William Bradford

Hello there. My name is William Bradford. I was born a very long time ago, in the year 1590, in a small English town called Austerfield. When I was growing up, the king of England said everyone had to pray in a certain way. But my friends and I believed we should be able to talk to God in our own way. We wanted to be free to choose how we prayed. People later called us the Pilgrims. Because we couldn't be free in England, we made a very big decision. We decided to leave our homes and find a new place where we could build a community and worship as we believed was right.

Our journey for freedom didn't take us straight to America. First, we moved to a country called Holland. We lived there for a few years, but it still didn't feel like the right home for us. So, we made an even bigger plan. We decided to sail across the giant Atlantic Ocean to a new land. In the year 1620, we boarded a small wooden ship called the Mayflower. The trip was long and the ocean was very big, but we were hopeful. Before we even stepped onto the new land, all the men on the ship gathered together. We wrote down and signed an important promise called the Mayflower Compact. It was an agreement that we would all work together to make fair rules and laws for our new community. We knew that sticking together was the only way we could succeed.

When we finally arrived, we named our new home Plymouth. That first winter was very, very hard. It was cold, and many of our people became sick. After our first leader passed away, the people of Plymouth chose me to be their new governor in the spring of 1621. It was a very big job, but I wanted to help our community grow strong. Soon, we met the Wampanoag people who already lived in the land. Their leader was a kind man named Massasoit. Another man, named Squanto, became a special friend to us. He showed us how to plant corn in a new way and where to catch fish. He helped us survive. In the autumn of 1621, after our first successful harvest, we were so thankful. We invited Massasoit and our new Wampanoag friends to a big feast to celebrate all our hard work and friendship. Today, many people remember this celebration as the first Thanksgiving.

I served as the governor of Plymouth for about 30 years, helping our small village grow into a strong community. To make sure our story was never forgotten, I wrote a book called 'Of Plymouth Plantation,' where I told the story of our journey and our life in the new land. I lived to be 67 years old. Today, people remember me as a leader who helped the Pilgrims build a new life in America. They can still read my words to learn all about our journey of hope and friendship.