History of Plymouth, MA

After these explorations, two plagues afflicted coastal New England in 1614 and 1617. Likely transmitted from British and French fishermen to natives on the shore, it killed between 90 and 95% of the local Wampanoag inhabitants. The near disappearance of the tribe from the site not only left their cornfields and other cleared areas for the soon-to-arrive Pilgrims to occupy, but also meant that the Indians were in no condition to resist the arrival of the colonists.

Colonial era

Plymouth has played an important role in American colonial history. It was the final landing site of the first voyage of the Mayflower, and the location of the original settlement of the Plymouth Colony. Plymouth was established in 1620 by Anglicans and English separatists who had broken away from the Church of England, believing that the Church had not completed the work of the Protestant Reformation. Today, these settlers are much better known as "Pilgrims", a term coined by William Bradford.

The Mayflower first anchored in what would become the harbor of Provincetown, Massachusetts on November 11, 1620. The ship was headed for Virginia, but eventually reached New England. There are varying theories as to how this happened. They include: violent storms threw the ship off course; a navigation error; the Dutch bribed the captain to sail north so the Pilgrims would not settle near New Amsterdam; and the Pilgrims on the Mayflower, who comprised only 35 of the 102 settlers aboard the Mayflower, hijacked the ship to land far from Anglican control. The Pilgrim settlers, realizing that the party did not have a patent to settle in the region, subsequently signed the Mayflower Compact