I was interested in reading the article “The Mayflower Compact,” written by Lawrence W. Reed [published in the Nov. 18 edition]. It presents a glowing report on how people with different philosophies can get together to achieve an amicable agreement.
However, it glossed over the fact that the Mayflower Compact was the fundamental reason that half of the Plymouth Colony residents starved to death during the first year of its existence.
After the first governor died, [he] was succeeded by William Bradford, who changed the complete communal agreement specified in the Compact to allow each family to have private property and allowed them to manage it and use the proceeds as they saw fit—a change from communism to capitalism.
Instead of starvation, the colonists enjoyed a bumper harvest leading to the first Thanksgiving.
Daniel L. Uffner, Jr.
Friends Read Free