William Bradford Influence On Of Plymouth Plantation

Separatist, governor, and historian are some of the titles given to William Bradford, one of the first early American authors. Bradford, a native of Yorkshire, England, joined the Separatist religious movement while a teenager. He and fellow Separatists, later named the Pilgrims, endured religious persecution in England and eventually immigrated to America on the Mayflower in 1620. As a leader of the Plymouth Colony, Bradford served off and on as governor for almost thirty years. Bradford is best known for his two-book series Of Plymouth Plantation, written between 1630-1650, documenting the early years of Plymouth Colony. He later wrote several poems and dialogues aimed at teaching younger generations. Bradford’s writings are significant to American Literature
Bradford tells of how God blessed His chosen people and “delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof “(Bradford 75). Even when disease and famine in the first winter killed half of the settlers, he writes that God gave them strength to overcome. A Puritan ideal was a community dedicated to living a pure lifestyle with a clear sense of right and wrong. Within the Colony there were several clashes with non-pilgrim “strangers” (Bradford 81), who had values and lifestyles not in keeping with the Puritan ideals. Prosperity in the later years of the Colony was believed by Bradford to be the cause of the dismantling of the community of believers as individuals left the towns to tend their own land (Davis 1). Important to future generations of Americans is the recounting of the Mayflower Compact and democratic government set up in Plymouth that was based on the organization of Puritan churches. The plain style of speech favored by the Puritans is found throughout the book. Text that is simple, direct, and straightforward is exemplified in Bradford’s