One Small Candle: The Pilgrims’ First Year in America

Thomas Fleming

Jan 2017 · New Word City

About this ebook

This vivid, deeply moving book begins in London in 1620 as Pilgrim representatives sign a contract to purchase the freighter Mayflower. We accompany them on their harrowing voyage across the Atlantic, through the rigors of the first New England winter and the threat of Indian attack as they desperately search for the home they eventually find at Plymouth. Once there, they must continue the struggle against brutal weather and disease.

With masterly skill, New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming gives us life-size portraits of the Pilgrim leaders. The Pilgrims' unique achievements - the Mayflower Compact, their tolerance of other faiths, the strict separation of church and state - are discussed in the context of the first year's anxieties and crises. Fleming writes admiringly of the younger men who emerged in that year as the real leaders of the colony - William Bradford and Miles Standish. And he provides new insights into the humanity and tolerance of the Pilgrims' spiritual shepherd, Elder William Brewster.

On the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims are already aware that they are the forerunners of a great nation. It is implicit in William Bradford's words, "As one small candle may light a thousand, so the light kindled here has shone unto many. . . ."

Ratings and reviews

A very good book. A quick read, but full of information that adds layers of flesh on those flat images of the pilgrims from our youth. These were a hard working people, full of life and joy and sadness. They lived in peace with their neighboring native American tribes. Interestingly, this book shows how very important Tisquantum/Squanto was to helping them survive. An excellent, enjoyable let and enlightening book. Suitable for teens as well.

Good Book!

An amazing historical event told with a clear portrayal of the joys and the heartbreaks.

About the author

Thomas Fleming is one of the most distinguished and productive historians and novelists of our time. He has written 20 nonfiction books that have won prizes and praise from critics and fellow historians, many with a special focus on the American Revolution. He has also written 23 novels, many of them bestsellers, which explore the lives of men and women in vivid narratives that range from the raw America of the 1730s to the superpower that confronted World War II and endured Korea and Vietnam.