Meet the Pilgrims

Pilgrim Life: 2nd Grade Meet the Pilgrims

Trust: Setting out on a new journey takes trust and faith.

Imagine moving to a place you have never visited or heard of. When Columbus set out to find a new route to Asia, he thought he was traveling to India, a place many had visited before him. He had no idea he would end up in a completely new destination. For the Pilgrims, they were not only moving to a new city but to a whole new world…and they knew it. So, with nothing more than their faith, an idea of a new life, and each other, the Pilgrims petitioned the King of England to settle in America.

The Pilgrims were English men, women, and children who loved their home country of England but wanted to live their lives in a different way. A pilgrim, by definition, is a person who travels to faraway places, often for faith-based reasons. This group of Pilgrims we refer to as the Mayflower Pilgrims. The founded and settled Plymouth Colony.

With nothing more than their faith and an idea of a new life, the Pilgrims petitioned
the King of England to settle in America.

The Mayflower Pilgrim story begins after the King of England, King Henry VIII, started what he called the independent Church of England, also known as the Anglican or Episcopal Church. Many people disagreed with the King as he created laws around how people should practice their faith. The Pilgrims believed they should practice their faith as they wanted, so they asked permission to find a place for their ideas to materialize. Unfortunately, the King did not agree, and said no.

Since the Pilgrims were unwilling to follow the King’s order, they had to find a way to leave England. Unlike in America today, during this time, people were not allowed to move to another country without permission from the King. In 1607, the Pilgrims decided to move to a part of the Netherlands, called Holland, where religious freedom would exist.

The pilgrims needed to have faith while on their journey

By 1609 about one hundred Pilgrims had reached Holland, where they formed a small settlement.

Most Pilgrims had been farmers, but their skills had to expand in order to support their families. They learned to be carpenters, masons, bakers, tailors, merchants, weavers, cabinetmakers, and many other trades.

Carpenter
A person who makes things out of wood and other natural materials.

Mason
A person who uses brick or natural stones to build structures.

Baker
A person who makes things out of wood and other natural materials.

Tailer
A person who sews and mends clothes.

Merchant
A person who is involved with the transport and trading of goods.

Weaver
A person who makes fabric by weaving fiber together on a loom.

Cabinetmaker
Aa person who builds cabinets and other forms of carpentry.

Approximately eight years after leaving England, around the year 1617, historians believe there were over 300 men, women, and children in the Pilgrims’ Holland colony. While in Holland, they were free to practice their faith, but this was not their ultimate plan. So, the Pilgrims left Holland in search of a brand new home where they could expand their faith and their borders.

In the same year the Pilgrims moved to Holland, explorers began creating a colony in America called Jamestown in present-day Virginia near Norfolk and Williamsburg. Many people think the Pilgrims were the first to settle in the “New World,” but other colonists had come to North America before them.

“In the end, both sides wanted what the Pilgrims had been looking for in 1620: a place unfettered by obligations to others.”– Nathaniel Philbrick

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