Question

One event that Bradford does not describe is the death of his wife, who either fell or jumped overboard in Provincetown Harbor. what reasons can you propose for his having omitted it? How would his history have been different if he had included this tragedy?

Answer 1

@tanya123 can you help on this one?

Answer 2

@MIA305DT do you know this?

Answer 3

From the website:

On December 7, 1620, before the colony was established, Bradford's wife died. [1] Dorothy Bradford died while the Mayflower was at anchor in Provincetown Harbor. However, there are no contemporary accounts of the circumstances of her death, only a later mention of drowning by Cotton Mather in Magnalia Christi Americana. [2] Bradford included only brief mention of her passing in his own writing. There is a widely circulated story that she committed suicide because the Mayfower was a moored ship, but this is derived from a work of historical fiction published in the June, 1869 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine. This claims that they had decided to leave their young son in the Netherlands, and his wife was so stricken with sadness that she took her own life. Regardless of this fictional treatment, there is no proof of suicide. [3]


Suicide was considered a sin. That is probably why he didn't mention it. He would not have wanted any one to associate himself with a sinner.

Answer 4

Maybe because its a sin.

Answer 5

Doesn't want people to know he left his son?

Answer 6

Did this help?

Answer 7

This helped so much you're the best! @MIA305DT

Answer 8

Awesome! @EmmaDrew94