Plymouth Colony in American History
During the two years that followed the
Mayflower Compact, so evident was the failure of the joint undertaking
that efforts were made on both sides to bring it to an end; for the
merchants, with no profit from the enterprise, were anxious to avoid
further indebtedness; and the colonists, wearying of the dual control,
wished to reap for themselves the full reward of their own efforts. Under
the new arrangement of small private properties, the settlers began "to
prise come as more pretious than silver, and those that had some to spare
begane to trade one with another for small things, by the quart, potle,
and peck, etc., for money they had none." Later, finding "their come, what
they could spare from ther necessities, to be a commoditie, (for they
sould it at 6s. a bushell) [they] used great dilligence in planting the
same. And the Gov[erno]r and shuch as were designed to manage the trade,
(for it was retained for the generall good, and none were to trade in
particuler,) they followed it to the best advantage they could; and
wanting trading goods, they understoode that a plantation which was at
Monhigen, and belonged to some marchants of Plimoth [England] was to
breake up, and diverse usefull goods was ther to be sould," the governor
(Bradford himself) and Edward Winslow "tooke a boat and some hands and
went thither. . . With these goods, and their come after harvest they gott
good store of trade, so as they were enabled to pay their ingagements
against the time, and to get some cloathing for the people, and had some
comodities beforehand." Though conditions were hard and often
discouraging, the Pilgrims gradually found themselves self-supporting and
as soon as this fact became clear, they sent Isaac Allerton to England "to
make a composition with the adventurers." As a result of the negotiations
an "agreement or bargen" was made whereby eight leading members of the
colony bought the shares of the merchants for £1800 and distributed the
payment among the settlers, who at this time numbered altogether about
three hundred. Each share carried with it a certain portion of land and
livestock. The debt was not finally liquidated until 1642.
By 1630, the Plymouth colony was fairly on its feet and beginning to
grow in "outward estate." The settlers increased in number, prospered
financially, and scattered to the outlying districts; and Plymouth the
town and Plymouth the colony ceased to be identical. Before 1640, the
latter had become a cluster of ten towns, each a covenanted community with
its church and elder.
Though the colony never obtained a charter of incorporation from the
Crown, it developed a form of government arising naturally from its own
needs. By 1633 its governor and one assistant had become a governor and
seven assistants, elected annually at a primary assembly held in Plymouth
town; and the three parts, governor, assistants, and assembly, together
constituted the governing body of the colony. In 1636, a revision of the
laws and ordinances was made in the form of "The Great Fundamentals," a
sort of constitution, frequently interspersed with statements of
principles, which was printed with additions in 1671. The right to vote
was limited at first to those who were members of the company and liable
for its debt, but later the suffrage was extended to include others than
the first-comers, and in 1633 was exercised by sixty-eight persons
altogether. In 1668, a voter was required to have property, to be "of
sober and peaceable conversation," and to take an oath of fidelity, but
apparently he was never required to take the oath of allegiance to the
Crown. So rapidly did the colony expand that, by 1639, the holding of a
primary assembly in Plymouth town became so inconvenient that delegates
had to be chosen.
Thus there was introduced into the colony a form of representative
government, though it is to be noted that governor, assistants, and
deputies sat together in a common room and never divided into two houses,
as did the assemblies in other colonies.
The settlement of Plymouth colony is conspicuous in New England
history because of the faith and courage and suffering of those who
engaged in it and because of the ever alluring charm of William Bradford's
History of Plimouth Plantation. The greatness of the Pilgrims lay in their
illustrious example and in the influence they exercised upon the church
life of the later New England colonies, for to the Pilgrims was due the
fact that the congregational way of organization and worship became the
accepted form in Massachusetts and Connecticut. But in other respects
Plymouth was vastly overshadowed by her vigorous neighbors. Her people,
humble and simple, were without importance in the world of thought,
literature, or education. Their intellectual and material poverty, lack of
business enterprise, unfavorable situation, and defenseless position in
the eyes of the law rendered them almost a negative factor in the later
life of New England. No great movement can be traced to their initiation,
no great leader to birth within their borders, and no great work of art,
literature, or scholarship to those who belonged to this unpretending
company. The Pilgrim Fathers stand rather as an emblem of virtue than a
moulding force in the life of the nation.
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