![Frontispiece Mourt's Relation 1622](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Frontispiece_Mourt%27s_Relation_1622.jpg)
The booklet ''Mourt's Relation'' (full title: ''A Relation or Journal of the Beginning and Proceedings of the English Plantation Settled at Plimoth in New England'') was written between November 1620 and November 1621, and describes in detail what happened from the landing of the ''
Mayflower
''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...
''
Pilgrims on
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...
in
Provincetown Harbor
Provincetown Harbor is a large natural harbor located in the town of Provincetown, Massachusetts. The harbor is mostly deep and stretches roughly from northwest to southeast and from northeast to southwest – one large, deep basin with no dr ...
through their exploring and eventual settling of
Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony (sometimes Plimouth) was, from 1620 to 1691, the British America, first permanent English colony in New England and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. It was first settled by the pa ...
. It was written primarily by
Edward Winslow
Edward Winslow (18 October 15958 May 1655) was a Separatist and New England political leader who traveled on the ''Mayflower'' in 1620. He was one of several senior leaders on the ship and also later at Plymouth Colony. Both Edward Winslow and ...
, although
William Bradford appears to have written most of the first section. The book describes their relations with the surrounding
Native Americans, up to what is commonly called the first
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...
and the arrival of the ship ''Fortune'' in November 1621. ''Mourt's Relation'' was first published and sold by
John Bellamy in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in 1622. This significant tract has often been erroneously cited as "by
George Morton, sometimes called George Mourt" (hence the title ''Mourt's Relation'').
Morton was an
Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
Separatist who had moved to Leiden, Holland. He stayed behind when the first settlers left for
Plymouth, Massachusetts
Plymouth (; historically known as Plimouth and Plimoth) is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. Located in Greater Boston, the town holds a place of great prominence in American history, folklore, and culture, and is known as ...
, but he continued to orchestrate business affairs in Europe and London for their cause—presumably arranging for the publication of and perhaps helping write Mourt's Relation. In 1623, Morton himself emigrated to the Plymouth Colony with his wife Juliana, the sister of Governor William Bradford's wife Alice. But George Morton didn't survive long in the New World; he died the following year in 1624.
George Morton's son
Nathaniel Morton
Capt. Nathaniel Morton (christened 161629 June 1685) was a Separatist settler of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, where he served for most of his life as Plymouth's secretary under his uncle, Governor William Bradford. Morton wrote an account of ...
became the clerk of Plymouth Colony, a close adviser to his uncle Governor
William Bradford who raised him after the death of his father, and the author of the influential early history of the Plymouth Colony "New England's Memorial."
A sixty-year long tradition at ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' is to reprint the section on the "first Thanksgiving" on the Wednesday before the holiday.
The booklet was summarized by other publications without the now-familiar Thanksgiving story, but the original booklet appeared to be lost or forgotten by the eighteenth century. A copy was rediscovered in Philadelphia in 1820, with the first full reprinting in 1841. In a footnote, editor Alexander Young was the first person to identify the 1621 feast as "the first Thanksgiving."
In 1921, a copy sold at auction for $3,800.
Notes
References
* Reprint of the original version.
External links
''Mourt's Relation''as transcribed by Caleb Johnson
''Mourt's Relation''as transcribed by Caleb Johnson
*
A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth; Mourt's Relation as edited by Dwight B. Heath, at Project Gutenberg
''Mourt's relation or journal of the plantation at Plymouth''Full-text copies from HathiTrust
{{Authority control
1622 books
History of the Thirteen Colonies
Plymouth Colony
Thanksgiving