Us vs Them

One thing I noticed while reading Morton’s "New England Canaan" and Bradford’s "Of Plymouth Plantation" is the need for both men to have clear antagonists. The groups they are speaking for are the protagonists; for Morton the Native American’s are the ones we feel sympathy towards, for Bradford, the Pilgrims are the ones struggling. In both narrations these groups butt heads and both authors want us to see their respective groups as being the “good guys,” or at least the one's "in the right." Their conflicts are with each other, but they also conflict with other groups: Bradford also displays the sailors as an antagonistic bunch. They are drunkards, not even sparing a bottle of beer for a sick man (though I don’t see why a sick man feels the need to get a buzz on) and they constantly bully the Pilgrims. This is something Bradford continually does throughout his historical narrative: makes it seem as if every group is against the Pilgrims.

One of the events that both men mention is the events at Merry-mount, or Ma-re Mount. Here both men try to paint themselves as the protagonist; they are both “in the right”. Morton describes the “Seperatists” as a deceitful, greedy, threatening group bent on conquering the plantation, while Bradford criticizes Morton’s pigheadedness and shows that Morton was the one who forced him into storming the plantation. Though both men claim they are the noble ones, both men are diluting themselves. It’s clear that Bradford wants to control trade with the Indians, but he’s not going to admit it (as and aside, did anyone else notice how Bradford keeps telling these long-winded stories, then at the end of them mentions something about wasting too much time telling them? He wants to “keep things short” but keeps going off on tangents to tell about how everything is stacked up against him and it is only through his faith in God that he gets through them). And while through the lens of history we can see the Morton was actually the tragically noble one, fighting on the side destined to lose, it’s also apparent that he elevates his own nobility and charity.

Admittedly, I read both texts with a sympathetic eye towards the Native Americans, so it was very hard to see anything honest or noble in the stories Bradford told. It may very well be true that deceit and greed were displayed on both sides, but that’s not how it’s remembered: we remember the Native Americans for being the poor, technologically inferior victims to the advantageous, calculating British Empire.