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Who Were the Pilgrims... Really?
The group of individuals that landed at Plymouth, MA in 1620 are an important part of American history. However, we’re often confused about who they really were because of half-truths, legends, and distorted histories.
The people who boarded the ship called The Mayflower in 1620 were colonists. They were setting off to the new land of America for a variety of different reasons. This group included merchants, servants, freemen, and religious separatists. Regardless of why they became a colonist, they were all willing to risk everything they had -- including their lives -- for new opportunities.
The religious separatists were the smallest group within the ranks of the colonists. But, they were also the most organized. They also had the loftiest reason for going -- religious freedom.
We generally refer to the whole group of colonists as "the Pilgrims" but the term more appropriately refers to the small group of religious separatists within the group of colonists. In fact, the word "pilgrim" wasn’t used to describe the colonists until 200 years later.
The religious Separatists were from England. To escape religious persecution, imprisonment, and even death, this group escaped into self-imposed exile in the Netherlands. They lived and practiced their religious beliefs there, as best they could, for approximately 12 years.
The group known as "pilgrims" were often confused with the Puritans of the same time era. They were not the same although superficially they did share some of the same characteristics. The "Pilgrims" came first in 1620 to Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Puritans arrived some ten years later at Massachusetts Bay. The Puritans were a much larger religious group that eventually took over the Plymouth Colony.
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