William+Brewster

William Brewster Interview
My life in England was quit quiet. I worked more with Thomas Brewer and working at a printing press and publishing religious books and pamphlets which were illegally sent out in England (I was about fifty years old when I went on the Mayflower I went to the Netherlands for religious freedom and to keep on being an elder at my church.
 * Tell us about your life in England or the Netherlands.**

I got on to the Mayflower for religious reasons. In the Netherlands the Dutch people had big parties on Sunday instead of going to church. I was afraid that my children would grow up to be more like Dutch children instead of English. But we could not pray to God the way we wanted to. And that is why we went to America. The voyage was easy for me because I have been on a ship twice before but it was hard for my wife and kids because they had to be still all day long. The only part that scared me is when the main mast went down and we all thought we were going to die. The food was horrific- it was moldy, rotten, stale or infested with bugs. The worst part of the journey was the damp and darkness of the cabin. **How did the land and climate of Plimoth compare to what you were used to in England or the Netherlands?**
 * Why did you decide to go to the New World on the Mayflower? What was that voyage like?**

The first year in America was harsh. Many of the people died and we had to have private in the dark burials because we didn’t want the Native Americans to find out there was not over 50 people alive. The temperatures went to below the freezing my hand almost got frostbite. Building houses was very hard. In the end we ended up with one house for the winter where the hole entire 50 of us stayed. Food was horrible and the hardest thing to adjust to was the food was horrendous and almost made sick it was very unpleasant feeling. We were so frightened of the Native Americans we called them Indians for short because Native America was a mouth full. Wild animals were not that bad and not that scary I was not frightened of them but few people were afraid of them.**
 * What was the first year like? What was hardest about adjusting to life in a new place?