Dr. Richard Pickering of Plimoth Plantation explores the connections of the Pilgrims to the political theory and pragmatic experience of Renaissance Italy. Many people might be surprised to learn that William Brewster, the ruling elder of the Plymouth congregation, owned Machiavelli's The Prince and Governor Bradford owned a history of Italy. Early New England resembled […]

As part of a multi-year study of Plymouth Colony sites, UMass Boston archaeologists uncovered the first intact sections of a 17th-century building this summer on the edge of Plymouth’s Burial Hill. The structural remains date to the first half of the 17th century and appear to be part of the original Plymouth Colony settlement. Learn […]

Dr. Lisa Brooks considers Native women’s leadership in a lecture based on her new book, Our Beloved Kin. Brooks describes the contest of war, captivity, and Native resistance during the “First Indian War” (King Philip’s War) through the intertwined stories of Weetamoo, a female Wampanoag leader, and Nipmuc scholar James Printer. Drawing on archival research, landscape […]

Could Plymouth have ever been Salem? Belief in witchcraft was part of the 17th century worldview of the Pilgrims, and there were accusations of witchcraft in early Plymouth. Curtin describes the English folklore and traditions that shaped New England witch trials, and examines the stories of Plymouth’s accused witches to suggest how the Pilgrim settlement […]