I’ve been doing a lot of reading about early American history lately, in preparation for a podcast series coming in 2026. This month, my focus has unintentionally shifted to the Puritans and Pilgrims who traveled to the New World to escape religious persecution in Europe. We often reduce these early religious pioneers to caricatures—funny hat-wearing dandies unprepared for the hardships of the wilderness and saved by Native Americans at the first Thanksgiving. Even worse, many modern depictions of the Pilgrims often demonize their fundamentalist views on God and life.
As I have sorted through the historical stories and facts, I realize I share much more in common with the Pilgrims than I initially thought, especially their willingness to approach their faith with a sobriety and conviction that often went against and even broke the social norms of those around them. When I consider the community of believers I walk with today, four hundred years after the Pilgrims arrived in the New World, the thought keeps resonating in my mind: “We would have been Pilgrims!”
The Pilgrims lived through dark and perilous times. The religious wars across Europe lasted for generations. A fierce nationalism had penetrated both Catholic and Protestant communities. Many of those Pilgrims who traveled to the New World grew up reading Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, which documents Christians who died for their faith, including those murdered during Queen Mary I’s reign, a Catholic ruler nicknamed Bloody Mary. Although Mary’s successors showed more tolerance, the dangers persisted, especially for those who refused to compromise their religious beliefs and principles.
The Pilgrims saw a corrupt and defiled religious system, not only among the Catholics but also within the state-supported Church of England. They were committed to a pure reading of scripture and wanted to avoid any religious practice that compromised that purity. When taking communion, they refused to kneel, as they saw no evidence that the apostles in the New Testament did so. They viewed images of the cross in many churches as signs of idolatry. They rejected the church’s hierarchy and the veneration of saints. They also despised the Book of Common Prayer. To the Pilgrims, all these things distracted from God’s truth in scripture. Because of this, they separated themselves from the Church of England, becoming outlaws in the eyes of many.
In 1620, the Pilgrims set sail on the Mayflower seeking a place to worship freely and create a “model Christian society.” Persecuted in England and unhappy with life in Holland, they believed God called them to the New World. Once there, they drafted the Mayflower Compact, a covenant invoking God’s authority and Scripture as the basis for self-governance.
We know the story of the first Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims’ faith carried (some of) them through the devastating first winter, when half of their number died in harsh conditions. Survivors saw their suffering as a test of obedience, much like Israel’s trials in the wilderness. They lived spiritual lives, prioritizing the call of God above everything else – and they sacrificed greatly for such a way of life. Daily prayer, Scripture reading, and reliance on God became their lifeline.
By pioneering Plymouth Colony, the Pilgrims showed how religious beliefs could influence political, social, and spiritual life. Their legacy was not just about survival but about creating a community where faith in God and the Bible guided every choice, laying the groundwork for future religious freedom in America.
The timing of these readings and the celebration of Thanksgiving today felt too coincidental for me not to take a moment to consider and reflect for those who follow the blog and newsletter here at theeendofhistory.net.
The Pilgrims were not perfect people, and their understanding of God’s purposes and plans often remained limited by their own biases. However, they still represent part of the spiritual heritage for those who seek God’s truth above all else and are willing to make sacrifices in pursuit of it.
Interested in reading some of the books I have been reading lately? Here is a link to those books:
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War
Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty
In the Beginning was the Word: The Bible in American Public Life 1492-1783
