Sudden Impact
A Rough Start
The families who immigrated to New England established church-centered, farming communities on land recently vacated by an epidemic among the Wampanoag. In this collection of first-person accounts, referred to as Mourt’s Relation, leaders of the Pilgrim pioneers compellingly describe their tribulations and rescue by two men, Samoset and Squanto.
New England attracted settlers, and, in contrast to Virginia, the greater proportion of women and the healthier climate of Massachusetts generated rapid population growth. William Wood’s map of English settlements, drawn only thirteen years after that first hard winter of 1620, shows that neighboring Algonquin had reason for concern.
[William Bradford, Edward Winslow, et al.], A Relation or Journall of the Beginning and Proceedings of the English Plantation Setled at Plimoth in New England….
London: John Bellamie, 1622. Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History (A 1622 .M68)
“The South part of New-England, as it is Planted this yeare, 1634” in William Wood, New Englands Prospect….
London: Tho. Cotes for John Bellamie, 1634. Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History (A 1634 .W66)