Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

Wampum was a form of currency used by the Native Americans. Wampum took the form of shells, and the Pilgrims soon adopted its use. This form of currency allowed Pilgrims to establish a form of trade with the Native Americans and establish an economy for their new settlement.

Maize was a native food that became instrumental to the Pilgrims’ survival. The Pilgrims first encountered it when they stole some of it from a Native American storage site owned by the Nausets. The theft may have helped to create the initial distrust of the Pilgrims in the region’s Native population, and its theft highlights how strongly the Pilgrims believed in their own morality: to them, it was a “justified” crime. When the Pilgrims and Pokanokets became friends, the Pokanokets showed the Pilgrims how to plant maize and other crops. Maize was also a staple food at the first Thanksgiving, and continued to be a source of income and sustenance for New Englanders. 

The Mayflower Compact is often viewed as a revolutionary document that established the colonies, but the agreement was actually a way to get the Strangers and Separatists to work with one another. The document declared that the government of Plymouth would be one of civil rule, as opposed to religious rule.