MAYFLOWER TRUTH
Thank you for the informative article ‘Mayflower 400’ by Felix Rowe in your February issue.
During a visit to Plymouth last year I learnt that the current ‘Mayflower Steps’ in the harbour are actually Victorian. The site of the original steps is believed to be beneath the ladies toilets in the nearby Admiral MacBride Public House! Land reclamation was the reason given for its distance from the current water’s edge.
The Mayflower Museum was very informative, and the shop had several interesting books including Telling the Mayflower Story by Danny Reilly and Steve Cushion which opened my eyes to the reality of events rather than the romanticised version. The reader is advised that the Pilgrim Fathers “were as intolerant of other people’s religious beliefs as the Church of England was of theirs. Their belief in freedom and democracy only extended to members of their own church and they had no objections to selling the Indigenous population into slavery.”
The colonisation of America was really an invasion, with the indigenous people forced off their land, killed by disease or violence, or sold as slaves to landowners in the West Indies. It has been estimated that the indigenous population reduced by 90 per cent by 1700.
Since September sees the 400th anniversary of the departure of the Mayflower, surely it is the time for the true and full story of the English invasion of America to be told.
Anne Sherman, by email