Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum in Plymouth,
Massachusetts, re-creates and interprets life in Plimoth Village in
1627. At that time, the original Plymouth settlement was populated by
approximately one hundred and sixty colonists who had arrived on the Mayflower
(1620), the Fortune (1621), the Anne (1623), and the Little
James (1623). In the Plantation’s re-created village all the major
facets of Pilgrim life are represented, albeit on a smaller scale. A
dozen timber-framed houses line the main street, an acre of corn is
under cultivation, and rare breeds of livestock inhabit the pens. The
village bustles with activity as colonial interpreters go about the
business of everyday life in 1627.
Visitors to Plimoth
Plantation — between three and four hundred thousand each year — are
undoubtedly captivated by their “time travel” experience. The sights,
sounds, and smells provide twenty-first-century visitors with a bridge
to early seventeenth-century life. Interactions with colonial
interpreters offer meaningful insights into the actions and motivations
of the original colonists. Visitors depart with a renewed sense of
history and an appreciation for the work undertaken by the Plimoth
Plantation staff. Re-creation and interpretation in the Plimoth village
requires examining the often-scanty historical evidence, and literally
bringing it to life.
Plimoth Plantation staff historian Carolyn
Travers offers her perspective — gained during thirty-one years of
employment at the Plantation — on how early Plymouth research is
integrated into a living history experience. According to Travers,
Plantation staff members use the resources of established organizations
like the New England Historic Genealogical Society and the General
Society of Mayflower Descendants. They draw on the large body of work
published about early Plymouth colonists, particularly those who came on
the Mayflower. The following are the most frequently consulted:
• The English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers Who Came
to Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620, the Fortune in 1621,
and the Anne and the Little James in 1623 by Charles
Edward Banks
• The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New
England, 1620–1633 and The Great Migration: Immigrants to New
England, 1634–1635 by Robert Charles Anderson
• The
“Mayflower Families Through Five Generations” project of the General
Society of Mayflower Descendants
• Plymouth Colony: Its
History and People 1620–1691 by Eugene Aubrey Stratton
•
Articles in The American Genealogist, The Genealogist, The
New England Historical and Genealogical Register, and other
genealogical journals.
In addition, Plimoth Plantation staff
members examine a variety of other historical sources. Knowledge of a
colonist’s background is necessary to interpret how he or she would have
reacted to conditions in Plymouth. The following questions are asked,
“What was this person’s way of life prior to leaving for New England?”
and “How would people have reacted to New England conditions based on
their previous ways of life?”
In 1984, Plimoth Plantation
sponsored several major research trips designed to answer these
questions. Researchers went to Leiden and the North and South of England
to explore all aspects of the places where the early Plymouth colonists
were believed to have originated. Staff members spoke with local
experts about a variety of topics, including architecture, the
landscape, regional dialects, the experience of childhood, crops and
diet, people of note, and local happenings. The goal was to amass a
wealth of detail about the colonists’ experiences of everyday life in
England or Leiden, which in turn would be used to create a realistic
portrayal of everyday life in Plymouth.
When a colonist’s
origins are unknown, though, a background must be created. Obviously, it
would not be a rewarding interaction if a colonial interpreter told a
visitor that he didn’t know where he was from and didn’t know the names
of his parents. In these cases, historian Carolyn Travers makes a series
of educated guesses to construct a realistic background. Take the case
of Stephen Deane, who arrived on the Fortune in 1621. His surname
— Deane — is difficult to research. It is not unusual and it is not
area-specific. The typical background provided in such situations is
London or Southwark because those areas were highly populated, and many
people passed through them. Birth and marriage dates often must be
estimated, based on when the first child was born, when a spouse arrived
in the colony, or when men, on average, first married. If a colonist’s
parents’ names are unknown, names must be chosen for them. In order to
select believable names, Travers follows the convention of naming
children after parents or grandparents. Stephen Deane’s father, then,
might also be given the name Stephen, and his mother might be given the
name of one of Stephen’s daughters: Elizabeth, Miriam, or Susanna. Or a
parent might be given one of the common names of the time: Mary, Ann, or
Elizabeth for a woman and William, Thomas, Edward, Robert, or John for a
man. Staff interpreters receive biographies about their characters and
the manufactured details are marked accordingly. In the end, all the
“statistically likely” information contributes to developing and
rounding out the personalities of the colonists.
In addition to
character profiles, the interpreters use other sources to prepare for
their roles, including four Plimoth Plantation training manuals, William
Bradford’s history, Of Plymouth Plantation, Bradford and Edward
Winslow’s work, Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at
Plymouth, and Three Visitors to Early Plymouth: Letters About the
Pilgrim Settlement in New England During Its First Seven Years.
Many interpreters undertake further research into their characters’
origins, dialects, and occupations. Staff members prepare for their
roles during two weeks of lectures and workshops on topics ranging from
history to cooking safety to learning styles to emergency procedures.
During the training period, new interpreters are paired with experienced
interpreters. Also, those cast as members of a family interact and
construct the stories they will relate to visitors. For instance,
although there is no record of how married couples met, husbands and
wives need to have an agreed-upon answer for that question. Ultimately,
staff interpreters need to possess a solid historical background as well
as both people and period skills.
Because Plimoth Village is
self-guided and the characters do not give set speeches, visitor
interests and questions are of primary importance. Consequently, the
experience is much more visitor-driven than at most museums, and
interpreters never know where the next question might lead. Commonly,
visitors begin conversations by asking about the tasks in which
characters are engaged. They might ask about the period tools or objects
being used. And they may ask when the colonist arrived in Plymouth, how
Native peoples are viewed, and what relations are like with the next
door neighbors. People often discuss their own personal interests with
the interpreters, whether it be cooking, fishing, or religious beliefs.
Visitors tend to gravitate toward characters whose life situations are
similar to their own; mothers with small children are likely to speak to
the mothers with small children in the village and kids look for child
interpreters.
Since so many people are descended from early
Plymouth colonists, interpreters are often asked genealogical questions.
Visitors should be aware that the family history information provided
by interpreters might not necessarily be true; as described earlier,
when key information is unknown, it is often created. Obviously, then,
genealogists wouldn’t want to add this “new” information into their
family trees. On the other hand, the staff at Plimoth Plantation tries
to keep abreast of all the latest scholarship and when a discovery is
made, it will be added to the character portrayal. For instance, when a
2003 article in The American Genealogist revealed that Richard
Warren’s wife Elizabeth was the daughter of Augustine Walker, that
information was incorporated immediately. Genealogists must understand
that since it is 1627 the characters cannot acknowledge their
descendants as such. Many visitors will greet characters by introducing
themselves as descendants. In those cases, the interpreter will simply
recognize that the person is family and steer the conversation into more
fruitful channels.
Interpreters at Plimoth Plantation converse
with visitors and also demonstrate the tasks of everyday life in the
early seventeenth century. The chores can be quite taxing and often
physically demanding. Interpreters in the village cook both inside and
outside; bake; clean; sew; garden; build fences; repair roofs; build and
rebuild; care for cows, goats, chickens, and sheep; tend cornfields;
clean and salt fish; and undertake a variety of other chores. The
interpreters use period-appropriate hand tools, and perform all their
tasks in the attire of the time, which means the interpreters generally
wear wool, linen, and leather clothing. Interpreters can be challenged
further by the weather, which might be hot, cold, windy, or wet, or by
the natural lighting, which especially in the fall can be insufficient.
Clearly, being an interpreter is a special calling!
Plimoth
Plantation employs between forty and forty-five full-time colonial
interpreters; approximately fourteen are on duty in the village at any
given time. In addition, a few child volunteers, generally the children
of staff members, portray some of the younger members of the colony
during the summer. The interpreters are drawn from a surprisingly large
geographic area; some commute from quite a distance, even from as far as
Connecticut and New Hampshire. They hail from a wide variety of
backgrounds, with many having previously worked in education, theatre,
and history. Those who enjoy the work tend to stay, and many return year
after year — one interpreter has been with Plimoth Plantation since
1979. Although first-year interpreters are assigned roles, over time
people can request specific roles or general categories (i.e. a married
woman who arrived on the Mayflower, for instance). Needless to
say, the interpreter must be an appropriate match: a young interpreter
is not cast to play a character that would have been old in 1627 and
vice versa. Many interpreters find it interesting to portray different
characters over time; for example, they receive different perspectives
when they play Mayflower passengers and when they play colonists
who came on the later ships.
The physical details of Plymouth
Colony are subject to the same intense study and scrutiny as the
characters. Houses in the village are built according to the
peculiarities of construction in Plymouth in its first years. The
original houses were built primarily by people who were not skilled
carpenters but were directed by several experienced craftsmen. Over
time, as scholarship about building construction methods progresses, new
information is incorporated into the next version of a house. And, yes,
the houses do need to be replaced periodically. They must appear
realistic for 1627; if a house was allowed to stand for decades it would
look too old for a building of less than six years. Similarly, a
twenty-year-old rosebush had to be uprooted because a rosebush of that
age simply couldn’t have existed in Plymouth in 1627.
For people
able to make the trip, a visit to Plimoth Plantation offers an
extraordinary journey to the past, facilitated by skilled interpreters.
The interpretive lessons taught by Plimoth Plantation, though, can be
extrapolated by genealogists, no matter where they live. The goal of
Plimoth Plantation’s Pilgrim Village is to immerse visitors in the world
of 1627 Plymouth and help them understand all aspects of the lives of
its early residents. How often do genealogists research their ancestors
to place them in a similar context? Do you know what dialect your
ancestors spoke? What tasks made up their workdays? What differences
existed between the places they emigrated from and to? It might be
instructive to select an ancestor, and, as an exercise, immerse yourself
in his or her world. You might be surprised at how much there is yet to
learn about your forebears and, like the twenty-year-old rosebush at
Plimoth Plantation, about the many anachronistic ideas about them need
to be discarded.
Lynn Betlock is editorial manager of New
England Ancestors.
Coming Soon!
The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony,
1620–1633 by Robert Charles Anderson
This new hardcover
volume, to be published by the end of 2004, will feature 215
biographical sketches on immigrants to Plymouth who arrived between 1620
and 1633. The profiles, which originally appeared in The Great
Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620–1633, have been
revised and updated for this volume. Genealogists with New England roots
will welcome this convenient — and comprehensive — biographical
dictionary for early Plymouth.
For more information, watch for
updates in NEHGS eNews and on NewEnglandAncestors.org,
or call NEHGS Member Services toll-free at 1-888-296-3447.
For
more information
• Plimoth Plantation: Visit Plimoth
Plantation online at www.plimoth.org.
• Plymouth Ancestors: Plimoth Plantation and NEHGS are
collaborating on a project to provide the most up-to-date genealogical
information on the inhabitants of the Plymouth Colony in 1627. Visitors
to Plimoth Plantation can learn more onsite; those unable to visit in
person can visit www.PlymouthAncestors.org.