In Search of William Bradford
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ต.ค. 2024
- Explore the complex and controversial story of one of the most important figures in Plymouth Colony and Early Colonial America.
Sources
Bradford, William (1909). Bradford’s history of the Plymouth Settlement 1608-1650, Alston Rivers Limited: London.
Philbrick, N (2007). Mayflower: A Voyage to War, Harper Perennial: London.
Shepard, James (1900). Governor William Bradford, and his son, Major William Bradford, New Britain: Connecticut.
With special thanks to @AtunSheiFilms for providing an authentic 17th century voice.
![[DRIP] ‘Love, Maybe’ PREVIEW](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U7hwHp95m1k/mqdefault.jpg)
Gosh, that went in quite a shocking direction towards the end. I think the way you chose to handle it really speaks to your integrity as a historian
Yes, this is what I was going to say except expressed more succinctly!
Great video....Your new Hairstyle looks Ace
Well done! One of my issues with historical accounts is exactly what you call out. Either ignoring their faults and raising them on high or judging them by the standards of today. Your recognition and acknowledgement that historical figures are human and a mixed bag like all of us is refreshing. I also am glad that you called attention to it and discussed that you found out about it after being almost done then changed your presentation accordingly. You could have just modified the video, and no one would have known part of it had to be redone. That shows integrity and an attention to detail lacking in a lot of posted content. Keep it up, I always look forward to your videos.
This was bloody fantastic! I loved the fact you kept the journey of discovery within the video itself.
Brilliant video as always, enjoyed learning about William Bradford and his involvement in early colonial america and all that. The voice acting from Atun-Shei Films was also brilliant. :)
Brilliantly told with your edit and that Bradford voiceover is fantastic.
Ssso interesting, yet again. Thank you for excellent video and content.
Cheers from Jane in Herefordshire.
P.S. Hair great.
I love that you’re presenting with a Cleveland Browns jersey on! 😂 I am very grateful for your video here.
Great video, one of your best.
Thought I had the wrong channel! Love the new haircut and great content as always.
hi, this video is two years old but my English teacher told us to watch it and take note of your more nuanced and balanced account after you made that discovery. and i really related to your feelings. there's been plenty of times where i look up to people in history only to find out they did some pretty messed up stuff. so i really appreciate the way handled it :)
Thank you! And I'm glad that teachers are showing it!
Very informative thanks💛.
William Bradford was my 13th Great Grand Father.
Never put anyone on a pedestal.
It would have been all too easy to keep that journey of discovery out of the video and just re-do it, but the fact you kept it in as a lesson about history in and of itself is so commendable. Too few people are willing to challenge their own preconceptions, let alone put them on full display for all to see.
I grew up a few towns from Plymouth and as a child, we would visit Plimoth plantation a lot. My ancestor is William Bradford, and my grandfather was proud of this. I also grew up knowing of the atrocities done to the local tribes.
Thank you for this it has offered me a better perspective of a complicated man who is a hero as well as a villain, but the history needs to be told.
Bradford keep the peace with the natives for 50 years.
@@mikekahl4745 Peace is a matter of perspective. The Pequot and the Mohegan people would have a different perspective on peace.
@@LuckyStone888
True, Bradford alied with some to battle their enemy's, which proves that the natives weren't peaceful, living in harmony with nature but were killing, enslaving and stealing land from one another.
Great work Catherine, a change of delivery style at the beginning, which I liked, you came over more as an enthusiastic academic. I missed the usual jingle and song after your opening paragraph. Onwards and upwards keep up the great work. 👍 👍
Thas had ur ears lowered, belting!
Excellent video as always!
I'm from the states and I honestly had never heard the end part before, it certainly wasn't a part of any history lesson I ever had in school.
But of course we tend to ignore the baser parts of our heroes as you pointed out.
the best one yet Catherine. So well put together and presented. I learn so much from your work.
Nice hair… great show too
Great video.
Thank you very much for this video - you remind us that humans, great and small, have their/our fallibilities - and that history can be exceptionally 'mixed.' You covered this with sensitivity and concern and facts - so interesting ~
Loving the new look! Yet another fascinating video full of interesting facts and great story telling. Thank you
Re-examining our narratives is vital to acknowleding not only the patterns of the past, but the real-life, current day echoes of that history. I really appreciated the *journey* you show in this video, in addition to broadening the narrative beyond the narrow, accepted highlights. So much to love in this vid! (Be proud, I didn't comment on the hair. Until I did. Damn.)
Very good. You handled the new revelations well. Our heroes often turn out to have feet of clay.
Love your short documentaries
What a fanastic and honest journey of discovery. Thank you as always for the great education.
Great video. Nice to see you more confident. Developing in to a very good channel.
My family tree has been traced back to William Bradford he might’ve done some awful things but I’m glad he existed. Because, if he didn’t, I wouldn’t either.
enjoyed the video and was a nice overview
I have to say the most surprising aspect of this video was the Cleveland Browns jersey. Love it!
Really glad I found your channel , your content is very interesting
Cleveland Browns....you have my sympathies 😆 loving the channel 👍🏻
Thank you, very informative
Great video as always, I’ve been to Leyden(now Leiden) a number of times and you can still see some of the influence of the Pilgrims there, although I now want to visit Scrooby more than anything now!
great video! love the new look too, really suits ya =)
discovered your channel a few weeks back and have been really enjoying it (the brigantes hillfort that never was is one of my favorites). this particular video has been in my feed for a while, but ive been avoiding it until tonight. the reasons ive been avoiding stem from the fact that (And His Complicated Past) didnt appear on my television where i do most of my watching. another is that while i live in NYC now, i mostly grew up in Connecticut (which is actually pronounced Con-net-a-cut - there is joke about how the state motto should be "the middle C is silent" instead of "Qui transtulit sustinet") and i know Bradford's history, or at least i knew about the Pequat War. for me Bradford has always been a religious fundamentalist and native killer, sort of a cross between the Ayatollah Khomeini and Andrew Jackson
anyway, i thought you did a really good job of it, and i really respect that you included the explanation of your process - i think most historians would have scrapped the entire topic, but you did not
thank you
Congratulations 👏🎉 on your 260th milestone and I did research and I found out from Israelite Truth Channel that Mayflower Pilgrims including William Bradford ARE BLACK 🖤 Blessings and Hugs 💖💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕!
Thanks for another excellent video!
Obviously most of us were told that Christopher Colombus was the one to get to the 'Land of the Free', But I do think that this story that you've explained very well about William Bradford and his Journey from England to America.
Being half Irish and half from Zummerzet, Aten-Shei sounded just like me when I'm drunk! Props to him for the voice over. I think YT doesn't like you Catherine, why only 1700 views for such a great video :(
I wasn't expecting to hear the Witchfinder General, cool collaboration.
Great video! As children in school we heard a lot about the "Pilgrims" and how they were fleeing persecution, and seeking freedom to practice their religion. Much later I came to understand that the Puritans were basically Christian Taliban, and had to leave England because they weren't allowed to be as strict as they wanted to be there!
That's not really fair. The Puritans should be compared to other sects of their own time, not to us. None of those sects, including and especially the Anglicans, would come off well compared to our standards. The Puritans were indeed persecuted, and when they came to power, either in America or England, they persecuted their persecutors. The idea of religious toleration barely existed back then. (Maryland passed a Toleration Act in 1649 (the colony was founded by a Catholic). England did not get one until 1689.) Countries fought wars with other countries just because they differed in religion. To single out the New England Puritans for criticism is just plain wrong.
See Morgan's _Puritan Dilemma_ for a view of the Puritans.
Equating the historical Puritans to the modern Taliban makes a lot of history incomprehensible. The Puritans may have been religious fanatics, but they also contributed decisively to establishing mathematical and experimental science, representative democracy, and free trade. In the 17th century the University of Cambridge became a stronghold of Puritanism, and in America the Puritans founded the universities of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Milton, Locke, and Newton emerged from Puritan backgrounds. Two of the most important sociologist of all time, Alexis de Tocqueville and Max Weber, were deeply interested in understanding the paradox that the Puritans, who seem so remote to us, had decisively contributed to creating the modern world.
Love it!
Excellent work Catharine! 💝Your hair looks phab*
Just incase anyone’s ever around Retford the museum there has a great exhibition Bradford and the others from scrooby, even have Native American hut made by visitors from the area the pilgrims landed
Thank you for teaching me so much about my great(+) grandfather. I'll have to finish the second half later... lol, I'm a bit nervous about it, though.
You make wonderful videos! Honest, fun and you do a great job as an intelligent Narrative Historian. The Pequot War, which leaves you gasping as Bradford allows for the enslavement of the captured Pequots, is a very complex affair and the collaboration of the Narragansett and Mohegan with some of the fledgling English colonies all over Southern N.E. set against competition with Dutch and French interests makes everything very complicated. It gets even more complicated when you consider that each tribe was in fact, a nation, with shifting alliances and feuds that often date back hundreds of years. The Pequot were RECENT arrivals in the region and had just gone their own version of a Civil War with Uncas and his Mohegans seceding. It is interesting to consider that the Pequot sent into slavery were considered hostile but this wasn't the entire tribe, who reconstituted and sought the protection of the Connecticut Colony (Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor) less than 10 years later and WITH THE MOHEGANS proceeded to act as scouts and light infantry for that colony during the 1675-76 King Philip's War conflagration, which would ultimately lead to the enslavement of hundreds of other native people. Nothing simple, and past narratives tend to ignore the facts and events that don't stand up their thesis, leading to us literally...as you so well describe...being taken aback when we find that something they had left out is actually ESSENTIAL and compelling when added to the story!! Keep up the AWESOME work Brit!! If you are ever in Southern New England, contact me and I'll show you some of the Historic sites of my Connecticut River Valley region....Hatfield, Northampton, Hadley....great history involving some of your Yorkers I'm sure!!
Incredibly interesting Catherine.
I'm from Yorkshire but live in Texas, US. From the minute the first white man set foot here the destruction of the First Peoples (Indians) began.
Thank you for sticking to the facts and not trying to sugar coat Bradford.
I always enjoy your work and look forward to the new ones.
Love the hair by the way. Jan
I was born in Connecticut and well remember my late father showing me the place where the Pequot tribe was slaughtered. By the time I saw the area, it was unmarked and little remained as urban sprawl had taken over much of what should have been preserved as memorial to the victims as well as a historical, educational site.
As one of the many descendants of William Bradford - there's an entire list on Wikipedia of us, surprisingly - I appreciate your video and perspective on Bradford. In many ways, it's important to acknowledge that Bradford did some good, but he also made what was perhaps a serious mistake in agreeing to hire the colonist Myles Standish as the military commander of Plymouth Colony.
Standish was criticized even by his own contemporaries for his "brutal" treatment of Native Americans. Unfortunately for Bradford, he was stuck between a bit of a rock and a hard place. He couldn't fire Standish and leave the colony undefended, but neither did Bradford really seem to hold overly fond views of Standish. Standish, on the other hand, seems to have gained popularity among some Pilgrims who favored his ruthless tactics, while other Pilgrims felt disgusted by the lengths Standish went to. (Bradford himself initially advocated for a pacifist approach.)
At one point, Bradford was gravely ill and close to death. It was Myles Standish who nursed him back to health, leaving Bradford likely feeling as though he owed Standish for saving his life. Bradford also had no military experience, and therefore came to rely on and trust the advice of Standish concerning military matters. Bradford's reliance on Standish for the defense of Plymouth Colony also probably resulted in the gory account that shocked you from "Of Plymouth Plantation".
After outcry and backlash, Standish was later effectively exiled from Plymouth Colony. Standish was given 120 acres of land away from Plymouth to settle on in 1626, on which he built the town of Duxbury. The settlers of Duxbury were made up of Pilgrims who had supported Standish.
Roger Conant, the founder of Salem, and Pilgrim historian William Hubbard were also shocked and horrified by how brutal Standish was. Hubbard wrote: "Captain Standish...never entered the school of our Savior Christ…or, if he was ever there, had forgot his first lessons, to offer violence to no man....so was the Plymouth captain, a man of very little stature, yet of a very hot and angry temper."
Later, colonist Thomas Morton wrote the book "New English Canaan", in which he referred to Myles Standish as "Captain Shrimp", and penned a scathing opinion of Plymouth under Standish's leadership, resulting from Standish's numerous atrocities and brutal slayings of Native Americans. Morton added: "I have found the Massachusetts Indians more full of humanity than the Christians."
Gov. Wm. Bradford was my 11th great grandfather. Gov. Thos. Prence was also. Both were related to me by a 5th great grandmother with Wm related through her mother and Thos. through her father. This film is of great interest to me. Gov. Edward Winslow is an 11th great uncle as well through this woman, Susannah Wright born in CT.
Have you checked out Atun Shei films on TH-cam,? He covers the matter including the conflicted reputation of early colonials like Bradford.
I'm sure you have featured in some of his videos too?
@@CatherineWarr Surely that was the Witchfinder General of the colony of Massachusetts Bay??
An excellent piece of work.... and love the new haircut.
Go Browns! If you ever come here, I'll be more than happy to try to get you to a game and or take you to our local Browns Backers chapter. Cheers from Ohio!
I would probably have never heard of this man, or when he was born had I not watched this video. I am glad that I did, and would like to visit Austerfield.
You need to reread ,of Plymouth Plantation.
Desolving the Mayflower compact is what saved them.
Late November is about the worst possible time you can land in New England without having shelter or extra food.
I respect how you presented the things you found out as you prepared this video and the changes you chose to make to filming. And I don't wish to be judgmental about the Puritans as a group but it would be nice as Christians if they could worry less about playing sport and worry more about killing and enslaving people. Maybe I'm aiming high? (Incidentally I used to live in Gainsborough so it was cute to see it mentioned on the signpost at the end.) Thanks for another fascinating video.
Hi Catherine
Have you looked at King Aethelstan and the battle nr Doncaster…
Thank you for showing my ancestor as human with faults. In 1655 he gave the colony an ultimatum. I dont remeber exatly what the ultimatum was but i think if people living in plynouth didnt agree to go to church as often as they were supossed to then gov. Bradford was going to step down as governor, and given how good he was at his job then he mightve put the colony at risk.
Edit: edward winslow wasnt the colony doctor, but he did save massasoits life they were life long friends. Samuel Fuller was acutally the colony doctor and was self taught, but he died from smallpox during the pandemic in 1633.
Cleveland Browns shirt ?
Good spot, Paul...biased Redsox fan after visiting Boston Ma...mind you they also own the mighty LFC...we pale in comparison at Tranmere Rovers ...
I learned a lot!
Great video, as always, Catherine! My brother was an actor at Plimoth Plantation (Plimoth Patuxet Museums in Plymouth, MA) number of years ago (late 90’s, early 2K’s?). I believe that for one or two seasons (they rotated roles every so often) he portrayed William Bradford! I’ll check with him (he’ll have an opinion on Bradford, no matter what characters he played) and share your video.
Hair comment, so tally is closer to 50% - It suits you!
That's history, isn't it? It's natural to go into it to find a narrative out of what is always an incomplete record laden with obscure details, only to find a very different story when we get deeper into it. HIstory is a rabbit hole that leads into a vast and complex warren, known only to those who dug it in the first place.
What's interesting about what your video is how completely Bradford engaged with the complicated politics and conflicts of the native American nations. It seems to have set the tone for the whole Colonial period, defined as it was by treaties and trade with the nations rather than the rampant and often exploitative expansion of the post-Colonial era. Of course, that's my own narrative cobbled together out of bits that I've read alongside what I've learnt from your video. I'm sure someone will be along shortly to successfully disabuse me of it!
Thabks. He is my ancestor. My family comes from his daughter.
I say, ding dong, who is this delectable Yorkshire specimen I see before me? 💕
Just to say this Chris Johnson isn't me!
Elder Wm Brewster is my 12th great grandfather and father-in-law of Gov. Thos. Prence through his daughter Patience Brewster.
One other thing is that in describing the Pequot War "event" - i.e., massacre - you refer to "the fire" but I think should have included the genesis: The colonists surrounded a native village and set fire to it, burning alive those trapped inside. Those Bradford refers to as being run through were those who tried to escape.
William Bradford is my ancestor.
0/10, should have been a Pats jersey
JK, great work Catherine!
European Christian Entitlement. That's how you explain it. And great video. Well done.
Surprisingly the whole Pequot War part of the story doesn’t get a lot of play here in New England. Well done.
Check out the scrooby congregation is a tiny village and amazing i grew up there south doncaster nr bawtry but js where the mayflower lot cam from
Making 100% of the comments so far to be about your hair.
Brilliant stuff Catharine.Not bad for a Yorkshire lass;-)
6:46 Is that ship The Matthew (a life-size replica of)?
Okay, only because this always irritates me:: Bradford was not a Puritan. "Puritan" was a period slur cast against those who remained in the Church of England but wanted to "purify" it of "Popish essences." Bradford was a "Separatist" - a term also intended as a slur, this time against those who had "separated" into independent congregations.
I thought I recognized that voice!
Not normally a fan of short hair on girls but this has made you look quite hot.
YT algorithm is helping you out
ps Your new hair curt suits you.From a Yorkshireman exiled in Austria 🙂
Love your videos! The horrible choice was to kill or perish, then with prisoners to kill or trade for extremely vital supplies. At the time, abolition wasn't even a plausible concept, anywhere.
Oh, please! Wear a Steelers shirt, better still a Penguins shirt!! Great vid'!
I live in York for Uni, but never knew about him.
Though I study War and History so easily forgettable when ye studying over 3,000 years history and war...XD
I preferred you with your feminine long hair. It's a shame you felt the need to cut it so short. Great local history channel and amazing content!
Interesting, but one thing I don't understand is why you have a seven-year-old boy's haircut.
I can’t believe im one of his grandsons
I found the fact you spoke on the Puritans disapproved of sports played on Sundays and you are wearing a NFL Jersey, is this you showing American rebellious nature XD
I like your hair (a lot, too much for my age) but my wife doesn't but it's your hair do what you want. 🥰 Is that a socket with 2 wires I can see?
Comment for the algorithm.
Yes, history is messy... I re-upped on patron, but I didn't see my name at the end. I will double check my settings, etc. Regards from Canada 🍁
Why are you so adorable? 🥰
Ain't the truth a bitch?! I always thought Mother Theresa was great til Christopher Hitchens taught me different! your reservoir video was the first one i saw. I then went back to your early stuff and am slowly working up your downloaded video list. Your last video about your earlier stuff i feel is just low self-confidence mate. You show nothing less than a positive improvement in technique that can only be gained through experience. You are more measured and mature. That's only to be expected. You're a great historian and presenter. Don't fret so much about the technical side. Hopefully one day you will have a team of minions to worry about camera angles and stretching images to fit the screen. Best wishes and take care. PS occasionally answering comments REALLY goes a long way to growing a channel. ....just my opinion. 😊😊
See cute historian tomboy
**neuron activation**
Subscribe
Tomboy lives matter
WOOF WOOF!!!!
I was riding on the Mayflower when I thought I spied some land...
I guess the difficulty with Bradford is that most of what we know comes from his writing. Although, there's an interesting study of court cases that shows the evolving relationship between settlers and the native tribes. It seems the tribes were initially used to visiting Europeans and some locals appeared to have lived in Plymouth in the early years. It would also seem that the there were more than just trade relations - the first Bible printed in North America was in Algonquin. The fact that the settlers were massively outnumbered meant they were careful with their relationships with the local tribes. There were a number of cases where native people were compensated after crimes against them by settlers. There was even an execution of some settlers who killed a native man. As the colonies expanded with new arrivals (and the tribes were reduced by disease) the natives Americans ability to get restitution legally seems to have almost disappeared. This tracks with Bradford's evolving relationship with the tribes.
www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/wampanoag.html
Shouldve known the girl with the boy haircut wouldve had some white guilt by the end.