Edward Winslow (October 18, 1595-May 8, 1655) joined the Separatists, a persecuted group of Christian refugees, in Leyden, Holland. Edward Winslow helped their pastor, William Brewster, print illegal religious pamphlets which were smuggled back into England. After many hard years, at age 25, Edward Winslow departed with 102 Pilgrims to the New World, where he helped found the Plymouth Colony and was selected as an administrator of the colony in 1621.
In 1622, Winslow cured Indian chief Massasoit of an illness, resulting in a 50 year peace. Winslow served as the Plymouth Colony's English agent from 1629 to 1632, keeping the finances and sailing to England for business, bringing back the colony's first cattle. While in England, Anglican Bishop William Laud jailed him for 17 weeks.
The only Pilgrim to have his portrait painted, Edward Winslow was Governor of the Plymouth Colony for three separate terms, 1633-34, 1636-37, and 1644-45.
In October 1646, he returned to England as the agent of Massachusetts Bay, and served Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War. His work, Glorious Progress of the Gospel Amongst the Indians in New England, 1649, was instrumental in the formation of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England.
Winslow was sent by Crowmwell to sail with Admiral Sir William Penn, father of Pennsylvania's founder, in an attempt to capture Hispaniola from Spain. After their defeat at Santo Domingo, Winslow died of a fever on the way to Jamaica, which Penn captured.
Edward Winslow asserted:
<The Civill Magistrate is the Minister of God, a Revenger to execute wrath on him that doeth evil.> 1595EW001
Edward Winslow's detailed records of the Pilgrims' experiences were reprinted in Alexander Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims (Boston, 1841).
Edward Winslow stated:
<Drought and the like considerations moved not only every good man privately to enter into examination with his own estate between God and his conscience, and so to humiliation before Him, but also to humble ourselves together before the Lord by fasting and prayer.> 1595EW002
Dutch historian, Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs (Ph.D. Leiden, 1976), in his article, "1621: A Historian Looks Anew at Thanksgiving," gives insight into the Pilgrims' thanksgiving through Dutch cultural history. Bangs' books include: Church Art and Architecture in the Low Countries before 1566 (1997), The Seventeenth-Century Town Records of Scituate, Massachusetts (3 vols., 1997, 1999, 2001), Indian Deeds, Land Transactions in Plymouth Colony, 1620-1699 (2002), and Pilgrim Edward Winslow, New England's First International Diplomat (2004). Bangs authored articles about the Dutch "Remonstrants" and the "Pilgrim Fathers" in the Routledge Encyclopedia of Protestantism (Hans Hillerbrand, ed.), and had articles published in The Mayflower Quarterly.
Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs wrote:
<Our knowledge of the 1621 Thanksgiving comes from Winslow and Bradford. Winslow's choice of words, understood by his contemporaries, implies to us that the Pilgrims gave thanks to God for their preservation and for the plenty that gave hope for the future. Winslow specifically tells us that the colonists sat down with their Native neighbors and enjoyed several days of peaceful rejoicing together. It is a history with potent symbolism, and it needs neither apology nor distortion.> 1595EW003
In Mourt's Relation, as noted by historian Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs, Edward Winslow gave a description of the colonists' first harvest, commenting that wheat and Indian corn had grown well, and:
<Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent foure men on fowling; so that we might after a more speciall manner rejoyce together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labours. They foure in one day killed as much fowle as, with a little help besid, served the company almost a weeke. At which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest King Massasoyt, with some nintie men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted.
And they went out and killed five deere, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our Governour, and upon the Captaine and others. And although it be not alwayes so plentifull, as it was at this time, with us, yet by goodnesse of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plentie.> 1595EW004
Historian Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs wrote:
<When Winslow described the Pilgrims' intention, "after a more speciall manner [to] rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labours," he was alluding to John 4: 36 and to Psalm 33. The first is, "And he that reapeth, receiveth wages, & gathereth frute unto life eternal, that bothe he that soweth, & he yt [that] reapeth, might rejoyce together."> 1595EW005
The Pilgrims showed respect for Indian graves. Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs noted that from a European sailor's grave the Pilgrims later removed some objects, but avoided disturbing what they recognized as Indian graves. Edward Winslow reported that upon discovering "a bow with rotted arrows" in a mound:
<We supposed there were many other things, but because we deemed them graves, we put in the bow again and made it up as it was, and left the rest untouched, because we thought it would be odious unto them to ransack their sepulchres.> 1595EW006
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:.
1595EW001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Edward Winslow, Young's Chronicles, p. 350. Peter Marshall and David Manuel, The Glory of America (Bloomington, MN: Garborg's Heart'N Home, Inc., 1991), 10.18.
1595EW002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Edward Winslow, account, Mourt's Relation.
1595EW003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Dutch historian, Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs (Ph.D. Leiden, 1976), in his article, "1621: A Historian Looks Anew at Thanksgiving."
1595EW004. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Edward Winslon, in Mourt's Relation.
1595EW005. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Dutch historian, Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs (Ph.D. Leiden, 1976), in his article, "1621: A Historian Looks Anew at Thanksgiving."
1595EW006. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Edward Winslow, account, Mourt's Relation.