Images and creditlines

Pilgrims to America – and the Limits of Freedom

• Explanation of the objects can be found under the images.
• View the conditions of use of the press images.

Explanation of the objects

1. Cloth seal. Donation from John LaFountain. Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden. The Pilgrims took woollen cloth with them from Leiden to make clothes. This cloth was also popular with the Native Americans and was used as a means of exchange for beaver skins. This cloth seal – that would have been attached to the woollen cloth – was found in the Hudson River valley.

2. Flintlock. Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden.
The settlers introduced firearms and pointed iron weapons to America. This meant that the indigenous population could not only be controlled, but also largely eradicated. For many Americans, carrying weapons is still a symbol of freedom and courage. It has become an important component of their identity in which independence and individualism are sacrosanct.

3. The Green Market with a view of the Stille Rijn in Leiden, 1660. Hendrick van der Burgh. Purchased with support from the Vereniging Rembrandt, 1959. Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden.
On 1 May 1609, the Pilgrims arrived in the centre of Leiden. The Waag (Weigh House) on the left was the terminus for ferry services between Leiden, Haarlem and Amsterdam. This is where the Pilgrims first set foot ashore. The crane in front of the weigh house hoisted luggage and goods up onto the quay.

4. Permit from the city council of Leiden for 100 Englishmen to be allowed to settle in Leiden, dated 12 february 1609. Heritage Leiden, Stadsarchief 1574 – 1816.
This is the written agreement that granted permission for the Pilgrims – around 100 men and women – to settle in Leiden. The document was written on behalf of the city council by city secretary Jan van Hout on 12 February 1609. The religious community around John Robinson was probably larger than the hundred people mentioned in the agreement because children weren’t included.

5. The Departure of the Pilgrim Fathers from Delfshaven on their Way to America on July 22, 1620. A. Willaerts. Rose-Marie and Eijk de Mol van Otterloo Collection.
This painting is possibly a unique contemporary depiction of the Pilgrims boarding the Speedwell to England in Delfshaven. Notice the profusion of military apparatus: men are wearing muskets and helmets, a woman is holding a pike. These families (men, women and children alike) were ready to fight if necessary.

6. Perth assembly, 1619. David Calderwood. Leiden University Libraries.
A year before their departure for America, the Pilgrims published this pamphlet in Leiden. It was immediately banned in England since it criticised royal decisions that had been made during an assembly in Perth, Scotland in 1618. In this pamphlet, the Pilgrims express their dislike of the celebration of Christmas and Easter, the episcopal hierarchy and the practice of kneeling during Holy Communion.

7. Portrait of Jacobus I, 1566-1625. Anonymous. Collection Museum Prinsenhof Delft / Loan Mauritshuis, The Hague.
James I disliked Robert Browne’s followers, who did not care for the episcopal hierarchy of the Anglican state church. The king maintained that God had bestowed upon him his position as absolute ruler, making any criticism of him sacrilege. On James’s orders, the ‘Brownists’, the separatist movement to which the Pilgrims belonged, were fined, imprisoned or banished.

8. Broad and narrow road with Christ during the Sermon on the Mount, ca. 1580. Omgeving Gillis Mostaert. Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht. Photo Ruben de Heer.
This painting shows Jesus during the Sermon on the Mount. The way to the wide gate on the right seems easy, but eventually leads to the fires of hell. Many Spanish soldiers are choosing this path, unaware of what lies in wait. To the left is a much narrower path. The individuals lifting their crosses and choosing this path over the wide one will reach, at the end of a difficult path full of temptation, the heavenly Jerusalem.

9. Iron hammer head, 17th. Century. Heritage Leiden.
In March 1621, the Pilgrims agreed a peace treaty with Massasoit Ousamequin, sachem of the Pokanoket on Rhode Island and in south- eastern Massachusetts. As a thank you the Pilgrims gave the Native Americans – who only had implements made of wood, earthenware or stone – iron tools and cooking utensils.

10. Geneva Bible. National Library of the Netherlands, The Hague.
The Pilgrims based themselves exclusively on the Geneva Bible. This ‘People’s bible” was translated in 1560 by exiled English Protestants in Geneva, where the reformer John Calvin was based. In this translation, explanations were provided for difficult passages. These were biased towards the Calvinists and hated by James I because in them his omnipotence and sacred kingship were refuted.