their own use. Weston also alludes to disagreements among the investors in England, which he clarifies in the letters that follow on the next ship. In these, Weston says that he has sold out of the venture and urges the Pilgrims to do the same. In explanation, he includes a letter written by some of these investors, warning the Pilgrims that Weston has sent over his brother to spy on and take advantage of them. This, Weston says, proves that the investors are attempting to deceive and undermine the Pilgrims.
The Pilgrims are no longer inclined to believe Weston's words, but nevertheless continue to help the latest settlers he sent over. They do not, however, accept anything in exchange because they don't want to become too entangled with "unruly"(69) people they suspect may cause trouble in the region. Eventually, these new settlers form their own colony close by.
By this point, Plymouth is on the verge of famine and is only saved by the arrival of a Virginian ship. Those on board explain that their own colony was decimated in an attack by a local tribe and offer the Pilgrims the provisions they themselves no longer need. The Pilgrims are thus able to scrape by until the 1622 harvest, but low crop yields mean they risk running out of food again that winter. According to Bradford, God again intervenes—this time in the form of a ship that brings supplies the Pilgrims can use to trade with the local tribes. The expedition, is not as successful as the Pilgrims had hoped: Squanto dies of disease, and rough seas prevent the party from traveling far. Worst still, some settlers from Weston's colony become so desperate that they plan to steal corn from a local colony. Their governor learns of the conspiracy and shuts it down, but the men then "[tell] the Indians that […] Governor [Bradford] intended to come and take their corn by force. This and other things made them enter into a conspiracy against the English…" (73).
Book 2, Chapters 1-3 Analysis
The Pilgrims' first few years in Plymouth are especially difficult, not only for the obvious reason that they are struggling to survive, but also because they are simultaneously hashing out their relationships with surrounding communities of both Native Americans and English settlers. The Pilgrims have so far managed to maintain cordial relationships with people not part of their own community and even go out of their way to help some of them—like when they help tend to the sick sailors on the Mayflower. However, there are clear limits to the Pilgrims' willingness to identify with outsiders. It is significant, for example, that Bradford interprets the Pilgrims' decision to help Weston's settlers as a sign of their own "compassion," but Squanto's aid to the Pilgrims themselves as a form of divine intervention: "Squanto stayed with them, and was their interpreter, and became a special instrument sent of God for their good, beyond their expectation"(52).
In other words, where Bradford attributes the Pilgrims' good deeds to morality, he attributes Squanto's to God acting through him. This speaks in part to a growing European contempt at the time Of Plymouth Plantation was written for "uncivilized" peoples; even a helpful man like Squanto is viewed less as a person and more as a tool. It also points to the Pilgrims' sense of themselves as singled out for a divine mission since Bradford's tendency is to interpret any aid that comes their way, like the Virginian ship, as God's favor. In a sense, Bradford treats everyone outside Plymouth as plot devices in a story about the Pilgrims' establishment of a truly godly community. Weston, for instance, is almost a cartoonish, villainous character in Of Plymouth Plantation. Of course, it's difficult to know what his motivations might have been in real life, but as Bradford depicts him, he is an external force that threatens to corrupt the settlement at Plymouth; he continuously sends over settlers Bradford characterizes as "wild" (58) and ultimately "depraved" (72), and a letter from John Pierce urges the Pilgrims not to allow themselves to be "contaminated" (69) by their dealings with Weston. To a certain extent, Weston therefore symbolizes the worldly temptations and entanglements that the Pilgrims hope to avoid in their new settlement.
From the start, it’s clear that the Pilgrims can't entirely escape the problems of the outside world. The physical hardships of life in the new colony—starvation, exposure, disease, etc.—hammer home the extent to which the Pilgrims are part of the material world. The illnesses the Pilgrims fall prey to are an especially vivid example of this because they spread in a way similar to the moral "contaminat[ion]" (69) the Pilgrims are constantly on guard against. The illnesses at least appear to spread in that way to the Pilgrims, who did not know that scurvy is caused by a vitamin deficiency rather than contagion. Furthermore, there is some internal dissension within the settlement from the start; not all the settlers who came over on the Mayflower were members of the Pilgrim community in Leyden, and these "strangers" (49) began to make "discontented and mutinous speeches" (49) during the voyage about their intention to seize control of the new settlement. The signing of the Mayflower Compact temporarily puts a stop to this discord, but the presence of outsiders in the Pilgrims' midst proves to be a recurring source of tension in Of Plymouth Plantation.
