The Pilgrims Reading Comprehension Lesson

Reading Passage

The Pilgrims

The Pilgrims were a group of English Separatists who crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1620 to establish a new life in America. They were called Separatists because they had broken away from the Church of England, believing it was too corrupt to be reformed from within. After fleeing to the Netherlands for religious freedom, they decided to start a colony in America where they could practice their faith freely and build a new community according to their beliefs. They obtained permission and financial backing from investors in England and made arrangements to sail to Virginia.

The Pilgrims set sail from Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620, aboard a small merchant ship called the Mayflower. The ship carried 102 passengers — about half of them Separatists (whom we call Pilgrims today) and half other colonists seeking economic opportunity. The voyage across the Atlantic took 66 days and was extremely difficult. The passengers were crammed into a cramped space below deck and endured violent storms, cold, sickness, and rough seas. One passenger died during the crossing, and one baby was born at sea, named Oceanus. The Mayflower finally reached what is now Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in November 1620.

Because they had been blown off course and landed far north of their intended destination in Virginia, the Pilgrims were outside the territory covered by their original charter. To establish order and legitimate authority for their settlement, the male passengers signed an agreement called the Mayflower Compact on November 11, 1620. It established a self-governing community based on the consent of the governed — a landmark document in American democratic history. The settlers chose John Carver as their first governor. They explored the coast and eventually chose a site with a good harbor and cleared fields (abandoned by a Native American group wiped out by disease) for their settlement, which they named Plymouth.

The first winter at Plymouth was devastating. The Pilgrims arrived too late to plant crops, and they had to live aboard the cold and damp Mayflower while building shelters on shore. Disease — likely pneumonia, scurvy, and general malnutrition — swept through the colony. By spring, nearly half the colonists had died, including Governor Carver. The survivors were helped enormously by Squanto, a Patuxent man who had learned English after being kidnapped and taken to Europe. Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn, catch fish, and fertilize crops with fish. He also helped them establish peaceful relations with the local Wampanoag chief, Massasoit.

In the autumn of 1621, after their first successful harvest, the Pilgrims held a three-day celebration with the Wampanoag people — an event traditionally remembered as the first Thanksgiving. They gave thanks for their survival and the harvest. The colony slowly grew over the following years, though relations with Native Americans eventually deteriorated as English settlement expanded. The story of the Pilgrims became an important part of American mythology — a symbol of the pursuit of religious freedom, courage in the face of hardship, and cooperation between settlers and Native peoples. Thanksgiving is still celebrated as a national holiday in the United States on the fourth Thursday of November.

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