Of Plymouth Plantation Analysis

The two selections that give me the most complete picture of this historical period are Olaudah Equiano and William Bradford's. Olaudah shares his atrocities suffered by African slaves at the hands of the slave traders and the slave owners. William Bradford's narrative is defined as a source of strength and unity by chronicling faith as the reason for Plymouth Plantation and uniting the members of the colony as the cultural characteristics of self-sacrifice.

In the second story "Plymouth Plantation" by William Bradford, describes himself in the first person details to facts. William Bradford has been the Governor

In the text it states “ I had gotten into a world of bad spirits” (Equiano 58). Equiano referred to his captors as bad spirits because as soon as he arrived on the boat he was roughed up by the captors. He called the captors savages because he had never been around people like them. In the text Bradford states “ He directed them how to set their corn where to take fish and produce other commodities” (Bradford 11). This shows how the pilgrims became accustomed to being around the Native Americans. They were so kind to them that the Pilgrims were no longer scared , and they learned skills to live.

William Bradford wrote Of Plymouth Plantation to inform readers about his journey to the new world. Bradford joined the Puritans when he was a young boy, which he later on separated from. Bradford came to the new world in search of religious freedom. The Puritans

“The General History of Virginia” and “Of Plymouth Plantation” are similar and different in many ways. They are the first settlers of America and came for different reasons, different goals, and different ways of life. Although they were different they both risked their lives for a new life in return. John Smith and William Bradford were two different people. John Smith was an Adventurer and William Bradford was a Puritan. Their differences and similarities personified through two works of writing.

We all tend to have a certain way of doing things that when it comes to everyone else, we start to believe it’s a divergent way of doing things. In other words it’s an act of ethnocentrism. A perfect and extreme example of ethnocentrism would be Hitler and the Nazis against the Jews. Hitler believed that the Jews were subordinate to his ethnicity and his believes so they didn’t deserve to live. This connects with Bradford and Smith’s in the way of first impression. They both saw the native americans in an unfriendly way and very different from them due to their choice of style and that’s exactly where ethnocentrism plays a role. Bradford and Smith had their own opinions on the native americans once they touched land and saw them.

In William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation he articulates that living in young America was a tough life that included dangerous living, starvation and disease. Bradford sailed from Holland with the Pilgrims and when their first governor died in 1621 Bradford was elected. Bradford’s opinion was well respected in the community and he was reelected to his position thirty times. This position gave him the ability to have many of his works published and read by many. An example of him describing the new world as dangerous is when he painted the picture of a wicked forest across “the whole country” . He went on to describe this forest as having a “wild and savage hue”. Another problem addressed in William Bradford’s piece is starvation. He described that once winter arrived many people began to die and by February “half [the] company died”. Finally Bradford described the new world as a haven for disease. As the starvation began to set in in the early winter so did the

In the New World Bradford and Morton were both important men of our history. The stories of both great men give us an insight into the way religion and influence affected Puritan life.

Even though ordinarily one would expect a lot of emotions from Bradford as he went through so much, Bradford recorded his journey in first-person with almost no tone and emotion. His book was made for the Puritans in England to see. They believed writing in “plain style” would be more effective by using

The poems, journals, and sermons by William Bradford, John Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards displayed these characteristics: the love of something, the courage to do something, the belief in something, and the ability to stand strong and stable in their beliefs. In “Of Plymouth Plantation” the people traveling to find the people on the ship had the love and desire to seek God in everything they did. They believed in God so much they were putting not only their health but lives in jeopardy by traveling so far. “Thus his curses light on his own head, and it was an astonishment to all his fellows for they noted it to be the just hand of God upon him.” Even though they under came harsh conditions they were determined to find a safe

This colony was quite different from Virginia. In Plymouth, everyone was each others backbone, meaning everyone helped each other out. Whether it was crops or building etc. Everybody was entitled to religious freedom, their rights. One difference though is that Bradford was more caring of his people and he remained there the rest of his life.

The novel Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick has a long list of things to teach us about the New World. The fact that it’s showed us that the very first pilgrims had no idea what they were in for was crucial. They were hit with the realization that the Natives would be wild and ferocious instead of calm and tame. They’d known they would be introduced to new ways of life, and disease, but they didn’t suspect that it’d be the most destructive part to the goodwill of the newly born colony.

William Bradford and John Smith were both early American writers; however, their writing styles were very different. They began writing around the same time with Smith starting in 1608 and Bradford starting in 1630. Smith wrote three books: A Description of New England, The General History, and A True Relation. However, Bradford wrote only one book called Of Plymouth Plantation. Bradford’s writing style is easy to read but still well written. Smith’s writing, on the other hand, is difficult to follow. In Smith’s The General History, he expresses that he has a low regard for the Native Americans in the way he frequently refers to them as savages. On the other hand, Bradford demonstrates a high regard for them when he wrote about them helping the Plymouth settlement. Just as their writing styles are different, so are their motives for writing. Bradford wrote because he did not want the Plymouth Plantation settlement to be forgotten, whereas Smith wrote for money and to promote exploration of the New World. The theme of Smith’s writing was very secular, even

The Pilgrims voyaged to America around 1602 and they were off to a bad start when it came to colonize the new land. A while after the Pilgrims had landed in America, they decided to make William Bradford the governor of their new government, which he continued on out for the rest of his life. Throughout the time that the Pilgrims were in America, they suffered many deaths that were not expected to occur. Many important people to the government had died due to lack of supplies. The Pilgrims did not have the medicine or the food to provide each other when they came down with sickness and

Throughout William Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation”, his attachment to his religion was very strong and very verbally shown throughout his work. Bradford was between the age of twelve and thirteen when he had first heard his first sermon by a minister named Richard Clyfton and he later joined with Clyfton in the year 1606. Bradford begins with “…some godly and zealous preachers, and God’s blessings on their labors…” God is already being praised in the first few sentences of this work to bless the labor of their works and throughout the land. The goal of this paper is to bring into light three different sections throughout the work, where Bradford uses his religion to prove a point and to show how his religious faith is freely expressed by leaving England.