Ever since we were in elementary school, we have heard stories about the Pilgrim’s voyage to the New World on the Mayflower and all of the hardships that they encountered during their first winter. There are varying accounts about harsh weather conditions and a considerable death toll. We’ll take a look at what the conditions were really like back then.
History Of The Pilgrim’s Plight
Actually, the historical story of this subject matter is fascinating but I’ll give you a brief summary and go on to the weather conditions.
In 1620, the Pilgrims didn’t live in England. They left England in 1607 to escape religious persecution and they moved to Holland. The group was referred to as Puritans at that time. The Puritans were a group of people who were not satisfied with the Church of England and their goal was to “purify” the religion.
The name “Pilgrims” (meaning travelers in Latin) wasn’t commonly used until the end of the 1700s. Most of the Puritans came from the agricultural village of Scrooby in England. They moved to the city of Leiden in Holland which was an industrial center.
The Puritans felt like outsiders in Holland as they struggled to fit in. Furthermore, some of their leaders were harassed and even arrested by British representatives of the throne. They felt compelled to move again.
The Puritans received a land patent in June 1619 from the London Virginia Company. They refused an opportunity to create a settlement south of Cape Cod in “New Netherland” in order to escape Dutch influence. The patent allowed them to settle at the mouth of the Hudson River. They were financed through the Merchant Adventurers a group of businessmen who looked at the colony as a profit-making venture.
The voyage was originally planned for early 1620 but there were numerous delays. The Puritans finally set sail for England in August of 1620 on a ship named “Speedwell”. The Speedwell was to join a new ship named the “Mayflower”. Both ships began their journey in August 1620.
Due to structural failures, the Speedwell had to turn back to port. Later it was found to be deliberately sabotaged by the crew who didn’t want to make the long voyage across the ocean. The Mayflower temporarily docked at Plymouth, England.
On September 20, 1620, the Mayflower set sail to cross the Atlantic, ironically from the port of Plymouth, England. After a rough 66 days at sea, the Mayflower finally approached land. Rough seas made it difficult to navigate down to the mouth of the Hudson River so the Mayflower set anchor at what is now Provincetown, Massachusetts, on November 11, 1620.
A Painting “Landing of the Pilgrims” by Henry A. Bacon in 1877 – Public Domain
William Bradford was the historian of the group and later became the governor of the Plymouth Plantation. Bradford chronicled weather conditions during this period. A search for a settlement site progressed during the next month.
The environment became extremely harsh during that time. By December 8th, Bradford indicated that the frozen ground was covered with six inches of snow. Another settlement exploration group set out on December 16th and they reported extreme cold. Winds increased dramatically on the 17th and the spray from Cape Cod Bay actually froze on their coats. On December 18th snow came in and it changed to rain.
Temperatures became much milder after the storm ended. A decision was finally made to settle at a location that had been named “Plymouth” by Captain John Smith six years earlier. The Puritans arrived at Plymouth on December 21, 1620.
This print shows William Bradford- Puritan historian and governor of the Plymouth Plantation. Credit-Wikipedia
The First Winter
The first work crew left the Mayflower on December 25th to begin construction at Plymouth. Most of the original settlers didn’t celebrate Christmas because they thought the holiday was invented by the Roman Catholic Church.
First to be built was a Common House which would have several huts around it. Then there would be living quarters built for the settlers. There would be a total of 19 lots.
Because of the hardships that the settlers had to endure in the coming months, the Common House had to be used as living quarters and a hospital. Construction of the Common House alone was held up because of weather conditions.
Just as the construction of the Common House began, a storm came along which featured snow that changed to rain. During the next three weeks, there were a number of storms that moved through while producing rain, snow, and sleet.
Many settlers lived on the Mayflower and left the ship to work until March when more dwellings were constructed in earnest.
From all historical accounts, weather conditions from late December to mid-February were quite “checkered”. Bradford reported a severe cold spell in early to mid-January, where a number of colonists died and another similar period in early to mid-February. Bradford described most of the rest of the winter as windy with frequent periods of rain.
So, after the cold spells, weather conditions turned mild for the rest of the winter season and into the spring.
In later years, other original settlers wrote about how mild the first winter was compared to subsequent winters.
Despite the change to milder temperatures, 45 of the original 102 colonists died during the first winter. There were 17 fatalities in February alone. Many succumbed to the elements, malnutrition, and diseases such as scurvy.
Frequently two or three died on the same day. Four entire families perished and there was only one family that didn’t lose at least one member. Of the 18 married women, 13 died. Only three of 13 children perished, probably because mothers were giving their share of food to the children.
There has been much written about the interaction between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. The details are uncertain but here’s some of the story.
The indigenous inhabitants knew about Europeans both from interactions with explorers and with fishermen. Many of these interactions weren’t amicable.
These Native Americans knew that the Pilgrims had established a settlement. They were wary of any interaction, so they kept an eye on them without any contact during most of that first winter. That all changed in March.
Samoset was from the Sagamore Tribe, originally from Maine. He had learned some English from fishermen and trappers and came to the Plymouth settlement to welcome the Pilgrims on March 16, 1621.
Samoset told the Pilgrims about a tribal leader, the Indian Chief Massasoit, and they also learned about Squanto, who had survived a recent epidemic in the area.
Those three Native Americans came to the settlement and made a peace pact with the Pilgrims, for mutual defense. Squanto spoke good English since he actually lived in Europe for many years. He became kind of a “liaison” between the native people and the Pilgrims. The natives taught the Pilgrims how to grow food such as corn.
The first “Thanksgiving” was actually a harvest celebration. This was an annual celebration for the Native Americans that was celebrated every October. So, the event actually occurred nearly a year after the Pilgrims first landed.
There is no record of the weather during that celebration and the actual details are part legend and part folklore. Since it was October, weather conditions were probably mild.
Weather History (The Early 1600’s)
This period of time was known as the “Little Ice Age”. It wasn’t really an ice age but it was a cycle of very cold winters that lasted for a few centuries after a significant warming period during Medieval times.
According to booty.org the period from 1600 to 1620 was quite cold in Europe, especially in the winter. Much of this information is for England but Holland wasn’t too far away. This was during the “Little Ice Age” period.
Interestingly, enough, most of these winters were very cold but dry, so the Pilgrims were not unfamiliar with the cold. Being exposed constantly to the elements and dealing with diseases and not eating properly all contributed to the sickness and death that prevailed during their first winter in the “New World”.
Various reconstructions of temperature anomalies for the Northern hemisphere. Notice the cold period in the early 1600s.
The winter in the area that the Pilgrims left, was particularly severe in 1620-1621 according to booty.org (A severe winter over western Europe occurred over much of Britain).
The Winter Of 1620-1621
With only spotty “anecdotal” data, it would be difficult to do a meteorological recreation of that period of time.
We do know that (what would become eastern Massachusetts) had a period of exceptionally cold temperatures in early December, followed by a stormy period around Christmas. It then became mild at the end of the month and into January.
There was a significant cold spell toward mid-January with several bouts of snow, sleet, and wind. There was another cold spell near mid-February.
In early December, there must have been a cold trough in the upper atmosphere over New England. As the trough relaxed, signaling a pattern change, it became stormy.
The pattern then changed to a milder one. If there were any upper troughs over what is now the U.S. the cold troughs must have been well to the west of New England. Because of what was described as a severe winter over western Europe, there must have been a prevailing trough over that area. In between was probably a warmer ridge over the Atlantic.
Except for a few periods when an upper trough would move over New England, they were probably situated between a trough to the west and a ridge to the east, with storm systems moving up at them from the south. That could explain all of the rain.
Moving Ahead
After the harrowing ordeal of the first winter, the Pilgrim colony began to grow, slowly at first and then more rapidly as more settlers arrived in the area.
According to an article by Patricia Scott Deetz and James Deetz in histarch.illinois.edu by May of 1627, the population of the Plymouth Colony was up to 156. By January 1630. It was nearly 300 and by 1643 it was up to around 2,000
Since the first winter was described as being the mildest by far from then until ten years after, the growth and prosperity of the settlement occurred despite some very harsh winters.
The Puritans (Pilgrims) were finally able to erase their debt to the Merchant Adventurers by 1648.
Happy Thanksgiving 2022 to you and yours!
