On this day, 16 September 1620, the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers on a voyage across the Atlantic that would become one of the most famous journeys in American history.
The passengers included Protestant Separatists seeking to establish a community where they could practise their religion, as well as others travelling in pursuit of economic opportunities. The people now commonly known as the Pilgrims made up only part of those aboard.
Their destination was not originally New England. The colonists intended to settle in Virginia, but after a difficult 66-day Atlantic crossing, the Mayflower reached Cape Cod, hundreds of miles from its intended destination.
A difficult journey across the Atlantic
The Mayflower voyage had already suffered setbacks before the ship departed Plymouth.
An earlier attempt to sail from England involved two vessels, the Mayflower and the Speedwell. However, the Speedwell repeatedly developed leaks and was eventually abandoned, forcing some of its passengers and supplies onto the Mayflower.
Conditions aboard the ship were cramped and uncomfortable. The 102 passengers shared limited space below deck as the vessel encountered rough seas and storms during its crossing.
After more than two months at sea, the Mayflower reached Cape Cod in November 1620.
The Mayflower Compact
Finding themselves outside the territory in which they had originally been authorised to establish a colony created a political problem for the passengers.
Before establishing their settlement, 41 male passengers signed what became known as the Mayflower Compact, agreeing to form a “civil Body Politick” and establish laws for the good of the colony.
The agreement became an important document in the history of self-government in colonial America.
The settlers eventually established Plymouth Colony in an area known to the Wampanoag as Patuxet.
A devastating first winter
The arrival of the Mayflower did not mark the beginning of an easy new life.
The settlers endured a devastating first winter marked by disease, exposure and shortages. Around half of the Mayflower’s passengers died before the following spring.
Their survival was subsequently aided by Indigenous people, including Tisquantum, commonly known as Squanto, who had previously been taken to Europe and spoke English.
The Plymouth settlers also entered into an alliance with the Wampanoag leader Ousamequin, commonly known to the English as Massasoit.
The relationship between European settlers and Indigenous peoples would become far more complicated and violent as English colonisation expanded across the region in the decades that followed.
A voyage that became part of American mythology
The Mayflower’s place in American history eventually grew far beyond the immediate significance of the 1620 voyage.
Its passengers became closely associated with the traditional story of the first Thanksgiving, although the popular version of that history has increasingly been examined alongside the experiences and perspectives of the Indigenous peoples whose lands were being colonised.
The term “Pilgrim” itself only became widely used for the Plymouth settlers much later.
More than four centuries after the Mayflower left Plymouth, its voyage remains an enduring part of the story of European settlement in North America, as well as the much broader and more difficult history of colonisation that followed.
