Collectivism nearly doomed the Pilgrims

Sev­eral impor­tant facts about the early years of the Pil­grims, after they landed in Ply­mouth, are omit­ted from the cur­rent telling of their his­tory. Few know today that the Pil­grims exper­i­mented with the kind of com­mu­nal liv­ing that was advo­cated by Plato. This col­lec­tivist exper­i­ment nearly doomed the colony, con­tribut­ing greatly to much suf­fer­ing in the first two years, after the deaths of about half the colony the first win­ter. Here is how William Brad­ford, the Gov­er­nor of the colony, described this failed experiment:

The expe­ri­ence that was had in this com̅one course and con­di­tion, tried sun­drie years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the van­i­tie of that con­ceite of Platos & other ancients, applauded by some of later times; — that y^e tak­ing away of prop­er­tie, and bring­ing in com̅unitie into a comone wealth, would make them happy and flor­ish­ing; as if they were wiser then God. For this comu­ni­tie (so farr as it was) was found to breed much con­fu­sion & dis­con­tent, and retard much imploymēt that would have been to their ben­e­fite and com­forte. For y^e yong-​men that were most able and fitte for labour & ser­vice did repine that they should spend their time & stre­ingth to worke for other mens wives and chil­dren, with out any rec­om­pence. The strong, or man of parts, had no more in devis­sion of vic­tails & cloaths, then he that was weake and not able to doe a quar­ter y^e other could; this was thought injues­tice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and [97] equalised in labours, and vic­tails, cloaths, &c., with y^e meaner & yonger sorte, thought it some indig­nite & dis­re­spect unto them. And for mens wives to be com­manded to doe servise for other men, as dresing their meate, wash­ing their cloaths, &c., they deemd it a kind of slaverie, nei­ther could many hus­bands well brooke it. Upon y^e poynte all being to have alike, and all to doe alike, they thought them selves in y^e like con­di­tion, and one as good as another; and so, if it did not cut of those [164]relations that God hath set amon­gest men, yet it did at least much dimin­ish and take of y^e mutu­all respects that should be pre­served amongst them. And would have bene worse if they had been men of another con­di­tion. Let none objecte this is men’s cor­rup­tion, and noth­ing to y^e course it selfe. I answer, see­ing all men have this cor­rup­tion in them, God in his wis­dome saw another course fiter for them.

Ply­mouth Plan­ta­tion expe­ri­enced two years of extreme hard­ship do to famine caused by the failed col­lec­tivist exper­i­ment. By the har­vest of 1623 con­di­tions improved dra­mat­i­cally, and by the har­vest of 1624, the colony was actu­ally export­ing food. A rapid tran­si­tion from col­lec­tivism to a free mar­ket econ­omy, cen­tered on indi­vid­u­al­ism, brought about this mirac­u­lous trans­for­ma­tion. Here is how William Brad­ford described this transformation:

All this while no sup­ply was heard of, nei­ther knew they when they might expect any. So they began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a bet­ter crop than they had done, that they might not still thus lan­guish in mis­ery. At length, after much debate of things, the Gov­er­nor (with the advice of the chiefest amongst them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own par­tic­u­lar, and in that regard trust to them­selves; in all other things to go on in the gen­eral way as before. And so assigned to every fam­ily a par­cel of land, accord­ing to the pro­por­tion of their num­ber, for that end, only for present use (but made no divi­sion for inher­i­tance) and ranged all boys and youth under some fam­ily. This had very good suc­cess, for it made all hands very indus­tri­ous, so as much more corn was planted than oth­er­wise would have been by any means the Gov­er­nor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trou­ble, and gave far bet­ter con­tent. The women now went will­ingly into the field, and took their lit­tle ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weak­ness and inabil­ity; whom to have com­pelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.

The same free mar­ket eco­nom­ics and indi­vid­u­al­ism embraced by the Pil­grims are the engine that pow­ered the United States into becom­ing the freest and most pros­per­ous nation that ever existed. This country’s mis­guided tran­si­tion towards social­ism, enacted by pro­gres­sives, since the early 1900s, has caused our econ­omy to sput­ter, and at times, almost grind to a halt. We the peo­ple need to end this exper­i­ment, then rapidly tran­si­tion back to free mar­ket eco­nom­ics and indi­vid­u­al­ism, to once again become the freest and most pros­per­ous nation.

Have a very happy and blessed Thanks­giv­ing everyone !!!