Pilgrims land at Plymouth (1620)

Hello there. My name is William Bradford, and I was part of a group of people called the Pilgrims. A long, long time ago, we went on a big trip. We all got on a big wooden boat called the Mayflower. Our boat sailed on the big, wavy ocean for many, many days. We sailed and sailed because we were looking for a new place to call home. The wind blew our sails, and the waves went up and down. We all stayed together on our little ship, dreaming of our new home.

After a very long time on the water, one day someone shouted, “Land, ho.”. We all ran to look. We saw land. It was so exciting. We were so happy to see trees and rocks instead of just water. On December 18th, 1620, our boat finally stopped at our new home. We called this new place Plymouth. It was a wild place with lots of tall trees and big rocks everywhere. Winter was coming, and the air was getting cold. We knew we had to be brave and strong. We had to work together to build our own houses so we could be warm and safe from the snow.

Our first winter was very cold. The wind blew, and the snow fell down. It was hard, but we all helped each other. We shared our food and kept our fires warm. When spring came, we met some wonderful new friends. They were the Wampanoag people, and they were very kind. They showed us how to plant corn in our new gardens. We were so thankful for our new friends and our new home. Together, we showed that being kind and helping each other makes everything better.