The English believed God communicated through plague – and viewed the epidemic which decimated Algonquian territory between 1616-19 as a sign.
John Eliot Preaching to the Indians, Gift of Martha J. Fleischman and Barbara G. Fleischman, 1999, The Met
Power, plague and Christianity were closely intertwined in 17th-century New England.
John Lacy, a Restoration actor and playwright, satirised puritans, including in his role as Mr Scruple in The Cheats by John Wilson (right).
John Michael Wright (died 1694/National Portrait Gallery
Puritans were often depicted as fools until they had a shot at government, and then the humour got darker.
Principled revolutionaries: the Pilgrim Monument at Provincetown, Massachusetts.
TWA Photography via Shutterstock
Puritan leaders argued vehemently for a church to be free of any higher authority – which caused problems in England and the new world.
Plimoth Plantation, in Plymouth, Mass., is a living museum that’s a replica of the original settlement, which existed for 70 years.
Wikimedia Commons
Descendants from the Pilgrims were keen to highlight their ancestors’ role in the country’s founding. But their sanitized version of events is only now starting to be told in full.