u/dty6

"These young women were raped, repeatedly (hence the baby skeletons) and sacrificed in the "Golden Chamber". Over 11,000."

Many cultures are said to have sacrificed virgins.

I was also wondering whether Ursula was looking for an excuse not to marry the pagan governor. Most marriages at that time were arranged, especially among royalty. Sounds like Ursula took advantage of the storm as an excuse to buy herself some time by running away. It's even possible she and her handmaids were pursued and murdered. She might have been running to Rome to seek sanctuary in the church.

holy cow, that's a terrible story

u/dty6 u/lonewulf

LOOK

https://www.garfieldrefining.com/resources/blog/gold-and-thanksgiving/

When the first Mayflower expedition set off for the New World in 1620, travelers included wealthy pilgrims. As members of elite Puritan families in England, some pilgrims held vast estates with profitable farmland. However, settling in the new world meant foregoing their wealthy status in England and committing to a life of the bare essentials.

You were right. They were rich. Very, very rich.

It wasn’t until 2012 that historians uncovered a manuscript that listed the provisions of some of the original Mayflower settlers. Though many of the pilgrims were quite wealthy, you wouldn’t guess it from what they carried with them. The official provision list included only the necessities: food, drink, clothing, tools, and weapons.

As one historical study noted,* the pilgrims did not venture to the new world in hopes of finding wealth but rather to escape the religious persecution* that was widespread in Europe.

What kind of religion did the "Puritans" really practice? Was it Godly or something evil? What makes very affluent people run to the other side of the world and leave their estates behind?

The narrative is that they were "poor" people fleeing religious persecution. It wasn't until 2012 that it was revealed they were all quite wealthy. Why do wealthy people abandon their wealth and run? There is generally only one reason.

That's why they were so terrible at surviving. They literally had no idea how to do anything. They were spoiled rich people who couldn't figure out how a hoe worked and didn't want to invite "sheep" because the sheep would "ruin" it. Like any cult they thought they could make a utopia, but they only made a nightmare because sociopaths are ultimately useless at doing anything.

They're parasites that have to steal the resources of their host to thrive.

That's why they had to have slaves in Haiti. Someone has to have sense and do the work. They have none.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mayflower_passengers

According to the Mayflower passenger list, just over a third of the passengers were Puritan Separatists who sought to break away from the established Church of England and create a society along the lines of their religious ideals. Other passengers were hired hands, servants, or farmers recruited by London merchants, all originally destined for the Colony of Virginia. Four of this latter group of passengers were small children given into the care of Mayflower pilgrims as indentured servants. The Virginia Company began the transportation of children in 1618.[36] Until relatively recently, the children were thought to be orphans, foundlings, or involuntary child labor. At that time, children were routinely rounded up from the streets of London or taken from poor families receiving church relief to be used as laborers in the colonies. Any legal objections to the involuntary transportation of the children were overridden by the Privy Council.[37][38] For instance it has been proven that the four More children were sent to America because they were deemed illegitimate.[39] Three of the four More children died in the first winter in the New World, but Richard lived to be approximately 81, dying in Salem, probably in 1695 or 1696.[40]

This is called child trafficking. They stole the children and took them to the "NEW WORLD" to be slaves. They were helpless. They were disappeared from the streets.

Look at this:

In response, the English Privy Council granted the Virginia Company permission to do whatever necessary to force the children into the ships.

They were stolen. Untold numbers were taken as slaves to the wealthy pilgrims.

And if any of them shall be found obstinate to resist or otherwise to disobey such directions as shall be given in this behalf, we do likewise hereby authorize such as shall have the charge of this service to imprison, punish, and dispose any of those children…and, so to ship them out for Virginia with as much expedition as may stand with conveniency.

the Virginia Company was desperate for child labor and went to to great lengths to import unwilling youths; second, while it is not clear whether or not they had parents, these children certainly emigrated without them and were placed in the custody of the masters to whom they were apprenticed; and third, neither the Virginia colonialists nor the English showed any concern for the best interests of these children, nor, for that matter, for basic due process before punishment-rights guaranteed adult Englishmen, but apparently not children.

Children who came to America as indentured servants without parents were an important part of the story of the colonies’ settlement. More than half of all persons who came to the colonies south of New England were indentured servants, and, according to historian Richard B. Morris, most servants were less than nineteen years old. The average age was between fourteen and sixteen, and the youngest was six.

Child labor was essential.

Slave children, who comprised about one-fifth of all children by the end of the eighteenth century, could be sold away from their parents at any time.

It makes you understand better what "All men are created equal" was an earthquake in 1776.

The harsh manner in which colonialists treated children reflected the English tradition. Colonial family law and employment law were still firmly tied to their English origins.

The children were treated like slaves.

Courts could easily steal your children away.

Parents also lost their children if they were not able to provide economic support. All these children were quickly recycled into the labor force as apprentices in other households.

https://www.grunge.com/260308/the-messed-up-history-of-old-timey-child-labor/

In 1618, Britain started another practice: taking poor children off their streets and shipping them off to their colonies to fill labor shortages there. According to Merseyside Maritime's On Their Own, that first instance was a case of 100 children picked up in London and given to the Virginia Company, who sent them to Virginia's plantations. And it happened a lot: 200 kids were sent over to North America in 1645 to fill in where there were more labor shortages, and in the 1740s, around 500 children were kidnapped from Scotland and sent to the colonies. Their story was later documented in the 1757 book written by one of the children, Peter Williamson. Did it stop the practice? Of course not!

Now back to the Puritans:

Cape Cod was among the first places settled by Puritan colonists in North America. The Cape's fifteen towns developed slowly, aside from Barnstable (1639), Sandwich (1637), and Yarmouth (1639). The final town to be established on the Cape was Bourne in 1884, breaking off from Sandwich.[37] Provincetown was a group of huts until the 18th century. A channel from Massachusetts Bay to Buzzards Bay is shown on Southack's map of 1717. The present Cape Cod Canal was slowly developed from 1870 to 1914. The federal government purchased it in 1928.

The Great Migration of Puritans to New England was primarily an exodus of families. Between 1630 and 1640, over 13,000 men, women, and children sailed to Massachusetts. The religious and political factors behind the Great Migration influenced the demographics of the emigrants. Groups of young men seeking economic success predominated the Virginia colonies, whereas Puritan ships were laden with “ordinary” people, old and young, families as well as individuals. Just a quarter of the emigrants were in their twenties when they boarded ships in the 1630s, making young adults a minority in New England settlements. The New World Puritan population was more of a cross-section in the age of the English population than those of other colonies. This meant that the Massachusetts Bay Colony retained a relatively normal population composition. In the colony of Virginia, the ratio of colonist men to women was 4:1 in the early decades and at least 2:1.

I think there is more than meets the eye.