{a short series of links to material by and about the historical personage Thomas Morton, non-Puritan proto-American, persecuted thereby and for, and erector of Maypoles, a willing and articulate honorer of Natives, and a punning leader of men into the bargain}
The final straw for the Puritans came when Morton erected his great Maypole, renamed his colony (from Mt. Wollaston to "Merrymount" � or "Ma-re Mount," punning on the Latin word for "sea"), and threw a merrie olde pagan MayDay party to help woo Indian wives for his young bachelors. Morton penned a courtly poem for the occasion full of references to Greek mythology and gods and goddesses "which although it were made according to the occurrents [fashions] of the time," he later wrote, "puzzled the Separatists [as the Puritans were then called] most pitifully to expound it.
"The setting up of this Maypole was a lamentable spectacle to the precise Separatists that lived at new Plymouth. They termed it an Idoll; yea they called it the Calf of Horeb: and stood at defiance with the place, naming it Mount Dagon; threatening to make it a woefull mount and not a merry mount."
Or, as the Puritan Gov. William Bradford wrote with horror in his History of Plymouth Plantation: "They ... set up a May-pole, drinking and dancing about it many days together, inviting the Indian women, for their consorts, dancing and frisking together, (like so many fairies, or furies rather,) and worse practices. As if they had anew revived & celebrated the feasts of ye Roman Goddess Flora, or ye beastly practices of ye mad Bacchanalians."
The Puritans made good on their "woefull" threat � motivated, later historians suggest, as much by Merrymount's challenge to their fur monopoly as by its defiant heathenism. Miles Standish and his troops invaded Merrymount, seized Morton without a shot fired in defense � to avoid bloodshed, according to Morton; because the inhabitants were too drunk to lift their weapons, according to Bradford � and hauled him in chains before the governor to be tried for his supposed crimes.
Thomas Morton's scandalous erection of a Maypole in the settlement of Merry-Mount (Mount Wollaston) is described in William Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation. Here is Morton's account of the revels at Merry-Mount:
The Inhabitants of Pasonagessit (having translated the name of their habitation from that ancient Salvage name to Ma-reMount [MerryMount]; and being resolved to have the new name confirmed for a memorial to after ages) did devise amongst themselves to have it performed in a solemne manner with Revels, & merriment after the old English custorne: prepared to sett up a Maypole upon the festivall day of Philip and Jacob ; & therefore brewed a barrell of excellent beer, & provided a case of bottles to be spent, with other good cheer, for all comers of that day. And because they would have it in a complete forme, they had prepared a song fitting to the time and present occasion. And upon Mayday they brought the Maypole to the place appointed, with drums, guns, pistols, and other fitting instruments, for that purpose ; and there erected it with the help of Salvages, that came thether of purpose to see the manner of our Revels. A goodly pine tree of 80 foot long, was reared up, with a pair of buckshorns nailed one, somewhat neare unto the top of it : where it stood as a faire sea marke for directions; how to finde out the way to mine Hoste of Ma-reMount.
And because it should more fully appeare to what end it was placed there, they had a poem in readiness made, which was fixed to the Maypole, to shew the new name confirmed upon that plantation; which although it were made according to the occurrents of the time, it being Enigmatically composed) puzzled the Seperatists most pitifully to expound it. . . .
_____________
They who reared it, should their banner be triumphant, were to pour sunshine over New England's rugged hills, and scatter flower seeds throughout the soil. Jollity and gloom were contending for an empire. Midsummer eve had come, bringing deep verdure to the forest, and roses in her lap, of a more vivid hue than the tender buds of Spring. But May, or her mirthful spirit, dwelt all the year round at Merry Mount, sporting with the Summer months, and revelling with Autumn, and basking in the glow of Winter's fireside. Through a world of toil and care she flitted with a dreamlike smile, and came hither to find a home among the lightsome hearts of Merry Mount.
Never had the Maypole been so gayly decked as at sunset on midsummer eve. This venerated emblem was a pine-tree, which had preserved the slender grace of youth, while it equalled the loftiest height of the old wood monarchs. From its top streamed a silken banner, colored like the rainbow. Down nearly to the ground the pole was dressed with birchen boughs, and others of the liveliest green, and some with silvery leaves, fastened by ribbons that fluttered in fantastic knots of twenty different colors, but no sad ones. Garden flowers, and blossoms of the wilderness, laughed gladly forth amid the verdure, so fresh and dewy that they must have grown by magic on that happy pine-tree.
__________
This particular expedition was led by Captain Wollaston who brought a good number of servants with him, intent on make a fortune in this new territory. He quickly discovered it wasn't going to be as simple as he originally thought.
Wollaston made a trip from there to Virginia where he sold several of his servants. Delighted at having at last found something that would turn a profit, he sent word to the colony for more servants to sell.
One of Wollaston's companions on the trip was Thomas Morton. It was he who suggested to the servants that they ignore Wollaston's request, get rid of his man in charge and set up shop as free men. The MacThoys thought this a good idea and took him at his word.
Bradford reports that Morton announced that they would "entertaine any, how vile soever, and all ye scume of ye countrie or any discontents would flock to him from all places
_________
Of Their Houses and Habitations: The Natives of New England are accustomed to build themselves houses much like the wild Irish; they gather poles in the woods and put the great end of them in the ground, placing them in form of a circle or circumference, and, bending the tops of them in form of an arch, they bind them together with the bark of walnut trees, which is wondrous tough, so that they make the same round on the top for the smoke of their fire to ascend and pass through; these they cover with mats, some made of reeds and some of long flags, or sedge, finely sewed together with needles made of the splinter bones of a crane's leg, with threads made of their Indian hemp, which there grows naturally, leaving several places for doors, which are covered with mats, which may be rolled up and let down again at their pleasure, making use of the several doors, according as the wind sits. The fire is always made in the middle of the house, with windfall commonly, yet sometimes they fell a tree that grows near the house, and, by drawing in the end thereof, maintain the fire on both sides, burning the tree by degrees shorter and shorter, until it be all consumed, for it burns night and day.
Their lodging is made in three places of the house about the fire; they lie upon blankets, commonly about a foot or 18 inches above the ground, raised upon rails that are borne upon forks; they lay mats under them, and coats of deer skins, otters, beavers, racoons, and of bears' hides, all which they have dressed and converted into good leather, with the hair on, for their coverings, and in this manner they lie as warm as they desire. In the night they take their rest; in the day time either the kettle is on with fish or flesh, by no allowance, or else the fire is employed in the roasting of fishes, which they delight in. The air does beget good stomachs, and they feed continually and are no niggards of their victuals, and they are willing that any one shall eat with them. Nay, if any one that shall come into their houses and there fall asleep, when they see him disposed to lie down, they will spread a mat for him of their own accord, and lay a rol1 of skins for a bolster, and let him lie. If he sleep until their meat be dished up, they will set a wooden bowl of meat by him that sleeps, and wake him, saying, "Cattup keene Meckin." That is, "If you be hungry, there is meat for you, whereof if you will eat you may." Such is their humanity.
{all from a mention in Philip Roth's 'The Dying Animal'. still looking for something solid to link to from or about that paragon of intolerance and superstition, Governor Bradford, the John Ashcroft of his day.}
informant38
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...But of these sophisms and elenchs of merchandise I skill not...
Milton, Areopagitica
Except he had found the
standing sea-rock that even this last
Temptation breaks on; quieter than death but lovelier; peace
that quiets the desire even of praising it.
Jeffers, Meditation On Saviors
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10.11.02
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