William Bradford – The Pull Of The Land

Do You Have Beer?

November 24, 2021November 24, 2021 Richard Barnes

In past Thanksgiving times, we have quoted from William Bradford’s journal to tell of Squanto and of Bradford’s first Thanksgiving proclamation (here and here).

Bradford’s journal lists the 102 Mayflower passengers and then, heartbreakingly, tells of the deaths of half their number that winter of 1620 – 1621. By the spring of 1621, only 53 remained. And the small group did their best to appear to be more: they buried their dead in unmarked graves, they shot their muskets at different spots, making it seem that many more were shooting, and so forth.

The first contacts between Europeans and the native tribes of those parts occurred about a century before the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620. Similar to the Mountain Men in the 19th Century American west, traders and fishermen sailed or otherwise explored along the coasts of New England in the 16th century, seeking furs, fish, and other raw materials. And they unknowingly prepared the way for those who would come later. In the case of the Mountain Men, their footsteps, trails, and dealings with the Indians later guided or hindered pioneering families in the west; similarly, their forebears, the European traders and fishers, guided or hindered the Pilgrims and Puritans in the 17th century east.

The Pilgrims arrived at what is now Plymouth Rock. That region was known as Patuxet (“little falls”). About a decade before, the tribe that lived there had been wiped out by a plague. There was one member of that tribe who was not present: Squanto. He and nineteen others had been treacherously betrayed and sent to Spain as slaves by Thomas Hunt, an English mariner.

Bradford’s comment pithily summarizes the Pilgrims’ opinion of Mr. Hunt: “… like a wretched man that cares not what mischief he does for his profit ….”

However, Providence had its reasons. Squanto was set free in Spain and made his way to England where he learned English. He eventually sailed back as an interpreter to Thomas Dermer. But he found his tribe completely annihilated.

And that brings us to Samoset.

Chief Massasoit of the Massachusett Indians had a decision to make: expel the Pilgrims or form an alliance with them? Although his tribe had not been directly affected, the memory of men like Hunt was recent and portentous.

Squanto told Chief Massasoit about the wonders he had seen and experienced in England and urged him to seek peace with the Pilgrims. The chief then consulted with Samoset, a satrap or lesser chief of the Abenakki Indians from present day Maine. The chief sent Samoset as his emissary to the Pilgrims.

In mid-March, 1621, Samoset walked confidently into the Pilgrim colony and asked, “Do you have beer?” The alarmed Pilgrims were immediately put at ease when they heard their mother tongue spoken by this half naked “savage” who had learned to speak as they from mariners along the coast.

Samoset spent some time with them, telling them about the terrain and the other tribes that surrounded them. He left them, promising to return. And he did so, this time with our friend, Squanto. They both told the Pilgrims that Chief Massasoit and sixty men would be coming to visit them. That startled the Pilgrims yet again, but they learned there was no cause for alarm.

William Bradford’s good friend, Edward Wilson, spoke with the chief, using Squanto as translator. The parties agreed to a treaty which lasted decades, neither side ever violating the terms.

Edward Winslow’s letter to his “loving and old friend” tells us much about these events and the First Thanksgiving. We will close this post with the concluding paragraphs of that letter, dated “this 11 of December, 1621” (emphasis mine):

“We have found the Indians very faithful in their covenant of peace with us; very loving and ready to pleasure us: we often go to them, and they come to us; some of us have been fifty miles by land in the country with them … yea, it hath pleased God so to possess the Indians with a fear of us, and love unto us, that not only the greatest king amongst them called Massasoit, but also all the princes and peoples round about us, have either made suit unto us, or been glad of any occasion to make peace with us, so that seven of them at once have sent their messengers to us to that end …. [They] have yielded willingly to be under the protection, and subjects to our sovereign Lord King James, so that there is now great peace amongst the Indians themselves, which was not formerly, neither would have been but for us; and we … walk as peaceably and safely in the wood, as in the highways in England, we entertain them familiarly in our houses, and they as friendly bestowing their venison on us ….

“… so I take my leave, commending you to the Lord for a safe conduct unto us. Resting in Him

Your loving Friend,

E. W.

*Jeremiah Johnson*, the 1972 film is, in my opinion, the best Robert Redford movie. He plays a Mountain Man and does so with grit and a character development arc from comic naiveté to vengeful anger. As you watch it, remember, it was men like him who prepared the way for those who’d come after and settle and develop and more.

Signing of the Mayflower Compact. Edward Wilson stands at center with his right hand on the table and left hand holding the ink jar

The Pilgrims were put at ease as soon as Samoset asked for beer.

The First Thanksgiving Declaration, Governor William Bradford

November 27, 2020November 27, 2020 Richard Barnes

“Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.

“Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the daytime, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.”

William Bradford

Ye Governor of Ye Colony

That first formal declaration was three years after their arrival, when practices and habits had begun to solidify. However, the very first Thanksgiving was in 1621, most likely in November, a year after their arrival. In that year’s winter, their first, about half their company perished, including their first governor, John Carver, who died in April:

“He was buried in the best manner they could, with some vollies of shott by all that bore arms; and his wife, being weak, dyed within five or six weeks after him.”

All previous burials had been done in secret because they did not want the Indians to know how alarmingly depleted their number was becoming. This was the first burial done openly.

During that year they made a treaty with the Indians, the Wampanoag, which treaty was honored by both parties for decades, until Plymouth Colony had ceased to exist, having been folded into the Massachusetts colony.

From Bradford’s journal:

“Our harvest being gotten in, our governor [he always wrote in the third person] sent four men on fowling, that we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as served the company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms. King Massasoit, with some ninety men, we entertained and feasted with for three days. They went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by goodness of God, we are so far from want.”

The words of our Lord Jesus Christ certainly apply to the Pilgrims: “Ye are the light of the world”.

Bradford seemed to sense the portentousness of their voyage, their survival, and their prosperity, when he wrote:

“Thus out of smalle beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand [Who] made all things that are; and as one small candle may light a thousands, so ye light here kindled hath shone to many, yea in some sorte to our whole nation; let ye glorious name of Jehova have all ye praise.”

The character of the Pilgrims is worthy of emulation by us all today, 400 years after their arrival.

Most of all, the attitude of gratitude. Entire families had died; many survivors had lost loved ones and friends. But they knew, they sincerely knew, to be grateful.

They honored God and God honored them.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

P.S. If you’d like to read about Squanto, please see my 2019 Thanksgiving post (Squanto).

Signing of the Mayflower Compact (see here for more on that event).

William Bradford (1590 – 1657), Governor of Plymouth Colony.

Artist rendition of the First Thanksgiving

Ranchitos I

February 1, 2020February 1, 2020 Richard Barnes

In Venezuela, ranchitos (or barrios) are like Brazil’s favelas, the shanty towns which grew around Rio de Janeiro and now are ubiquitous in metropolitan areas throughout Brazil. Argentina has Villa Miseria or asentamientos; Chile has campamentos; Colombia, tugurios; and so on.

To generalize, these are “informal settlements.” Man-on-the-street terms range from slums to shacks to squatter settlements, etc.

They are a sight to behold.

A visitor to the once dynamic, modern, enterprising city of Caracas is amazed as he emerges from one of the last tunnels leading from the international airport in Maiquetía, and, before getting a glimpse of the capital city’s shiny skyscrapers, he is slapped with a view of colorful, makeshift, paper shacks, stacked sky-high, side by side, grasping the massive mountainsides for miles.

“Who lives here?! Who can live here?”

By latest estimates, about 700,000 in Argentina, 48,000 in Chile, 300,000 in Colombia, and 12,000,000 in Brazil. About 1,000,000 Venezuelans make their homes in ranchitos, 800,000 of which are in Caracas. But the Venezuela figures are old and suspect. Meaning, the numbers now are likely higher.

What caused these to begin with?

In the case of Venezuela, a few sources says the “oil boom” was to blame. However, that boom began in the early 20th century, whereas the ranchitos exploded in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.

Other sources simply presuppose the ranchitos and just report the headache these are to different politicians in different eras. One source actually said that Hugo Chavez was the first politician to declare “war” on the ranchitos, which is laughable propaganda. Hearing about governments’ plans to attack the ranchitos takes me back to my childhood, which long preceeded Chavez.

I recently asked my dear 89-year-old mother what she could recall regarding the origins of the ranchitos.

“I remember when they began appearing. The usual commentary was that they were poor people leaving the conucos [small family farms] and coming to the capital city on the basis of promises of high-paying jobs, which did not materialize for them.”

But why did they come in the mid-twentieth century and not before?

This is not a mere academic matter. As I’ve written in other posts, most recently in the post on Spain and the Reformation (Spain and the Reformation), “…North, Central, and South America have more in common with one another than is usually assumed….” Perhaps by understanding at least some of the causes behind the ranchitos of Venezuela, we would not only better understand our neighbor(s), but we might even avoid some of the pitfalls that have bedeviled them.

First, we’ll review the encomienda system brought to the New World during the Spanish discovery and conquest. Future posts will look at the hacienda system and subsequent “land reforms”, which have been the bane of peoples around the globe and yet continue to function as a siren call to many.

The much-maligned encomienda system was intended to protect and instruct the native population. In general, the system “granted” areas or regions to the Spanish Conquistadores, soldiers, and other pioneers with the encomienda — the trust, the charge, the responsibility — to protect, evangelize, and catechize all the peoples in their areas, their encomendados.

Significantly, this did not include a transfer of land ownership. The Crown insisted the land revert to the native population. The encomendero — the receiver of the grant — could exact tribute from the peoples in their encomienda in the form of minerals, produce, or labor.

In addition, the encomenderos were required to pay tribute to the crown and, as if that weren’t disincentive enough, the grants’ durations were limited to no more than two successive generations.

Had the Crown or its ministers somehow have been able to travel to the future century and read William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Colony they would have anticipated the deadly flaw in such an arrangement. Without ownership, incentives for industry and production were disfigured. Good men did their best but also had to look out for their own interests, including, in the case of many, outright confiscations of the lands, albeit with kind treatment of the natives, in many cases also granting them small parcels of land outright. Others, in effect, mistreated and enslaved the Indians. These are the ones who ended up incentivizing Bartolomé de las Casas to produce his dangerous broad-brush propaganda, which caused havoc in subsequent centuries and which is so much with us to this very day. For more on the monk and his writings, refer to the post, Simón Bolivar (Simon Bolivar).

The encomienda system produced gratifying results early on, including decent education and learning of the Spanish language, something that genuinely impressed the anti-Spaniard, Alexander Humboldt. But overall it did not render good fruit and was officially ended in the late 18th century, although historical records reflect no new conferments of encomiendas after 1721.

It is instructive to note that the encomienda system was in effect in Spain itself, but with one critical difference: in Spain, unlike in the New World, the encomenderos were actually granted title to the lands.

To her credit, Spain believed that once the Indios had been catechized and educated they would become good subjects of the Spanish crown and would be treated as such, ownership of land. This helps explain why the Latin American wars for independence required so much malignment of Spain, including resurrecting Bartolomé de las Casas to once again preach his hatred. And despite the relentless propaganda, many 19th-century Latin Americans disbelieved their betters and resisted the wars. Hence, the unbelievable bloodletting, especially in Venezuela with 33% of its population eradicated. It’s been persuasively argued that those wars were actually civil wars as opposed to wars for independence.

What followed the encomienda system was the equally-maligned hacienda system, which was an improvement, and which depended much on the character of the hacendados.

This “ancient history” is important and is with us still. For example, many of the original land holdings in Texas originated from Spanish land grants which were honored by the Texas Republic after independence. The beginnings of the world-renowned King Ranch are marked by Captain King’s purchase of a 15,500-acre Mexican land grant in the mid-19th century.

What’s more, Captain King himself established a sort of encomienda wherein, during a devastating drought where the people of Cruillas in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, in order to survive, sold him all their cattle. As he and his men rode the herd back to his ranch in Texas, he suddenly realized the people of Cruillas would not survive. He turned his horse and he and his men rode back and offered the people protection and pay if they came with him and worked in his ranch along with his men. The people agreed and became known as LosKiñenos, whose descendants still work at the ranch.

And do not live in ranchitos.

We will look at the hacienda system in a future post.

*Ranchitos* around the capital city of Caracas, Venezuela

Thanksgiving, 2019

November 27, 2019November 27, 2019 Richard Barnes

You might remember the story of Squanto, the Wampanoag Indian who, circa 1608, was captured by a Captain Hunt and sold into slavery in Spain. He was purchased by a well-meaning monk who taught him the basics of the Christian faith. Squanto eventually made his way to England and worked for a John Slaney who was sympathetic to him and promised that he would do all he could to see that Squanto made his way back home to Massachusetts. That promise was kept and, in 1619, over ten years after his kidnapping, Squanto, now an English-speaker, was back in Plymouth, Massachusetts, only to learn that all his loved ones and companions had died of an epidemic.

Accounts vary, but all agree on the major events: from America to Europe and back to America to find himself desolate.

A year later, the Pilgrims landed, knowing no one in that “desolate wilderness,” and over half of them perished that winter. Then they met Squanto. Here is how William Bradford, the long-time governor wrote about Squanto in the classic, Of Plymouth Plantation (he always wrote in the third person): “…but Squanto continued with them and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation. He directed them how to set their corn, where to take fish, and to procure other commodities, and was also their pilot to bring them to unknown places for their profit, and never left them till he died.”

Squanto was at that first Thanksgiving in 1621. Both he and the Pilgrims expressed their thankfulness to God for His bountiful mercies. How is this possible in the face of so much desolation and death? Because God is good. We only see part, but He knows the end from the beginning of a story whose chapters are still being uncovered for us. Catastrophic events are only part of that story. In similar fashion Martin Rinckart could write the wondrous Now Thank We All Our God within the context of The Thirty Years’ War and pestilence which carried away thousands of his fellow citizens and parishioners, including his own beloved wife.

Bradford was at Squanto’s side as he lay dying. Squanto “desired the Governor to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen’s God in heaven.” He asked that his possessions be given to his Pilgrim friends “as remembrances of his love.” The Pilgrims were deeply affected by this “great loss,” yet they remained a people characterized by thankfulness to God.

I appreciate living in a land where Thanksgiving is a national holiday. We used to observe it in the mining camp in El Pao, and it was observed in American camps and facilities all over the world as I was growing up. This is a quintessentially American observance.

And it’s a good observance, because, rightly observed, it can compel us to pause and consider His blessings, which are beyond number.

Lillie and I think of men and women who impacted our lives when we were children in Puerto Rico and Venezuela, respectively. We are thankful for the friendships that our parents cultivated and are amazed, and deeply moved, when we consider that those friendships survived the death of some of our parents, even to this day.

We are grateful for childhood friends who are still faithful friends. What a treasure!

We are thankful for the members of our extended families. Each of you have had an influence on us and we thank you, dear uncles, cousins, loved ones.

We are thankful for our grandparents. I was fortunate to have met Lillie’s maternal great-grandparents and her grandparents (both sets), and my maternal grandmother. What men and women of character they were! But I am also grateful for my father’s patiently telling me (and re-telling, because I always wanted to hear more!) about his father and mother, my paternal grandparents. Even though I never met them, I feel like I know them and often in life have asked myself how my grandfather or my grandmother would react or think about certain situations in life.

I also met my father’s last living uncle, having visited him in a retirement home in Arizona in 1980 shortly before his passing away. The memory of that short visit still possesses the power to move me deeply. He was quite a man.

We are grateful for the small churches we knew in Latin America. For the humble, unassuming, yet hearty and steadfast brethren who loved us. Many of them said little, but their lives said much! I recall at least two of them who were rescued by a Loving God from lives of dissipation. They said little, but their renewed characters and lives have affect me increasingly as the years go by.

We are most thankful for our parents, who have been careful to encourage us to appreciate what has gone before. Thanks to them, we deeply appreciate you, our aunts, uncles, and cousins, and friends. Our fathers and mothers would be the first to deny perfection in anything, but if we could attain a good measure of their character, we would do well indeed!

Each of you whose paths have crossed ours, are not a “happenstance” to us, nor we to you. Our Good Lord sees to it that all has a purpose which continues to work itself out for our good and His glory.

As we thank Him, we also thank you for your kindness and love and care which in many cases have been a constant through the years.

May you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Psalm 100

Plaque honoring Martin Rinckart in Eilenburg, Germany

Now thank we all our God,
with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done,
in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms
has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.
First stanza of the hymn Now Thank We All Our God by Martin Rinckart