What Really Happened at Plymouth
In an excerpt from Conceived in Liberty, Murray Rothbard tells the true story of the Plymouth Colony. "The first successful settlement in New England was something of an accident. By 1617 the Pilgrims had determined to leave the Netherlands, where their youth were supposedly being corrupted by the 'licentiousness' of even the Calvinist Dutch, who, for example, persisted in enjoying the Sabbath as a holiday rather than bearing it as a penance. In mid-December 1620 the Mayflower landed at Plymouth. In a duplication of the terrible hardships of the first Virginia settlers, half of the colonists were dead by the end of the first winter. A major reason for the persistent hardships, for the 'starving time,' in Plymouth as before in Jamestown, was the communism imposed by the company." FULL ARTICLE
Comments (1)
Tom Fiedler
At first blush this Rothbard piece may strike one as some angry historical revisionist tirade. However, we need not read more than a paragraph beyond the title ,"What Really Happened at Plymouth" to discover the answer is revealed in more history as opposed to "alternative" (which usually means contrary) being brought to bear.
It is profoundly disappointing to see the persecuted and oppressed respond to their condition through either rebellion or separation only to make themselves the replacement engine of persecution and oppression.
Is it our human (fallen for the faithful) nature that causes us to edit out the bad news? While I cannot speak for others, that tendency is far too strong in myself.
What is so refreshing about Rothbard, the Skousens, Hayek, Von Mises, Bastiat, Adam Smith and even Machiavelli's scathing exposure of republics is that they either present several perspectives and/or are deliberately transparent in disclosing their own biases.
This is so informative I wish it was required reading for anyone wishing to debate the worldview heritage of the United States in particular and the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (New World) in General.
Such a perspective may apply to modern Israel as well.
Published: November 28, 2006 2:46 AM