Beyond the Mayflower: History, Culture, and Encounter in Plimoth Colony

Thank you for registering for the online course, Beyond the Mayflower: History, Culture, and Encounter in Plimoth Colony!

Go beyond the familiar Mayflower story and step into the lived experiences of Plimoth Colony. This five-week online course explores the colony’s early struggles, relationships with Native peoples, religious diversity, and everyday life—including the roles of women and the power of literacy and belief. Designed for family historians, Beyond the Mayflower offers essential context to better understand the world your 17th-century ancestors knew.

JOIN THE BROADCASTS

Click here to join the live broadcasts: https://zoom.us/j/95289540275

Thursdays, July 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30, 6:00 – 7:30 PM ET

If you are unable to attend a live session, you will be able to watch a full recording on this webpage for the foreseeable future.

COURSE TOPICS

July 2 – Settlement and Survival: The Early Years of Plimoth Colony
Presented by: Francis J. Bremer

Examine the founding of Plimoth Colony and its earliest challenges, from the perilous Atlantic crossing to the harsh realities of settlement. This session traces the colony’s formative years, highlighting key events, leadership, and the fragile path to survival.

July 9 – Class 2: Encounter and Exchange: Native Peoples and English Settlers
Presented by: David J. Silverman

Explore the complex relationships between Indigenous communities and Plimoth colonists. Moving beyond simplified narratives, this session considers diplomacy, conflict, adaptation, and the perspectives of Native peoples during moments of encounter and change.

July 16 – Class 3: Faith and Practice: Religious Life in Plimoth Colony
Presented by: Francis J. Bremer

Delve into the religious world of Plimoth’s settlers, from Separatist beliefs to broader expressions of faith in early New England. This session examines how religion shaped governance, community life, and individual identity.

July 23 – Class 4: Women of Plimoth: Roles, Realities, and Resilience
Presented by: Donna Watkins

Uncover the lives of women in Plimoth Colony, whose labor, relationships, and resilience were essential to the colony’s survival. This session highlights both everyday experiences and the ways women navigated social and cultural expectations.

July 30 – Class 5: Learning and Legacy: Literacy, Education, and Influence
Presented by: David Lupher

Investigate the intellectual life of Plimoth Colony through its emphasis on literacy, education, and influential texts. This session explores what colonists read, how ideas circulated, and the writings that shaped leaders like William Bradford.

COURSE HANDOUTS

To come.

RECORDED PRESENTATIONS

To come.

INSTRUCTOR BIOS

Francis J. Bremer is Professor Emeritus of History at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. He has also held appointments at Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England and Trinity College, Dublin. Dr. Bremer is the author of over twenty books on puritanism in the Atlantic World, including One Small Candle: The story of the Plymouth puritans and the beginning of English New England (2020). He was one of the editors of the 400th anniversary edition of William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation, co-issued by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and American Ancestors.

David Lupher taught Classics (Greek and Latin languages and Greco-Roman culture) at the University of Puget Sound for over thirty years. His main scholarly interest has been in the reception of Greco-Roman culture in early modern Spanish and British America. He is the author of Romans in a New World: Classical Models in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America (2003) and Greeks, Romans, and Pilgrims: Classical Receptions in Early New England (2017). He is currently completing an edition of the writings of William Bradford in collaboration with Francis Bremer and Kenneth Minkema, to be published by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.

David J. Silverman has taught Native American, Colonial American, and American racial history at George Washington University since 2003. He is the author of six books including The Chosen and the Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States (2026) and This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving (2019). His scholarship, and his undergraduate and graduate advisees, have received multiple honors. He is active as a public historian in giving lectures, authoring opinion pieces, consulting on museum exhibits and legal briefs, and appearing in media. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2000.

Donna Watkins has published articles in magazines, journals, and newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of Diverse Gashes: Governor William Bradford, Alice Bishop, and the Murder of Martha Clarke, Plymouth Colony, 1648, and Weaker Vessels: the Women and Children of Plymouth Colony. Donna has an undergraduate degree in American Studies (CSULA), and she holds graduate degrees in Library and Information Management (USC) and American Studies (CSUF). Alice Bishop, the subject of her first book, is her ninth-great-grandmother. Donna’s career included work as a librarian at the Pasadena Public Library. Recently she has been a popular speaker to many historical organizations throughout California, sharing her research into the women and children of Plymouth Colony. She resides in Fullerton, California, with her husband in a house full of quilts.