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Book: Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
Quotes of Book: Mayflower: A Story of Courage,
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  1. Nathaniel Philbrick _ Mayflower: A Story of Courage,

    In the end, the Mayflower Compact represented a remarkable act of coolheaded and pragmatic resolve. They were nearing the end of a long and frightening voyage. They were bound for a place about which they knew essentially nothing. It was almost winter. They were without sufficient supplies of food. Some of them were sick and two had already died, Still others were clamoring for a rebellion that would have meant the almost instantaneous collapse of their settlement and, most likely, their deaths. The Leideners might have looked to their military officer Miles Standish, and ordered him to subdue the rebels. Instead, they put pen to paper and created a document that ranks with the Declaration of independence and the United States Constitution as a seminal American text.
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  2. Nathaniel Philbrick _ Mayflower: A Story of Courage,

    Robinson's fierce quest for spiritual purity had been tempered by the realization that little was to be gained by arrogance and anger.
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  3. Nathaniel Philbrick _ Mayflower: A Story of Courage,

    bloc, effectively guaranteeing that
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  4. Nathaniel Philbrick _ Mayflower: A Story of Courage,

    In the end, both sides wanted what the Pilgrims had been looking for in 1620: a place unfettered by obligations to others.
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  5. Nathaniel Philbrick _ Mayflower: A Story of Courage,

    The moment any of them gave up on the difficult work of living with their neighbors-and all of the compromise, frustration, and delay that inevitably entailed-they risked losing everything.
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  6. Nathaniel Philbrick _ Mayflower: A Story of Courage,

    During the forty-five months of World War II, the United States lost just under 1 percent of its adult male population; during the Civil War the casualty rate was somewhere between 4 and 5 percent; during the fourteen months of King Philip's War, Plymouth Colony lost close to 8 percent of its men.
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  7. Nathaniel Philbrick _ Mayflower: A Story of Courage,

    In 1634, smallpox and influenza ravaged both the Indians and the English in the region. William Brewster, whose family had managed to survive the first terrible winter unscathed, lost two daughters, Fear and Patience, now married to Isaac Allerton and Thomas Prence, respectively.
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  8. Nathaniel Philbrick _ Mayflower: A Story of Courage,

    In April, Bradford had decided that each household should be assigned its own plot to cultivate, with the understanding that each family kept whatever it grew. The change in attitude was stunning. Families were now willing to work much harder than they had ever worked before. In previous years, the men had tended the fields while the women tended the children at home. "The women now went willingly into the field," Bradford wrote, "and took their little ones with them to set corn." The Pilgrims had stumbled on the power of capitalism. Although the fortunes of the colony still teetered precariously in the years ahead, the inhabitants never again starved.
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  9. Nathaniel Philbrick _ Mayflower: A Story of Courage,

    For the future welfare of the settlement, it was essential that all the colonists-Leideners and Strangers alike-learn to live together as best they could. This nonjudgmental attitude did not come naturally to the Leideners. As Separatists, they considered themselves godly exceptions to the vast, unredeemed majority of humankind. A sense of exclusivity was fundamental to how they perceived themselves in the world. And yet there is evidence that Robinson's sense of his congregation as an autonomous enclave of righteousness had become considerably less rigid during his twelve years in Holland.
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  10. Nathaniel Philbrick _ Mayflower: A Story of Courage,

    That Church according to Church is too brave, too cunning, and too good to be true is beside the point. America was destined to become a nation of self-fashioned and self-promoting men. What makes his story so special, I believe, is that he shows us how the nightmare of wilderness warfare might one day give rise to a society that promises liberty and justice for all.
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  11. Nathaniel Philbrick _ Mayflower: A Story of Courage,

    In a letter hastily written to a friend in London, Cushman saw only doom and disaster ahead. "Friend, if ever we make a plantation God works a miracle, especially considering how scant we shall be of victuals, and most of all un-united amongst ourselves and devoid of good tutors and regiment. Violence will break all. Where is the meek and humble spirit of Moses?
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  12. Nathaniel Philbrick _ Mayflower: A Story of Courage,

    Stephen Hopkins was making his second trip to America. Eleven years earlier in 1609 he had sailed on the Sea Venture for Virginia, only to become shipwrecked in Bermudaan incident that became the basis for Shakespeare's The Tempest.
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