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‘The Plantation of Plimoth’
#1: Good Newes from New England by Edward Winslow, 1624
© 2025 James LaFond
AUG/8/25
or a true Relation of things very remarkable at the Plantation of Plimoth in New-England.
[Winslow’s words are in plain text, with JL comments in brackets. A reduction of the text to bare particulars is the aim of this annotation. The accounts of William Bradford of New England and of Captain John Smith of Virginia, represent 90% of the source material used to misconstrue the first plantings of English America. Those shall be omitted form this study, which shall focus on the vast neglected literature yet to be seriously examined.]
(Omissions noted in parentheses.)
(67 words of generalities)
Written by E. W. who hath borne a part in the forenamed troubles, and there lived since their first Arrivall.
Whereunto is added by him a briefe Relation of a credible intelligence of the present Estate of Virginia. [Which could be of much interest since the Powhatan Uprising began in 1622.]
(42 words general words)
(41 word dedication)
(432 word sermon)
Indeed three things are the overthrow and bane, as I may term it, of plantations.
1. The vain expectation of present profit, which too commonly taketh a principal seat in the heart and affection, though God’s glory, &c. is preferred before it in the mouth with protestation.
[We have been taught that no such profit was sought in new England, only in Virginia. Academics, even atheists, routinely opine that Virginians were godless money hunters and New Englanders liberty loving saints. However, Winslow uses the term “plantations,” and, since only one existed in Virginia, and a few in New England, we should be cautious with our instilled prejudices.]
2. Ambition in their governors and commanders, seeking only to make themselves great, and slaves of all that are under them, to maintain a transitory base honor in themselves, which God oft punisheth with contempt.
[One of the three common problems is enslavement of fellow English. Yet, we are taught that no slaves were held until Africans could be brought in.]
3. The carelessness of those that send over supplies of men unto them, not caring how they be qualified; so that ofttimes they are rather the image of men endued with bestial, yea, diabolical affections, than the image of God, endued with reason, understanding, and holiness.
[Beginning in 1622 orphans and urchins were being rounded up and shipped off as “supplies of men,” to fuel the ambitions of their betters. These were called duty boys and were hated by the planters.]
(144 words of preaching)
[what was wanted was an] … honest man but will be helpful in his kind, and adorn his profession with an upright life and conversation; which doctrine of manners ought first to be preached by giving good example to the poor savage heathens amongst whom they live.
[New England was distinct from Virginia in that nearly half were “puritans,” and that the planters were obsessed with doctrine, with interpretations of law above all else. Greed was shared equally by both provinces, with both growing rich within three generations.]
On the contrary part, what great offence hath been given by many profane men, who being but seeming Christians, have made Christ and Christianity stink in the nostrils of the poor infidels, and so laid a stumbling-block before them. But woe be to them by whom such offences come.
[These men included many who did not plant in New England, such as Captain Hunt, but raided it for slaves.]
(61 words of preaching)
(168 word note to the reader concerning the squalor and sinful nature of the “pilgrim” experiment thus far.)
(148 word apology)
Chapter 1
A BRIEF RELATION OF A CREDIBLE INTELLIGENCE OF THE PRESENT ESTATE OF VIRGINIA.
(68 words of verbosity)
Captain Francis West [1] being in New England about the latter end of May past, sailed from thence to Virginia, and returned in August. In September the same ship and company being discharged by him at Damarin’s Cove, came to New Plymouth, where, upon our earnest inquiry after the state of Virginia since that bloody slaughter committed by the Indians upon our friends and countrymen, the whole ship’s company agreed in this, viz. that upon all occasions they chased the Indians to and fro, insomuch as they sued daily unto the English for peace, who for the present would not admit of any;
[This suggests that the tribes were forced to rise up in response to insults, thieving, slave raiding and the other offenses that the subjects of most English plantations committed against them from 1585 thru 1782.]
that Sir George Early, &c. was at that present employed upon service against them; that amongst many other, Opachancano, the chief emperor, was supposed to be slain; his son also was killed at the same time. And though, by reason of these forenamed broils in the fore part of the year, the English had undergone great want of food, yet, through God’s mercy, there never was more show of plenty, having as much and as good corn on the ground as ever they had. Neither was the hopes of their tobacco crop inferior to that of their corn; so that the planters were never more full of encouragement; which I pray God long to continue, and so to direct both them and us, as his glory may be the principal aim and end of all our actions, and that for his mercy’s sake. Amen.
[This man of New England, who tradition teaches us looked down their noses at their “rivals” in Virginia, rather seems as brothers to them and are served eagerly by the same ships captains and crews.]
Notes
-1. A Captain, named West, living in the 1670s in Virginia, was a Pamunkey Indian with the same last name as his mother, who was “Queen of Pamunkey,” leaving a treaty signed by her and her son. One wonders if there was any relation between this Captain West and the son of the Queen, who, if there was, would have been a grandfather, most likely.]
1,140 words | © James LaFond
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