Impressions of New England, USA
New England covers six states of the US, caught between New York State and Canada: Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. Their history is to a great extent common, all quite prosperously inhabited by coastal indigenous tribes before Europeans showed up and all dotted with European settlements well before the end of the 17th century. The European influx was essentially powered by English Protestant congregations and communities turning their backs on their home country's hesitation or even straightforward refusal to embrace Calvin's reformatory ideas into the Church of England. 'Puritans', 'Quakers', 'Pilgrims', they all shared the same need to escape from persecution, especially after the restoration of the monarchy in England in 1660. They also shared the same desire to start a new life overseas, somewhere in the unknown lands recently discovered across the North Atlantic. Tight, austere and determined communities as they were, they managed to survive – at least a number of them... – and they flourished. Their deep Christianity saw no issue in slavery or slave trade, though, but, all right, they were at least on the right side of things to abolish this abomination in the Civil War of the 1860s. Better late than not at all. Fact is that New England had in the meantime developed into one of the most prosperous regions of the US, the traces of which are very visible today: the Ocean Drive mansions of the 'Gilded Age', the thriving radiation of Boston, the upscale and affluent elegance of small port towns like New Haven, Hyannis, Nantucket and Bar Harbor speak for themselves. And for themselves also speak the magnificent natural richesses of New England, whether viewed from the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire or Cadillac Mountain in Maine, on the snow-covered slopes of Vermont or along the seaboard in Connecticut. The variety of experiences travelling through the states of New England is endless.
* Scanned slides 1987-1990
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The 'Pilgrims' belonged to an English Protestant congregation which broke away from the Church of England and was therefore considered to be a separatist state-hostile movement under the leadership of John Smith. Persecuted and punished with death penalties in England, the 'Pilgrims' initially fled to the Netherlands, where they settled in 1607 in Leiden, Amsterdam and Middelburg. They eventually decided to resettle move on to the New World, quite a tricky decision as their first attempts failed due to the untrustworthiness of their ship, the 'Speedwell'. They finally managed to reach Plymouth in England, teamed up with other congregations and left on board the 'Mayflower' in 1620. Roughly two months, a couple of heavy storms and considerable losses of life to scurvy later, the Pilgrims of the Mayflower, made landfall at Cape Cod. They finally ended up in the tribal lands of the Patuxet Indians and established their settlement, named after the city from where they had left the Old Continent, Plymouth. A year later, only half of the Pilgrims were still alive. The survivors celebrated their first harvest in 1621, welcoming in their midst a group of Wampanoag Indians who had taught them to grow corn and other local food. How could these Indians have known that this first Thanksgiving only heralded the beginning of their oppression, exploitation and gradual extinction. Plimoth Patuxet Village is a living history recreation of the 17th century environment of Pilgrims life and their contact with the Patuxet tribe.
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