Tag: Pilgrims

On an Immigrant Group

Moving to another nation can one of the most traumatic events in life even if one is leaving a bad situation and seeking a better life. A group of religious dissidents made the choice to leave their families and the way of life they knew and seek another place. These people, who had been persecuted for their beliefs in their home country, came to Holland to seek the freedom to live and work and worship the way their consciences dictated. In their home country, they had been marginalized and their livelihoods had been taken away, and they were so grateful for the opportunity to start life over again in Holland.

The small group settled in Leiden, near the university, and many of them quickly found work in the textile industry of that city. Others took up the trades and jobs they had previously had in their home country. The university made a strong effort to incorporate the new immigrants into the community; they offered free classes and training, they gave the group a place to meet to hold their religious services, and they provided language training as well to help the newcomers better fit into Dutch society.

For roughly a decade, the group flourished. But, then, they began to worry about the influence the open Dutch society was starting to have on their families. Their kids were growing up not knowing their native language. They were adopting Dutch mentalities and attitudes towards, well, everything, including inclusivity–the very inclusivity that had welcomed the immigrants in the first place. So, because of their own prejudices and intransigence, the religious refugees decided to move again as difficult as the move would be on their families and the group as a whole.

The United States would do well to emulate the Dutch with regards to how we treat those seeking the freedom to live the way they wish to live, whether they are from the US or immigrants seeking a better life. As we look at those things we are thankful for, we might do well to re-examine the basic freedoms of mankind upon which the nation was founded–the freedoms of life, liberty, and to pursue those things that make one happy.

Oh, that religious group? They looked for a place where they could raise their families free of any so-called negative influences, to create a society of their own choosing without any real oversight or control. And a place where their kids wouldn’t grow up wearing wooden shoes.

They chose Massachusetts.

You know them as the Pilgrims.

Happy Thanksgiving.

On a Member of the Staff

We forget that, once upon a time, going trans-Atlantic meant going by boat. Even when air travel began on an intercontinental scale, ship lines crisscrossed the ocean between Europe and the Americas as an alternate form of getting from there to there—or vice versa. Today, other than cargo shipping, about the only way to cross the Atlantic is on a repositioning cruise by one of the Carnival-Norwegian-Princess type cruise lines.

Here’s a story about an Atlantic crossing back in the day when going by ship was the norm. In those days, the journey was about the destination and not the vacation trip we think of today. The staff onboard this particular ship consisted of not only the crew operating the vessel but also wait staff and servants for those who paid for the voyage.

One such servant was a young Englishman named William Trevore. In the grand tradition of that ocean-going nation, William, like other young men of his generation, had experience on other ships, but his time on the sea as part of the service crew had been limited to European waters. This was his first trans-Atlantic crossing. He had been hired on one ship first and then transferred to a new ship owned by the same company for the trip across the ocean. William made his goodbyes to his family and spoke about how much he looked forward to working for the passengers onboard.

According to those upon whom he waited, William performed his duties at sea with great enthusiasm. The company who hired him, the ship’s owners, were pleased with his work and attitude. He often entertained the passengers with tall tales of life at sea, of his numerous voyages in European trips over the years, and of distant, mystical islands that he hinted he had visited years before.

But in the mid-Atlantic, the sea grew rough. The waves were such that passengers were confined to their cramped rooms to keep the storms from potentially washing them over deck. “The voyage was difficult even for seasoned sailors, much more for those who had never been on a ship before,” one commentator noted.

Through it all, William continued to be his usually cheerful self and performed his duties as if nothing were amiss. Even as many of the passengers on which he waited grew seasick, William continued to try to make them smile. Most of those onboard were unused to life at sea, and the heaving and tossing was simply too much. Soon, the smell of the vomit permeated all areas in the passenger spaces. Through it all, William simply smiled and cleaned and served.

Such was William’s commitment to ensuring the passengers were clean and as supplied as they could be under such dire circumstances that his work drew praise in the ship’s log—an unusual thing for a lowly crew member of the wait staff on a trans-Atlantic voyage.

William’s contract with the company was only for one year, and, when his time was up, he eventually went back to England. He rose through the ranks of the English commercial fleet and eventually captained a ship of his own on which he made several trips back and forth from Europe to America.

Yet, for all his later experience on the seas, William Trevore forever spoke with greatest pride about his two month’s work aboard the Mayflower.