Plimoth at 400 Editor's Introduction

Abstract

When Boston entered its pandemic lockdown in early March, it forced the cancellation of the Congregational Library's symposium “1620: New Perspectives on the Pilgrim Legacy.” With the cooperation of the director of the library, the Rev. Stephen Butler Murray, the four presenters—Carla Gardina Pestana, David Silverman, John G. Turner, and Francis Bremer—agreed to have the QUARTERLY publish revised versions of their talks with Kenneth P. Minkema as the guest editor of the papers. Far from seeing Plimoth as a minor backwater in the English settlement of Massachusetts, each of the essays situates the history of Plymouth Colony in more complex contexts: in its web of Atlantic connections, in the Indigenous identification of Anglo settlement as a cause of mourning, in its participation in the processes of enslavement, and in its larger impact upon the puritan, New England Way.