Allen Reedy, age 12, of Dallas, N.C., for his question:
WHEN DID THE PILGRIMS COME TO AMERICA?
A British ship named the Mayflower brought the Pilgrims to what is now Massachusetts. The ship was built around 1610 and had three masts and two decks. It probably weighed about 180 tons. The Mayflower II was built in 1957 the way the original Mayflower is thought to have looked. It was given to the American people by the Britons, who built it as a symbol of friendship. It is kept in Plymouth, Mass.
A band of settlers called the Pilgrims established the Plymouth Colony on the shore of Cape Cod Bay at what is now Plymouth, Mass. They came to America in 1620, seeking freedom to worship as they thought proper.
The Pilgrims were a part of a body of Protestants in England that were called Puritans. It was their hope to purify the Church of England.
Prior to 1600, some of the Puritans decided that they could not reform the Church of England from within and separated to set up congregations of their own. They came to be known as Separatists, because they had separated from the Church.
One of the groups was under the leadership of William Brewster. The people were from the village of Scrooby, in England. When they were persecuted by town officials, they fled from England in 1608 and settled in Leiden, Holland.
But the Separatists preferred farming to city life and were also afraid that their children would become more Dutch than English.
The new land of America appealed to them, and some English merchants agreed to finance a trip to the New World. Brewster led the group back to England in July 1620, and in September, the group of 102 left England on the Mayflower. They reached what is now Provincetown Harbor on Nov. 21, 1620.
The Pilgrims explored the nearby coast and chose Plymouth as the site for their colony.
The term "Pilgrim" may have come from William Bradford's history. When they left Holland, he wrote that "they knew they were pilgrims."
The Mayflower Compact was the first agreement for self government ever put in force in America. When the Mayflower landed, the Pilgrim leaders persuaded the 41 male adults aboard to sign the pact, which set up Plymouth Colony's government.
Today, there's an organization called the General Society of Mayflower Descendants with headquarters in Plymouth, Mass. There are more than 13,000 adult members in 51 state societies.
To become a member, a person must prove that he is descended from one of 50 passengers who sailed to New England aboard the Mayflower.