The Pilgrims’ Five Principles and the Foundation of American Self-Government

On November 24, 2022, Kim Monson’s Thanksgiving broadcast celebrates America’s founding story with historian Bill Federer, founder of American Minute, and author Scott Powell, whose book Rediscovering America traces the national holidays’ profound meaning.

The Mayflower Compact and the Birth of Self-Government

Start listening at 1:48 – Hour 1

Bill Federer traces the remarkable journey of the Pilgrims from religious persecution in England to founding a revolutionary form of government in the New World. The Pilgrims were separatists who rejected the Church of England’s corruption and faced imprisonment, torture, and death for their beliefs. Federer explains how dissenters like John Merton and Thomas Hellwife died in Newgate prison, writing pamphlets arguing that government should not control religious conscience.

When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, they faced a crucial question: who would govern them? With no king-appointed ruler among them, they created the Mayflower Compact, a covenant where the people themselves formed a civil body politic. Federer emphasizes this was a complete polarity change in the flow of power on Earth, from top-down rule by kings to bottom-up rule by the people.

“In the womb of this little Mayflower is conceived the child of self-government, and it came out of a church group. So our form of government, of we the people, was basically birthed out of a congregational church model of government.”

Bill Federer, Historian and Author

The Failure of Communal Property and Rise of Free Enterprise

Start listening at 15:43 – Hour 1

The Pilgrims’ initial experiment with communal ownership nearly destroyed the colony. Federer details how the London Company’s bylaws required everything to be owned in common, with all gains going into a common stock. Governor William Bradford recorded that this system bred much confusion and discontent, with young men objecting to working harder than older colonists for the same share, and wives resenting being forced to cook and clean for other families.

After nearly starving, Bradford scrapped the socialist approach before the 1623 season and gave each family their own plot of land. Productivity immediately surged. This practical rejection of collectivism centuries before Karl Marx became a foundational American principle.

“Every attempt at everybody owning everything equally always ends up with a deep state bureaucracy passing out favors to their friends with the most corrupt person at the top, a dictator.”

Bill Federer, Historian and Author

Squanto and the Providence of the First Thanksgiving

Start listening at 38:18 – Hour 1

Federer recounts the remarkable story of Squanto, the Native American who spoke English and helped the Pilgrims survive. Squanto had been kidnapped by earlier explorers, sold into slavery in Spain, freed by monks, and eventually returned to find his entire tribe wiped out by plague. The Pilgrims had inadvertently settled on the one uninhabited spot along the eastern seaboard.

Squanto taught the colonists to plant corn using fish as fertilizer, catch eels and salmon, and trap beaver. The first Thanksgiving in November 1621 lasted three days, with over 100 Native Americans joining approximately 50 surviving Pilgrims. Despite a meager first harvest, they celebrated with gratitude.

“So Squanto comes out of the woods, and you can just imagine the dismay on the pilgrims where Squanto says, Oh, you guys from England? Yeah, I used to live there.”

Bill Federer, Historian and Author

The Pilgrims’ Five Foundational Achievements

Start listening at 59:06 – Hour 2

Scott Powell identifies five achievements that made the Pilgrims foundational to American identity. First, their singular spiritual quest for religious freedom. Second, the Mayflower Compact established democratic self-government based on the will of the people for the first time in history. Third, the Pilgrim-Wampanoag Peace Treaty of 1621 lasted over 50 years, longer than any subsequent peace agreement with Native Americans.

Fourth, after communal farming failed twice, they adopted private enterprise in 1623, demonstrating capitalism’s superiority to socialism centuries before the ideological debates of modern times. Fifth, their model relational behavior, exemplified when elder Edward Winslow traveled 40 miles to nurse Chief Massasoit back to health with medicinal broth and prayers.

“Governor Bradford recorded that the system was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. So before the 1623 season, he scrapped socialist farming and replaced it with private ownership of land.”

Scott Powell, Author of Rediscovering America

The Reformation’s Legacy and American Character

Start listening at 63:33 – Hour 2

Powell connects the Pilgrims to the Protestant Reformation of 1517. When the printing press made the Bible available to common people, they recognized the Catholic Church’s practices contradicted Christ’s teachings. The Reformation enabled a direct relationship with God without church hierarchy, which the Pilgrims carried to America.

The Puritans who followed in 1630 under John Winthrop saw themselves like the Israelites fleeing Egypt for the Promised Land. Powell argues these qualities remain relevant: courage to go against the crowd, inner strength to endure hardship, tolerance of different beliefs, and willingness to sacrifice for others.

“Protestantism brought that into being, but there were still practices that carried over from the Catholic Church. And so people that were really of the Reformation orientation, they objected to what they saw as the corruption in the Church of England.”

Scott Powell, Author of Rediscovering America