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Mayflower : A Story Of Courage, Community, And War By Nathaniel Philbrick

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Almost 400 years ago, the Pilgrims, a group of 102 religious separatists set sail from England to the largely unexplored and uncharted country across the Atlantic Ocean in hopes of founding a settlement where they could implement their own religious ideals. After years of death and struggle, the Pilgrims had established a more stable settlement with a reasonable relationship with the nearby Pokanoket tribe. However, with an increasing number of Europeans migrating to New England, the tensions between the preexisting people and the newcomers would escalate into a gruesome war. King Philip’s War was a pivotal event, yet the fact that it occurred is unbeknownst to many Americans. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War written by Nathaniel Philbrick tells the factual story of the Pilgrims and their ancestors. In the book, Philbrick proves that the well known story of the Pilgrims’ journey on the Mayflower, the native “Wampanoags,” the first Thanksgiving, and the lasting relationship between the native Indians and the English settlers contains copious misconceptions. Mayflower is predominantly about the evolving associations between the settlers and the multiple native groups. The First Encounter with the natives was not a warm welcome for the pilgrims, who were exploring Cape Cod. The short fight had arrows and bullets flying, and though the Pilgrims won, they “knew they could not blast, fight, and kill their way to a permanent settlement in New England”

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