The Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower in 1620 were not headed for Massachusetts.
Their charter authorized them to settle in Virginia, which at that point included the Hudson River valley in what is now New York, which was their intended destination. However, they were blown off course and instead made landfall at Cape Cod and later Plymouth. It being late in the season for further travel and realizing their error and that their Virginia charter was probably not legally valid for a settlement in Massachusetts, they entered into the Mayflower Compact among themselves to establish the framework of their governance while still aboard the ship.
Not all Pilgrims wore black.
Some did (especially the elders and leaders), but many more wore so-called “sadd colors” of brown, russet, blue, red, or green.
Who was the first Native American the Pilgrims first formally met?
The first Indian the Pilgrims met was Samoset, a sagamore or lord of the Massasoits “of seemly carriage,” who walked into Plymouth with only a breechcloth about his waist and carrying a bow and two arrows, one symbolically headed and the other unheaded. To their astonishment, he greeted the Pilgrims in English: “Welcome Englishmen!” And he asked for a beer. Samoset had learned English from British fishermen. He introduced the Pilgrims to Squanto, who spoke even better English, having lived in London, and became their interpreter and diplomatic negotiator.
Interesting facts about Squanto:
- Squanto’s birth name was Tisquantum, but he has also been referred to as Squantum or Squanto throughout history.
- Because of being kidnapped several times in his life, Squanto traveled extensively through Europe, Newfoundland, and the northeast coast of the United States.
- In an expedition sponsored by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, an English explorer named Captain Weymouth kidnapped Squanto along with 4 other Indians. In 1605, he returned to England with the Indians, thinking Sir Ferdinando Gorges would appreciate the opportunity to see natives from the region in person.
- It is believed that all of the Indians kidnapped by Weymouth were treated well in England before they were all eventually returned to their homeland. It is also thought that they were taught English in hopes that they would provide information to help the English settlers.
- In 1614 Squanto was captured by English explorer Thomas Hunt. He captured 20 Indians in total and sold them off as slaves in Spain.
- Spanish friars, looking to spread the Christian faith, rescued Squanto from captivity. He then traveled from Spain to England where he met and lived with John Slaney, a wealthy merchant.
- As a likely indentured servant for John Slaney, Squanto traveled to Newfoundland on an expedition. Squanto thought he would be able to return home but ended up returning to England again in 1618.
- In 1619, Squanto finally makes it home only to discover that his tribe had been all but wiped out by disease.
- Just over a year after his return home in 1619, Squanto settled in Plymouth with Pilgrims that were sick and dying from a difficult journey to the New World. They lacked food and needed help. Squanto helped the Pilgrims during this difficult time. He taught them how to farm, introduced them to local tribes, and acted as an interpreter to enable trade between the local tribes and Pilgrims.
- In 1621, Squanto was instrumental in negotiating a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag by acting as an interpreter and mediator.
- While helping the governor of Massachusetts, William Bradford, to gather information on the Wampanoag, he was captured and held by them. Myles Standish, a Pilgrim with a military background, sent a group of settlers to find out what happened to him. When it was discovered that Squanto was alive, he rejoined the Pilgrims and continued to assist them.
- At one point, Squanto was formally accused of spreading a rumor that the Indians planned to attack the English settlers. William Bradford, the governor of the Plymouth Colony, saved him from punishment and acknowledged all of the good he had done and his role in helping the settlers survive.
- He died of “Indian Fever” at the age of 42.
- Squanto remains an important figure in the Pilgrim narrative and the celebration of Thanksgiving.
The original site for the nation’s capital was not on the banks of the Potomac.
On October 7, 1783, Congress voted eight (Northern and Middle States) to four (Southern States) for a section of undeveloped land near the falls of the Delaware River, just south of Trenton, NJ, rejecting the Southern proposal of such land near the falls of the Potomac River. This caused much consternation among the Congressional Delegates, resulting in a motion to establish a second capital on that site. On October 21, 1783, this motion was passed, and Congress had now authorized two capitals for the new government. In most delegates’ view, such an outcome was unavoidable, as otherwise, the union would possibly have split along regional lines. And there it sat for another six-plus years.
The question once again raised its head during the Congress of 1789. The new US Constitution authorized Congress to create a federal district outside of any existing state structure as the permanent seat of government, leaving the choice of such a site up to the Congress. Two sites became serious contenders: one on the Potomac River near Georgetown and the other on the Susquehanna River near what is now Columbia, PA. The House approved the Susquehanna River site in September 1789, and the Senate bill specified a site on the Delaware River near Germantown, Pennsylvania; these bills were not reconciled.
Finally, in 1790, a compromise was brokered that resulted in the Residence Act of that year, authorizing the capital to be built on the banks of the Potomac.
The original name of what is now Pennsylvania was New Wales.
The original name of what is now Pennsylvania was New Wales, given by William Penn upon receipt of the land from King Charles II, and granted as a payment of a debt owed to Admiral William Penn. A Welsh member of the English Privy Council objected, so Penn renamed it Sylvania (Woods). The king renamed it Pennsylvania in honor of the Admiral William’s father. See letter below.
The day after the Pennsylvania charter was published, March 5, 1681, William Penn wrote to his friend Robert Turner as follows: “…this day my country was confirmed to me under the Great Seal of England with large powers and privileges, by the name of Pennsylvania, a name the King (i.e., Charles II) would give it in honor to my father (i.e., Admiral Sir William Penn). I chose New-Wales, being as this a pretty hilly country, but Penn being Welsh for a head (i.e. pen), as Penmaenmawr in Wales and Penrith in Cumberland and Penn in Buckinghamshire, the highest land in England (this is not true), called this Pennsylvania which is the high or head woodlands. For I proposed, when the secretary, a Welshman, refused to have it called New-Wales, Sylvania, and they added Penn to it; and though I much opposed it and went to the King to have it struck out and altered, he said it was passed, and he would take it upon him. Nor could twenty guineas move the undersecretaries to vary the name, for I feared lest it should be looked on as a vanity to me and not as a respect in the King, as it truly was, to my father whom he often mentions with praise.”