Looking Back in Thanksgiving: What Motivated the Pilgrims to Sail to America

Their perseverance, principles, and sacrifice laid the foundations of self-government, freedom, and fair relations.

Four centuries ago, a small group of Christian families set sail in a cargo ship to cross the Atlantic. We call them the Pilgrims. The Mayflower wasn’t a passenger ship. She was leased for this one-way trip across the ocean. About sixty-nine adults and thirty-three kids crammed in the lower deck for the two-month voyage. We know how a two-hour car trip can be with kids! So what motivated these parents to endure weeks of seasick, bored, and antsy kids? There weren’t grandparents and cousins waiting to welcome them. They didn’t have a lot of answers to the questions I’m sure the kids asked. But they did have commitment and solid resolve that we rarely see today.

So why did they come? Their reasons may surprise you! Religious freedom isn’t the entire story. They had freedom in Holland, for the most part.

• Life in Holland was difficult. They were very poor. The extreme circumstances they lived in often kept other Separatists in England from joining them. It was prematurely aging some of them.
• It broke their hearts to see some of their children being drawn away from Christ by the Dutch culture.
• One of the reasons was the education of their children. Parents couldn’t give their children the education that they had received in England.
• Many of their children were forced to work from a young age in Holland to help their families survive.
• They cherished their British heritage and did not want to give that up.
• The Dutch were preparing for possible war with Spain. Religious freedom was threatened by the Spaniards.
• And finally, they also desired to be missionaries inGetting to America wasn’t an easy undertaking!

Let’s look at how William Bradford put it in his Of Plymouth Plantation:

It was answered, that all great, and honorable actions, are accompanied with great difficulties; and must be both enterprised, and overcome with answerable courages. It was granted the dangers were great, but not desperate: the difficulties were many, but not invincible … True it was at such attempts were not to be made, and undertaken without good ground, and reason; not rashly, or lightly as many have done for curiosity, or hope of gain, etc. But their condition was not ordinary; their ends were good and honorable; their calling lawful, and urgent; and therefore they might expect the blessing of God in their proceeding. Yea though they should lose their lives in this action, yet might they have comfort in the same, and their endeavors would be honorable.

With these sentiments and a lot of setbacks along the way, the Pilgrims set out on September 6, 1620, on board the Mayflower. So began two months of seasickness, storms, and scorn from the crew. When they finally came ashore in December of that year, the challenges were just beginning. The Lord providentially led them to a perfect location for their new home. But they were starting from scratch. Their perseverance, principles, and sacrifice laid the foundations of self-government, freedom, and fair relations with the Natives. While our country has certainly not always followed these principles, there can be no doubt that the Mayflower passengers changed the course of history.

Our world doesn’t look much like the seventeenth century. But you may have more in common with the Pilgrims than you think. They were the first English settlers to bring their families with them. They were committed to passing the Faith to the next generations.

It’s easy for homeschooling families to lose a long-term focus when our days are crammed with diaper changes, diagrams, and the decimal system. (That’s not including the laundry, meal prep, and vacuuming.) The homeschooling lifestyle can get overwhelming sometimes. I imagine the Pilgrims felt the same way many times, too. Their first few years were a struggle to just survive! While our resources and environments are very different, may we share the same motivation as the Pilgrims. God will bless our efforts and sacrifice when we strive to raise kids who love Christ, cherish freedom, and follow Him at all cost.