It would be nearly
20 years after Raleigh ’s initial ventures before
enough English interest could again be sparked for more New
World adventure. In 1602, one of Raleigh ’s
captains, Bartholomew Gosnold, sailed to what is now Maine England
Undeterred, Gosnold
obtained an exclusive charter from King James I to form The Virginia Company
with the purpose of establishing permanent settlements in North
America . He and his fellow adventurers on December 16, 1606 again
sailed for North America .
Despite recruiting “sermons” that contained messages of
evangelical outreach, and the preamble of the Company’s charter, written by
King James I, which contained the words, “…propagating of Christian religion to
such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of the true
knowledge and worship of God, and may in time bring the infidels and savages,
living in these parts, to human civility and to a settled and quiet
government,” the lust for gold was, again, what drove the men of this expedition.
Evidence of this fact was that this first expedition sent by The Virginia Company contained
exclusively men, 144 of them. Among them were no women or families, nor were
these men heads of households going to prepare a homestead. Also, among these
144 was only one minister. In the words of David Marshall and Peter Manuel,
these 144 men “were interested in one thing: getting their gold chamber pots
and returning to England
On May 14, 1607, headed by a seven-man council, which included
John Smith, these 144 men settled Jamestown
News of what was
really happening in Virginia began to get back
to England Virginia that second year
was—incredibly—even higher than the first: out of every ten people that
embarked for the New World , nine would die!”
The death rate did
not abate with time. Marshall and Manuel add, “For example, of the 1,200 people
who went out to Virginia
The next settlers to cross the Atlantic
would not make the same mistakes. They were not seeking wealth and prosperity,
but a new home. They believed that America
On November 11, 1620, after dropping anchor in Cape Cod , the Pilgrims drafted a compact that would
embody the same principles of government upon which American Democracy would
rest. It read,
“In the name of God,
amen. We whose names are under-written…Having undertaken, for the glory of God
and advancement of the Christian Faith and honor of our King and country, a
voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these
presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another,
covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic…constitute
and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices
from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general
good of the colony…the 11th of November…Anno Domini 1620.”
On November 29, 1623, two years after the first
Thanksgiving, Governor William Bradford made an official proclamation for a day
of Thanksgiving. In it Governor Bradford thanked God for their abundant
harvest, bountiful game, protection from “the ravages of savages…and disease,”
and for the “freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own
conscience.”
The Pilgrims, and the Puritans who followed them, had the
proper perspective. As Bradford would so discernibly note, “As one small candle
may light a thousand, so the light kindled here has shown unto many, yea in
some sort to our whole nation…We have noted these things so that you might see
their worth and not negligently lose what your fathers have obtained with so
much hardship.”
On June 11, 1630, aboard the Arbella, John Winthrop, the leader of the first Puritans, wrote A Model of Christian Charity, which
became a model for future constitutional covenants of the Colonies. It reads:
“We are a Company,
professing ourselves fellow members of Christ, (and thus) we ought to account
ourselves knit together by this bond of love…For the work we have in mind, it
is by a mutual consent through a special overruling providence, and a more than
an ordinary approbation of the Churches of Christ to seek out a place of
Cohabitation and Consortship under a due form of Government both civil and
ecclesiastical…
“Thus stands the cause
between God and us: we are entered into covenant with Him for this work. We
have taken out a Commission; the Lord hath given us leave to draw our own
articles…
“We shall find that
the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a
thousand of our enemies, when He shall make us a praise and glory, that men of
succeeding plantations shall say, ‘The Lord make it like that of New England.’
“For we must consider
that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so
that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and
so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and
a by-word through the world.”
As we sit down this Thanksgiving Day, we should recognize
and remember, as did the Puritans and the Pilgrims before them, the One who is
most deserving of our thanks. Let us not lose sight of Him who is the giver of
all good things. Scripture says that, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything
in it.” He created us and everything around us. He gave us life, and through
His Son, salvation. As the Psalmist notes, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.”
Have truly happy and memorable Thanksgiving.
