View source for Mourt's Relation

{{Short description|Journal of the Mayflower Pilgrims}}
{{italic title}}
[[File:Frontispiece Mourt's Relation 1622.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|The [[Book frontispiece|frontispiece]] of ''Mourt's Relation'', published in [[London]] in 1622]]
The booklet '''''Mourt's Relation''''' (full title: '''''A Relation or Journal of the Beginning and Proceedings of the English Plantation Settled at Plimoth in New England''''') was written between November 1620 and November 1621, and describes in detail what happened from the landing of the ''[[Mayflower]]'' [[Pilgrims]] on [[Cape Cod]] in [[Provincetown Harbor]] through their exploring and eventual settling of [[Plymouth Colony]].

==Authors==
[[Image:Plimoth Plantation 2002.JPG|thumb|upright=1.1|[[Plimoth Patuxet]] in [[Plymouth, Massachusetts]]]]
It was written primarily by [[Edward Winslow]], although [[William Bradford (1590-1657)|William Bradford]] appears to have written most of the first section.  The book describes their relations with the surrounding [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]], up to what is commonly called the first [[Thanksgiving]] and the arrival of the ship ''Fortune'' in November 1621.  ''Mourt's Relation'' was first published and sold by [[John Bellamy (publisher)|John Bellamy]] in [[London]] in 1622. The [[Tract (literature)|tract]] has sometimes been erroneously cited as "by [[George Morton (pilgrim father)|George Morton]], sometimes called George Mourt",<ref>{{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Morton, George|year=1900}}</ref> which led to its title, ''Mourt's Relation''.

Morton was a [[Puritans|Puritan]] [[English Separatist|Separatist]] who had moved to [[Leiden]], Holland. He stayed behind when the first settlers left for [[Plymouth, Massachusetts]],<ref>[http://www.sail1620.org/discover_biography_the_carpenter_sisters_of_leiden.shtml The Carpenter Sisters of Leiden, Robert Jennings Heinsohn, Ph.D., sail1620.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040416032122/http://www.sail1620.org/discover_biography_the_carpenter_sisters_of_leiden.shtml |date=2004-04-16 }}</ref> but he continued to orchestrate business affairs in Europe and London for their cause—presumably arranging for the publication of and perhaps helping write Mourt's Relation.<ref>[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1898/08/20/102120887.pdf Nathaniel Morton and His Book, Mrs. Morris P. Ferris, ''The New York Times'', August 13, 1898]</ref> In 1623, Morton himself emigrated to the Plymouth Colony with his wife Juliana, the sister of Governor William Bradford's wife Alice. George Morton would not survive long in the New World, dying the following year in 1624.

George Morton's son [[Nathaniel Morton]] became the clerk of Plymouth Colony, a close adviser to his uncle Governor [[William Bradford (Plymouth governor)|William Bradford]] who raised him after the death of his father, and the author of the influential early history of the Plymouth Colony "New England's Memorial."<ref>[https://archive.org/details/newenglandsmemo02winsgoog <!-- quote="nathaniel morton" memorial. --> New-England's Memorial, Nathaniel Morton, Secretary to the Court for the Jurisdiction of New-Plimouth, Congregational Board of Publications, Boston, 1855]</ref>

==Legacy==
A sixty-year long tradition at ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' is to reprint the section on the "first Thanksgiving" on the Wednesday before the holiday.<ref>The Wall Street Journal section on the "first Thanksgiving" https://currentpub.com/2021/11/24/the-wall-street-journal-will-run-its-traditional-thanksgiving-editorials/</ref>

The booklet was summarized by other publications without the now-familiar Thanksgiving story, but the original booklet appeared to be lost or forgotten by the eighteenth century.  A copy was rediscovered in Philadelphia in 1820, with the first full reprinting in 1841. In a footnote, editor [[Alexander Young (historian)|Alexander Young]] was the first person to identify the 1621 feast as "the first Thanksgiving."<ref name=thankbio>{{cite book|last=Baker|first=James W.|title=Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday|year=2009|publisher=UPNE|isbn=9781584658016|pages=273|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yoMhqK9Z5HwC&q=mort%27s+relation}}</ref>

In 1921, a copy sold at auction for $3,800.<ref>{{cite news |title=Plymouth Colony Book Brings $3,800 |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1921/01/25/103538665.pdf |access-date=25 January 2021 |work=The New York Times |volume=LXX|issue=23,012 |date=25 January 1921}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==

* {{cite book | author = William Bradford, Edward Winslow | title = Mourt's Relation, or Journal of the Plantation at Plymouth | publisher = J. K. Wiggin | location = Boston | year = 1865 | url = https://archive.org/details/mourtsrelationo00dextgoog | access-date = 2008-12-23}} Reprint of the original version.

==External links==
*[http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/mourt1.html ''Mourt's Relation''] as transcribed by Caleb Johnson
*[http://mayflowerhistory.com/s/MourtsRelation.pdf ''Mourt's Relation''] as transcribed by Caleb Johnson (PDF)
*[[gutenberg:66359|A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth; Mourt's Relation]] as edited by Dwight B. Heath, at Project Gutenberg
*[http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001261966 ''Mourt's relation or journal of the plantation at Plymouth''] Full-text copies from HathiTrust
*Facsimile of [[iarchive:journalplymouth_images|''A Relation or Journal of the beginning and proceedings of the English Plantation settled at Plymouth in New England'']] aka Mourt's Relation (London, 1622) at The Internet Archive

{{Mayflower passengers and related topics|state=expanded}}
{{Thirteen Colonies}}
{{Thanksgiving|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1622 books]]
[[Category:1820 archaeological discoveries]]
[[Category:History of the Thirteen Colonies]]
[[Category:Plymouth Colony]]
[[Category:Thanksgiving]]
[[Category:Tracts (literature)]]
[[Category:Books about Massachusetts]]