A History of the American People

ancient national myth or prescriptive legends but solid facts, set down in the matter-of-fact
writings of the time. We know in considerable detail what happened and why it happened. And
through letters and diaries we are taken right inside the minds of the men and women who made
it happen. There can be no doubt then why they went to America. Among the leading spirits,
those venturing out not in the hope of a quick profit but to create something new, valuable, and
durable, the overwhelming thrust was religious. But their notions of religious truth and duty did
not always agree, and this had its consequences in how they set about emigrating.
The original Pilgrim Fathers of Plymouth Rock were separatists. They thought the church back
in England was doomed, irrecoverably corrupt, and they wanted to escape from it. They came to
America in the spirit of hermits, leaving a wicked world to seek their own salvation in the
wilderness. John Winthrop saw things quite differently. He did not wish to separate himself from
the Anglican church. He thought it redeemable. But, because of its weakness, the redemptive act
could take place only in New England. Therefore the New England colony was to be a pilot
church and state, which would create an ideal spiritual and secular community, whose example
should in turn convert and save the Old World too. He set out these ideas to his fellow-travelers
in a shipboard sermon, in which he emphasized the global importance of their mission in a
striking phrase: We must consider that wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us.' Winthrop observed to his fellows, and set down in his diary, numerous Old Testament-style indications of godly favor which attended their voyage. Near the New England coast,there came a smell off the shore like the smell of a garden.' There came a wild pigeon into our ship, and another small land-bird.' He rejoiced at providential news that the Indians, within a range of 300 miles,are swept away by the small-pox ... so God hath hereby cleared our
title to this place.' He warned the colonists of the coming harsh winter, telling them: It hath been always observed here, that such as fell into discontent, and lingered after their former condition in England, fell into the scurvy and died." The Winthrop-led reinforcement was the turning-point in the history of New England. He took over 1,000 colonists in his fleet, and settled them in half a dozen little towns ringing Boston harbor. In Boston itself, which became the capital, he built his town house, took a farm of 6oo acres, Ten Hills, on the Mystic River, and other lands, and he built a ship, Blessing of the Bay, for coastal trading. Throughout the 1630s more ships arrived, to make good losses, swell the community, and form new towns and settlements. The land God gave them, as they believed, was indeed a promised one. Of all the lands of the Americas, what is now the United States was the largest single tract suitable for dense and successful settlement by humans. The evidence shows that human beings function most effectively outdoors at temperatures with a mean average of 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit, with noon temperature 70 average, or a little more. Mental activity is highest when the outside average is 38 degrees, with mild frosts at night. It is important that temperature changes from one day to the next: constant temperatures, and also great swings, are unfavorable-the ideal conditions are moderate changes, especially a cooling of the air at frequent intervals. The territory now settled and expanded met these requirements admirably, with 40-70 degrees average annual temperatures, a warm season long enough to grow plenty of food, and a cold season severe enough to make men work and store up food for the winter. The rainfall averages were also satisfactory. Until the development ofdry' farming, wheat was grown successfully only if the
rainfall was over 10 inches annually and less than 45: the average United States rainfall is 26.6,
and east of the Appalachians, in the area of early settlement, it is 30 to 50 inches a year, almost
ideal. Variations of rainfall and temperature were greater than those in Europe, but essentially it