When forty-one men aboard the Mayflower dipped their quills into ink on November 11, 1620, they were not thinking about textbooks, future democracies, or the birth of a nation. They were thinking about survival. Cold winds whipped across the deck. The smell of damp wood, sickness, and exhaustion clung to the ship. Many passengers were …
On September 16, 1620, a small wooden ship slipped away from the port of Plymouth in southern England and set its bow toward the unknown. The vessel was called the Mayflower, a merchant ship never designed for the burden of history it would soon carry, and aboard were just over one hundred passengers — men, …
