Hello and welcome to a history of the United States. Episode 23, the first Thanksgiving.

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PayPal subscription button. As we enter April 1621, we lose Bradford's detailed account, meaning

that we have much less information to work with. You'll probably notice this in the pace of the

narrative. So, let's just dive into the

first spring at Plymouth. The first thing the pilgrims had to deal with was the Mayflower.

The ship wasn't supposed to stay around in the new world this long. It had been there around

five months by this point. The captain didn't want to still be there.

He hadn't really been able to argue for leaving, though. It had taken some time for a site

suitable for settlements to be found, and then once that was done, houses had to be constructed,

and then there was an issue with the fire.

By the time it was possible for the colonists to leave the ship and live in Plymouth itself,

the sickness was well underway, and it wasn't possible for the ship to just abandon them.

They needed the refuge and the extra help the crew could provide, since there

was no guarantee that the pilgrims wouldn't all fall ill. But now it was spring, conditions

were improving, the health of the colonists and the crew returned. On April 5th, the captain felt ready to leave, and the Mayflower set sail on her 31-day voyage

back to England. While she would return to the New World, she would never go back to Plymouth.

It must have been a sad and terrifying sight for those left behind, watching the little ship go over the horizon.

That ship was there one way to communicate with the outside world, with the old world, with the only world they knew.

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