WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.540 Welcome to What You Didn't Hear. On today's episode, 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:05.139 we're taking a deep dive into William Bradford, 00:00:05.339 --> 00:00:08.359 the first governor of the Plymouth Colony, and 00:00:08.359 --> 00:00:11.039 the very first Christmas for the Mayflower Pilgrims. 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:14.000 So come jump in with me while we explore how 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:51.469 the governor of Plymouth stole Christmas. When 00:00:51.469 --> 00:00:53.469 we hear about the pilgrims at Plymouth, the story 00:00:53.469 --> 00:00:56.210 almost always gravitates towards the first Thanksgiving, 00:00:56.509 --> 00:00:59.109 which took place the year after they made landfall 00:00:59.109 --> 00:01:02.630 in 1621. But tucked away in the history books 00:01:02.630 --> 00:01:06.409 is a much smaller, stranger story, Governor Bradford's 00:01:06.409 --> 00:01:09.909 quiet little war against Christmas. So let's 00:01:09.909 --> 00:01:11.829 dig into what actually happened on Christmas 00:01:11.829 --> 00:01:17.650 Day in 1621 in Plymouth Colony. After multiple 00:01:17.650 --> 00:01:20.269 delays and a failed attempt to depart England 00:01:20.269 --> 00:01:24.030 in August of 1620, the Mayflower and its sister 00:01:24.030 --> 00:01:26.530 ship, the Speedwell, finally set out in early 00:01:26.530 --> 00:01:28.909 September. But after even more complications, 00:01:29.230 --> 00:01:33.269 the Mayflower was forced to continue alone. This 00:01:33.269 --> 00:01:35.549 meant their arrival in the Americas came much 00:01:35.549 --> 00:01:38.129 later in the season, and left the Pilgrims facing 00:01:38.129 --> 00:01:41.129 a brutal winter with limited supplies and almost 00:01:41.129 --> 00:01:45.599 no shelter. On November 19th, they spotted present 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:48.879 -day Cape Cod. They attempted to sail south toward 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:51.140 the colony of Virginia, where they were actually 00:01:51.140 --> 00:01:53.980 supposed to settle, but harsh storms forced them 00:01:53.980 --> 00:01:57.920 back. On November 21st, they dropped anchor near 00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:04.760 what is now Provincetown Harbor. On December 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:07.379 7th, the first scouting party went ashore to 00:02:07.379 --> 00:02:10.080 search for a suitable location to build shelters. 00:02:11.530 --> 00:02:14.210 But they were wildly unprepared for winter conditions 00:02:14.210 --> 00:02:17.330 far harsher than anything they'd faced in England. 00:02:18.569 --> 00:02:20.969 It's safe to assume that without the help of 00:02:20.969 --> 00:02:23.030 the local native people, the Plymouth colony 00:02:23.030 --> 00:02:26.050 would have likely been a complete failure. Nearly 00:02:26.050 --> 00:02:28.490 half of the Mayflower's crew didn't survive the 00:02:28.490 --> 00:02:32.449 winter, and only 53 of the original 102 passengers 00:02:32.449 --> 00:02:37.939 lived to see the spring of 1621. While the passengers 00:02:37.939 --> 00:02:40.620 remained on the Mayflower through the worst of 00:02:40.620 --> 00:02:43.699 the cold and sickness, the crew and able -bodied 00:02:43.699 --> 00:02:46.840 men went ashore to build shelters and gather 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:49.719 food, with crucial assistance from the Wampanoag. 00:02:51.060 --> 00:02:54.800 It was bleak, it was tragic, so when I approach 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:56.840 the episode about the governor who stole Christmas, 00:02:57.099 --> 00:02:59.680 I do so with full respect for how desperate their 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:03.240 situation really was. Surviving the first winter 00:03:03.240 --> 00:03:06.370 was only half the battle. The beliefs that shaped 00:03:06.370 --> 00:03:09.490 this colony ran just as deep as the cold. And 00:03:09.490 --> 00:03:11.830 those beliefs, they didn't leave much room for 00:03:11.830 --> 00:03:15.409 Christmas cheer. A good portion of the Mayflower's 00:03:15.409 --> 00:03:18.050 passengers were separatists fleeing the Church 00:03:18.050 --> 00:03:21.069 of England to build a society rooted in strict 00:03:21.069 --> 00:03:24.430 Puritan religious practice. Others were hired 00:03:24.430 --> 00:03:27.830 laborers, servants, farmers, or businessmen hoping 00:03:27.830 --> 00:03:30.389 for opportunity in New England after the failed 00:03:30.389 --> 00:03:34.669 attempt to reach Virginia. In the 1600s, Christmas 00:03:34.669 --> 00:03:37.030 traditions in England weren't far off from what 00:03:37.030 --> 00:03:40.430 we recognize today. Feasts of roasted meats and 00:03:40.430 --> 00:03:43.949 sweets, evergreen decorations, drinking and gambling, 00:03:44.150 --> 00:03:47.349 singing, and general merrymaking. But Puritans 00:03:47.349 --> 00:03:49.849 rejected these celebrations. Since the Bible 00:03:49.849 --> 00:03:52.669 didn't explicitly instruct Christians to observe 00:03:52.669 --> 00:03:55.530 Christmas or Easter, they refused to recognize 00:03:55.530 --> 00:03:59.349 either holiday. For them, December 25th was simply 00:03:59.349 --> 00:04:02.669 another day of labor. A journal entry from the 00:04:02.669 --> 00:04:06.620 Mayflower reads, Monday, the 25th day, we went 00:04:06.620 --> 00:04:10.719 on shore, some to fell timber, some to saw, some 00:04:10.719 --> 00:04:14.060 to rive, and some to carry. So no man rested 00:04:14.060 --> 00:04:18.500 all that day. While men went ashore to work on 00:04:18.500 --> 00:04:20.500 the Plymouth plantation, others who remained 00:04:20.500 --> 00:04:22.800 aboard the ship dipped into the Mayflower's beer 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:25.540 stores and celebrated quietly in their own way. 00:04:26.019 --> 00:04:28.519 Just enough to acknowledge the holiday, but not 00:04:28.519 --> 00:04:32.449 enough to challenge Puritan authority. And that 00:04:32.449 --> 00:04:34.829 brings us to the next December, when Plymouth 00:04:34.829 --> 00:04:37.790 had finally found a bit of stability, and welcomed 00:04:37.790 --> 00:04:40.569 a brand new group of colonists who brought their 00:04:40.569 --> 00:04:43.149 own ideas about how Christmas should be celebrated. 00:04:43.769 --> 00:04:48.230 Fast forward one year to 1621. The colony has 00:04:48.230 --> 00:04:51.170 survived and new settlers have arrived, and suddenly 00:04:51.170 --> 00:04:54.029 William Bradford finds himself facing something 00:04:54.029 --> 00:04:56.490 that the deadly winter had not prepared him for. 00:04:56.769 --> 00:05:02.040 Holiday spirit. In early November of 1621, a 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:05.240 new ship arrived at Plymouth. Most of the passengers 00:05:05.240 --> 00:05:08.079 weren't seeking religious refuge. They were seeking 00:05:08.079 --> 00:05:10.839 opportunity. These newcomers brought with them 00:05:10.839 --> 00:05:13.279 the Christmas customs that Bradford and the Puritans 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:18.060 found rowdy and irreverent. Only a few weeks 00:05:18.060 --> 00:05:20.139 after what we now call the first Thanksgiving, 00:05:20.540 --> 00:05:25.040 work remained constant. winter preparation was 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:27.920 in full swing and bradford routinely sent every 00:05:27.920 --> 00:05:31.860 able -bodied man out to gather wood but on december 00:05:31.860 --> 00:05:34.240 twenty fifth and sixteen twenty one a number 00:05:34.240 --> 00:05:36.800 of the newcomers objected to the governor's orders 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:40.220 from william bradford's journal he refers to 00:05:40.220 --> 00:05:43.439 himself in the third person as the gov and he 00:05:43.439 --> 00:05:46.839 writes on the day called christmas day the gov 00:05:46.839 --> 00:05:50.500 called them out to work as was used But most 00:05:50.500 --> 00:05:53.139 of this new company excused themselves and said 00:05:53.139 --> 00:05:55.800 it went against their consciousness to work on 00:05:55.800 --> 00:05:58.939 that day. So the Gov told them that if they made 00:05:58.939 --> 00:06:01.339 it a matter of conscience, he would spare them 00:06:01.339 --> 00:06:05.259 till they were better informed. So at first, 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:08.040 Bradford agreed to let the non -Puritan newcomers 00:06:08.040 --> 00:06:10.860 observe the holiday, assuming, of course, that 00:06:10.860 --> 00:06:13.939 they would do so quietly in their homes in reverent 00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:17.839 prayer. But when Bradford returned from his morning 00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:21.050 work, He did not find prayerful reflection. He 00:06:21.050 --> 00:06:26.170 found sports, singing, games, celebration, all 00:06:26.170 --> 00:06:30.209 out in the open. Again from his journal. When 00:06:30.209 --> 00:06:32.850 they came home at noon from their work, he found 00:06:32.850 --> 00:06:35.889 them in the street at play openly, some pitching 00:06:35.889 --> 00:06:38.810 the bar and some at stoolball, and such like 00:06:38.810 --> 00:06:41.550 sports. So he went to them and took away their 00:06:41.550 --> 00:06:44.069 implements, and told them that this was against 00:06:44.069 --> 00:06:46.949 his consciousness, that they should play while 00:06:46.949 --> 00:06:52.560 others work. He warned them that if they wanted 00:06:52.560 --> 00:06:55.379 to treat the day as a sacred observance, then 00:06:55.379 --> 00:06:58.339 they needed to stay inside and observe it. There 00:06:58.339 --> 00:07:00.480 would be no gaming or reveling in the streets. 00:07:01.860 --> 00:07:04.540 Their games were confiscated and the men were 00:07:04.540 --> 00:07:09.139 put to work like everyone else. In the years 00:07:09.139 --> 00:07:11.519 that followed, the Puritans formally banned Christmas 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:14.980 celebrations altogether, imposing a five -shilling 00:07:14.980 --> 00:07:17.680 fine on anyone caught observing the holiday. 00:07:18.350 --> 00:07:20.449 There is no real record of this penalty being 00:07:20.449 --> 00:07:22.910 enforced, mostly because Christmas celebrations 00:07:22.910 --> 00:07:26.430 quickly faded out after this incident. The ban 00:07:26.430 --> 00:07:29.850 would eventually be repealed in 1681, and almost 00:07:29.850 --> 00:07:33.389 two centuries later, in 1870, Christmas was officially 00:07:33.389 --> 00:07:35.970 recognized as a federal holiday in the United 00:07:35.970 --> 00:07:40.649 States. So what really happened that December 00:07:40.649 --> 00:07:43.930 day in 1621? In a colony born from hardship, 00:07:44.170 --> 00:07:47.079 faith, and sheer endurance, Christmas wasn't 00:07:47.079 --> 00:07:49.579 the warm, twinkling celebration we imagine today. 00:07:49.819 --> 00:07:53.100 It became instead a flashpoint, a moment where 00:07:53.100 --> 00:07:55.879 cultures, beliefs, and expectations collided 00:07:55.879 --> 00:07:59.100 on the frozen streets of Plymouth. William Bradford 00:07:59.100 --> 00:08:02.279 didn't set out to steal Christmas, but in his 00:08:02.279 --> 00:08:05.279 drive for order, unity, and Puritan discipline, 00:08:05.660 --> 00:08:09.670 he certainly shut it down. Yet this small episode, 00:08:09.930 --> 00:08:13.250 this confiscation of stoolball bats and bars, 00:08:13.569 --> 00:08:16.370 reminds us that history is built just as much 00:08:16.370 --> 00:08:20.250 from tiny, very human moments as from grand events 00:08:20.250 --> 00:08:23.189 like the Mayflower Landing or the First Thanksgiving. 00:08:23.810 --> 00:08:26.149 The story of the governor who stole Christmas 00:08:26.149 --> 00:08:29.910 isn't just a quirky footnote. It reveals the 00:08:29.910 --> 00:08:32.509 tension between personal freedom and communal 00:08:32.509 --> 00:08:36.129 survival, between religious conviction and cultural 00:08:36.129 --> 00:08:39.240 difference. and between what the pilgrims wanted 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:42.200 their new world to be, and what it was quickly 00:08:42.200 --> 00:08:45.519 becoming. And while the Puritans may have succeeded, 00:08:45.620 --> 00:08:48.460 at least temporarily, in keeping Christmas out 00:08:48.460 --> 00:08:51.740 of Plymouth, the holiday, and all its music, 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:54.899 feasting, revelry, and play, would eventually 00:08:54.899 --> 00:08:58.399 return to New England with a vengeance. Thank 00:08:58.399 --> 00:09:00.840 you for taking this deep dive with me into a 00:09:00.840 --> 00:09:03.159 lesser -known chapter of early American history. 00:09:03.909 --> 00:09:06.129 If you enjoyed learning what you didn't hear 00:09:06.129 --> 00:09:08.669 about the first Christmas in Plymouth, be sure 00:09:08.669 --> 00:09:11.429 to follow the show, leave a review, and join 00:09:11.429 --> 00:09:13.730 me next time as we uncover more stories hiding 00:09:13.730 --> 00:09:17.009 between the lines of history. Until then, stay 00:09:17.009 --> 00:09:17.450 curious.