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Lädt ... Mayflower Bastard: A Stranger Among the Pilgrimsvon David Lindsay
Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest. Keine aktuelle Diskussion zu diesem Buch. David Lindsay is a descendent of Richard More, who, as a five-year-old child, was a passenger on the Mayflower's historic trip to America. Richard, however was a Stranger, i.e., not one of the pilgrims, but one of a family of four children banished by their mother's husband. Richard was the only sibling to survive the first year, and would live into his eighties, witnessing a great deal of history, including the Salem Witchcraft trials. Although Richard is not really a famous person, biographies of lesser-known figures like this can be fascinating insights into the time. In working with a limited set of facts, has the opportunity to recreate the era. Unfortunately, Lindsay is so determined to find significance, symbolism, suspense and portentous meaning, that he overwhelms his story with convolutions. These begin with a conceit that his audience is a seventeenth century person partially responsible for More's excommunication and self-reproof for laying bare the facts of Richard More's life. Well, there was an easy solution for the latter. Still, if the style is disappointing, there are still plenty of details of life first in England and then in the American colonies that round out the picture gleaned from more conventional histories. Zeige 2 von 2 keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
David Lindsay, researching old records to learn details of the life of his ancestor, Richard More, soon found himself in the position of the Sorcerer's Apprentice-wherever he looked for one item, ten more appeared. What he found illuminated not only More's own life but painted a clear and satisfying picture of the way the First Comers, Saints and Strangers alike, set off for the new land, suffered the voyage on the Mayflower, and put down their roots to thrive on our continent's northeastern shore. From the story, Richard emerges as a man of questionable morals, much enterprise, and a good deal of old-fashioned pluck, a combination that could get him into trouble-and often did. He lived to father several children, to see, near the end of his life, a friend executed as a witch in Salem, and to be read out of the church for unseemly behavior. Mayflower Bastard lets readers see history in a new light by turning an important episode into a personal experience. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
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Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)974.4History and Geography North America Northeastern U.S. MassachusettsKlassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
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Thus, the author quotes a local who is descended from the captain, as though there is some tradition of knowledge of the man, handed down for 12-13 generations. Perhaps there is. But we are mostly equals in that we must find out what our ancestors thought not by oral tradition, but from letters, diaries, etc.
When I grew up, my father told us we came over on the Half Moon. I don't know if this was true. Subsequent research proves to the best ability that we have, that we are descended from the earliest English settlers of Long Island and also from the earliest of the Dutch in New Amsterdam. Perhaps that is why I never heard from my Brooklyn-born Dad that we were also Mayflower descendants, by way of his Boston-born grandmother (who later retired to the South Shore after having lived in New York). Perhaps the Yankee- Red Sox rivalry is really much older than those teams. But William Brewster and someone named More are among our thousands of ancestors from that age.
I'm sort of glad I didn't know that when we went last summer (2008) to Plimoth Plantation for the first time. I enjoyed hanging out with the Indians, and I am glad that at the time, I had nothing to hide or be proud about. It was chill. And then I consider the nieces and nephews of ancestor Benoni Stebbins of Deerfield - they were kidnapped by French, but they stayed with the Indians (not unlike a recent abduction). Was it just Stockholm Syndrome or did the Indians actually live better than the Puritans, not, for instance, beating their children or hanging people as witches. Hm.