Pilgrims’ First Winter (1620)

William Halsall, English, 1841–1919. The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor Massachusetts 1620, 1882. Oil paint on canvas, Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth.

What happened?

  • In November 1620, a group of English settlers called the Pilgrims, many of whom were fleeing religious persecution in England, arrived in Cape Cod in the present-day state of Massachusetts, USA (image above). The Pilgrims traveled aboard their ship, the Mayflower, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from England for two months. The ship was originally supposed to dock further south, near the Hudson River in New York, but rough seas threw it off course. 
  • After a month of exploring, the Pilgrims finally anchored in Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts, where they would go on to establish the second permanent English colony in the Americas, after Jamestown in Virginia. Throughout the winter of 1620, the Pilgrims lived on the Mayflower, ferrying to land to work on building their settlement. The Pilgrims moved into Plymouth colony by March of 1621, five months after arriving in the Americas.
    • Of the 100 passengers on the Mayflower, less than half survived the winter of 1620 to 1621. Confined to the ship for most of the winter, many Pilgrims died from disease.
  • Pilgrims survived in the New World with help from the Indigenous Patuxet people, who belonged to the larger Wampanoag nation. The Patuxet taught the Pilgrims how to endure the harsh weather conditions, plant local crops, and fish. 
    • Disease brought by earlier European colonists decimated the Wampanoag population, part of an event known as the Great Dying by Western scholars. Weakened by European diseases, the Patuxet people joined the Pilgrims in an effort to defend their land. 
    • A Patuxet man named Tisquantum, commonly referred to as Squanto, mediated the interactions between the Pilgrims and Patuxet people. Tisquantum had experience with English colonizers and spoke English. In 1614, he and seven other Indigenous men were abducted by English explorer Thomas Hunt and taken to England to be sold as slaves. He was able to return home to North America as a guide. 
    • The relationship between the Patuxet people and the Pilgrims was originally peaceful and respectful. However, this changed as more English settlers arrived and began to forcibly take Indigenous land.

How is this related to climate?

  • The Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts during the Little Ice Age, a period of wide-spread cooling that particularly affected Europe and North America. According to NASA, winters in North America were colder than average temperatures between the Little Ice Age and the start of the Industrial Revolution. 
    • The winter of 1620 was actually mild by Little Ice Age standards, but still much cooler than today. However, the harsh winter weather was more extreme than the Pilgrims anticipated. Historical accounts indicate that the soil was frozen solid, and a snowstorm delayed scouting trips, causing the Pilgrims to take longer to find a spot to settle.

References and additional resources

How to cite this page

Pilgrims’ First Winter (1620). (2025, January 31). Climate in Global Cultures and Histories: Promoting Climate Literacy Across Disciplines. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from https://www.science.smith.edu/climatelit/pilgrims-first-winter-1620/.