Pilgrims

What do you know about The Pilgrims? Try this US Made Easy Quiz.  "Check Your Answers" at the end of the page.

1) Pilgrims is a name commonly applied to the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts. Their leadership came from a religious congregation who had fled a volatile political environment in the East Midlands of England for the relative calm of the Netherlands to preserve their religion. Concerned with losing their cultural identity, the group later arranged with English investors to establish a new colony in North America. The colony, established in 1620, became the first successful English settlement in what was to become the United States of America.

• True or False?

2) The persons who would come to be known as the Pilgrims (known as the Pilgrim Fathers in the United Kingdom) were brought together by a common belief in the ideas promoted by the parson at All Saints' Parish Church in Babworth, East Retford, Nottinghamshire, between 1586 and 1605. Who was the parson?

• Charles Connors
• Richard Clyfton
• Robert Bacon

3) Negotiations were delayed because of conflicts internal to the London Company, but ultimately a patent was secured in the name of John Wincob. The charter was granted with the king's condition that the Leiden group's religion would not receive official recognition. When was the agreement reached?

• June 19, 1619
• June 29, 1619
• July 4, 1619

4) With the charter for the Plymouth Council for New England incomplete by the time the colonists departed England (it would be granted while they were in transit, on November 13) they arrived without a patent; the older Wincob patent was from their abandoned dealings with the London Company. To address this issue, a brief contract was drafted promising cooperation among the settlers "for the general good of the Colony unto which we promise all due submission and obedience." It was ratified by majority rule, with 41 adult male passengers signing. What has the agreement become known as?

• Mayflower Compact
• Plymouth Council Accord
• Plymouth Harbor Agreement

5) Who was chosen as the colony's first governor?

• John Smith
• John Carver
• Robert Baywatch

6) While awaiting the shallop (a small sailing vessel), exploratory parties led by Myles Standish—a Manx soldier the colonists had met while in Leiden—and Christopher Jones were undertaken. They encountered several old buildings, both European-built and Native-built, and a few recently cultivated fields.

• True or False?

7) The local people were already familiar with the English, who had intermittently visited the area for fishing and trade before Mayflower arrived. In the Cape Cod area, relations were poor following a visit several years earlier by Thomas Hunt. Hunt kidnapped twenty people from Patuxet (the place that would become New Plymouth) and another seven from Nausett, and he attempted to sell them as slaves in Europe. Who was one of the American Indians captured by Hunt?

• Squanto
• Pocahontas
• Chief Red Cloud

8) Resuming exploration on Monday, December 21, the party crossed over to the mainland and surveyed the area that ultimately became the settlement. The anniversary of this survey is observed in Massachusetts and is traditionally associated with the Plymouth Rock landing legend.

• Plymouth Rock Celebration
• Forefathers' Day
• Home Foundation

9) This land was especially suited to winter building because the land had already been cleared, and the tall hills provided a good defensive position. The cleared Wampanoag village was abandoned about three years earlier following a plague that killed all of its residents. What was the Wampanoag village's name?

• Pawtucket
• Patuxet
• Squanto

10) Between the landing and March, only 47 colonists had survived the diseases they contracted on the ship. During the worst of the sickness, only six or seven of the group were able and willing to feed and care for the rest. In this time, half the Mayflower crew also died.

• True or False?

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