Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

William Bradford (Of Plymouth Plantation) was a sickly child who spent most of his time reading his Bible. Though a devout teenager, he came to dislike the way his Church of England congregation worshipped and interpreted scripture. He joined the Separatist movement and when they were forced to leave England to avoid persecution, he followed them to Leiden. . Bradford married Dorothy May in 1613 and the couple had a son, John, who remained in Leiden when they sailed for the New World in 1620.

Bradford had already risen to prominence among the Leiden Separatists, and eventually became governor of Plymouth when John Carver died. Bradford was instrumental in fostering peace with the Pokanokets, and helped to construct Plymouth from the ground up. He also helped to devise the Mayflower Compact, and numerous diplomatic agreements with Massasoit. He became close friends with a controversial Native American named Squanto, so much so that he put the colony’s safety at risk by defending him.

In his later years, Bradford was ashamed and saddened by the declining religious beliefs of the Pilgrims. He felt that many of their problems, and the problems of greater New England, such as the escalating tensions with Native Americans, were a result of God’s wrath.