In Spring, the women, in addition to household duties, helped plant, the children also—though for them more of a pleasure than for their mothers, struggling with the problems of supply and demand in food and clothes.
On an April day, after the planting, an episode occurred which brings before us for the first time, a woman not hitherto distinctly in the picture. The Indian squaws occasionally came to Plymouth and were a help or a bother, according to their personality, to the women of the colony. One, however, had such agreeable characteristics that she was considered a desirable member of the community. Her husband, Hobomok, was the colony’s trusted interpreter and permanent resident. On this day, we see the mothers of the smallest children, Susanna Winslow, Martha Ford and Elizabeth Hopkins, assembled in Mistress Hopkins’ big kitchen, learning from Hobomok’s wife the craft of moccasin making; the soft foot-coverings were both comfortable and warm for the babies. But the lesson is interrupted and Hobomok takes his wife away, saying that the governor wants her. The surprise of the women is lessened only by apprehension when they later learn that she had been sent on a mission which none of them could have performed, nor was a man of theirs able to cope with its delicacy, not even Hobomok. This peculiar circumstance was caused by Squanto, their other trusted interpreter and friend. He had stated that all was not well with their Indian allies and that Massasoit was treacherously planning with the Narragansetts to exterminate them. The qualifications of Hobomok’s wife were at once apparent to the men in consultation over this news, which Hobomok insistently declared could not be true. She was instructed, therefore, under guise of a casual visitor, to go to Massasoit’s camp and learn what she could. Her return was anxiously awaited. She accomplished her errand in a most satisfactory and creditable manner, and her information relieved them of alarm.
Another year passed, with a not very succesful harvest; uncertain Indian affairs, and the arrival of boats bringing letters, even visitors but no supplies or friends or families—the Merchants and even Robert Cushman seemed to fail them.
Some of the boats brought men whom they supported for a time from their scanty supply, who had come out to establish another colony on the coast and who requited their kindness by ingratitude and scorn for a settlement having women. Another boat, however, was more acceptable as proving they had friends in need, though unknown, for by it word was brought of a massacre of Virginia colonists by the Indians. From this same kind-hearted ship captain, John Huddleston, Edward Winslow—who visited him to extend the colony’s thanks for the warning—was able to procure some provisions, of which they were greatly in need, and thereby increased their bread allowance to a quarter of a pound a day. From this warning also they proceeded to build a stronger and larger fort, one part being planned for a place of worship.
A trading ship coming in, made them pay exorbitantly for their needs seeing how greatly they lacked them. On this ship, however, was a gentleman who was returning to England from Virginia. He made the acquaintance of the Plymouth people while the ship was in the harbor, and that he was a welcome visitor to the Brewster household is told by a letter he later sent to Governor Bradford saying how he had enjoyed Mr. Brewster’s books. A man of like tastes, evidently, and his passing acquaintance a pleasant incident to them.
The autumn and winter were punctuated by trips taken by the governor and some of the other men, with Squanto, in search of camps where the Indians would sell corn, as their own harvest was far from being enough to keep them until the next. On one of these expeditions, Squanto died.
As planting time approached, in view of the fact that the next harvest must produce a much greater amount, to avoid the dangers of starvation which they were then enduring, the governor, in consultation, decided to divide the land into personal holdings, instead of all lands being worked for and held by the community. This new plan quickly grew increased enthusiasm for planting and culture, since emulation and friendly contests for success began. Mary Chilton and Humility Cooper were each given an acre, and the attention those acres received was not less than any other. To work in one’s very own soil was pleasure as well as profit, discounting the fatigue.
At this time, also, the women had a particularly choice bit of satisfaction. No less than the total disestablishment and wreck of the colony which the men had come to plant who had accepted hospitality from the Plymouth people, when they arrived, and so discourteously returned it by ridiculing a settlement which contained women. Appeals for help from them were received, and with usual generosity were granted, to enable them to keep their lives from starvation and the Indians, and to leave that country.
Plymouth had but six matrons; and the young woman who had been maid to Mrs. Carver, and four young girls, Priscilla, Mary, Elizabeth and Humility, with Remember Allerton and Constance Hopkins fast leaving childhood in the responsibilities of this difficult life. With so many single men the widow and the girls could have a half dozen at command in an instant, while Mary Brewster had four strong right arms to rely on, her husband and three sons; Susanna Winslow the hands of her husband, brother and brothers-in-law, Gilbert and John, at need. Remember and Constance had each a brother to call upon and the other two married women, husbands and sons. Nevertheless, no one would care to deny that the twenty-four hours of the day of these loyal and efficient members of the company were not as heavily laden as those of the men, nor that their efforts in sustaining the struggling community were not as valuable in the final results.
“They made the home and kept the hearth fires burning;
They spun and wove and tilled the barren soil;
They met each day’s return with patient trusting
And murmured not through all the weary toil.”