Textes d'élèves publié le 08/01/2008
Hello ! I’m called James and I’m English. All my family and I are protestant, calvinists actually.
In September 1620 we left England with a group of religious refugees called "the Pilgrim Fathers" aboard the Mayflower and we spent 65 days at sea.
We had previously fled from our home in England and sailed to Holland (the Netherlands) to escape religious persecution. There we enjoyed more religious tolerance but we eventually became disenchanted with the Dutch way of life, thinking it was ungodly. Since we were looking for a better life, we negociated with a London stock company to finance a trip to America.
During the voyage which lasted 65 days there were violent storms and some people got sick and died. We made a first stop in Newfoundland, then a second one in Cape Cod in November and we finally arrived in Plymouth , Massachusetts in December 1620. The first winter was terrible. It was very cold and it snowed a lot. At the beginning of the following fall, we had lost 46 of the original 102 passengers of the Mayflower. But thank God, native Americans live in our area, they are called the Wampanoag Indians. They helped us, they showed us how to plant Indian corn. They also taught us about poisonous plants and natural medicines, so we had enough food for the winter.
In autumn 1621, we had a big dinner to thank God for the successful crop and we invited 91 Indians ,who had helped us survive our first year, to join us in our celebration. The feast lasted three days.
Nowadays, in the United States Thanksgiving is celebrated every fourth Thursday in November. People usually organise a big dinner party and have indian corn, turkey with cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie. Each year the President of the United States pardons a turkey before Thanksgiving at a White House ceremony. An in New York city, in Manhattan exactly, there is a huge Thanksgiving Parade.
Chloé GUERIN
Hello ! My name is Harry. I’m protestant, I’m a calvinist and I lived in London, in England until 1620. I’m married to Elizabeth and I have two sons called Jack and Will. After spending 12 years in exile in Holland, some friends of mine, other protestants and I decided to leave London as the King James I persecuted us.
We left London in 1620 on board the Mayflower. We were 102 religious refugees called the Pilgrim Fathers. All my family left with me except my sister who converted to catholicism. We made a few stops in England before arriving in Plumouth. In Plumouth we stored food before leaving for our long trip to the New World where we hoped to be free to practice our religion. We left Plymouth early on September 6th 1620. We did not feel sorry. Our voyage took 81 days, some of us got sick but only one died. I did not know him very well but I think he was a peasant. We had to stop in Newfoundland at the beginning of November in order to get some more food and we continued our trip toward the Hudson River. Unfortunately a violent storm made us change our plans and we stopped in Cape Cod in Massachusetts.
When I arrived on the American soil, I found the place beautiful ; it was on November 26 1620. Very soon, we decided to create a town we called "Plymouth" near Cape Cod, the place where we had arrived. We started sowing English seeds but nothing came out. The first winter was very cold and we starved. That winter 62 people died. In the spring, hope came back thanks to the Wampanoag Indians who showed us how to plant corn, pumpkins, potatoes and how to hunt turkeys. We were all friends and felt like a large family. My son even married a native called "Small Squirrel".
One year after our arrival, in November 1621, we invited the Wampanoags for a big dinner to thank them for their help. We ate indian corn, pumpkin, mashed potatoes, turkey with cranberry sauce and pumpkin-pie. We also organised that dinner to thank God for supporting us in our adventure.
And since then, every year on the fourth Thursday in November we, American people celebrate Thanksgiving to commemorate our arrival in Plumouth and our meeting with the Wampanoags.
Laure BRUET