Hvem var pilgrimme, og hvad ønskede de?
Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)
Pilgrimmene eller pilgrimsfædrene var tidlige europæiske bosættere i Plymouth-kolonien i det nuværende Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA. Pilgrimmenes ledelse kom fra de religiøse menigheder af brownistiske engelske dissidenter, som var flygtet fra det ustabile politiske miljø i England til den relative ro og tolerance i det 16.-17. århundredes Holland i Nederlandene. Pilgrimmene havde en puritansk calvinistisk religiøs overbevisning, men i modsætning til andre puritanere fastholdt de, at deres menigheder skulle adskilles fra den engelske statskirke. Som en separatistisk gruppe var de også bekymrede for, at de kunne miste deres engelske kulturelle identitet, hvis de blev i Holland, så de aftalte med engelske investorer at etablere en ny koloni i Nordamerika. Kolonien blev oprettet i 1620 og blev den anden succesfulde engelske bosættelse i Nordamerika (efter grundlæggelsen af Jamestown i Virginia i 1607). Pilgrimmenes historie blev et centralt tema i USA's historie og kultur.
Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)
The Pilgrims or Pilgrim Fathers were early European settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States. The Pilgrims' leadership came from the religious congregations of Brownist English Dissenters who had fled the volatile political environment in England for the relative calm and tolerance of 16th–17th century Holland in the Netherlands. The Pilgrims held Puritan Calvinist religious beliefs but, unlike other Puritans, they maintained that their congregations needed to be separated from the English state church. As a separatist group, they were also concerned that they might lose their English cultural identity if they remained in the Netherlands, so they arranged with English investors to establish a new colony in North America. The colony was established in 1620 and became the second successful English settlement in North America (after the founding of Jamestown, Virginia in 1607). The Pilgrims' story became a central theme of the history and culture of the United States.
Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)