Is it wrong to teach children about the Mayflower as part of events to celebrate the 400th Anniversary ? Or is it only OK to teach children about the Mayflower within the context of how racist and colonialist the Pilgrims were? Is it important to make British children feel embarrassed and ashamed of their forefathers’ colonial ventures into other lands?
Teachers refuse to mark Mayflower anniversary
The Mayflower, depicted in Plymouth harbour in 1620
The Mayflower, depicted in Plymouth harbour in 1620
BARNEY BURSTEIN/GETTY IMAGES
Teachers are calling for lessons to mark the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s voyage to the New World to be withdrawn, claiming they whitewash a “colonial land grab” and the pilgrims’ links to slavery.
A row has blown up over how to remember the 102 Puritans who sailed from Plymouth in 1620 to start a new life free from religious persecution. The Mayflower’s passengers and crew are the ancestors of more than 30 million US citizens.
The Puritans and a 30-strong crew took 66 days to cross the Atlantic before settling in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Commemorations are being organised by Mayflower 400, a UK body working with counterparts in America and Holland, with sponsors including the Arts Council, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Plymouth city council and the Royal Navy.
Mayflower 400 has created resources for children to learn about the historic trip in the classroom, on the internet and at 12 UK sites.
One leading historian, Andrew Roberts, who is not affiliated with the group, said the pilgrims were part of the political tradition that was to promote free speech and democracy. “All hail to the Mayflower adventurers and their doughty descendants,” he said.
Yet critics have accused the bosses of Mayflower 400 of buying into “the myth of the Mayflower”. Some want the education programme scrapped and rewritten.
Members of the National Education Union (NEU), the biggest teaching union, with 450,000 members, are calling for the material to be “withdrawn and reviewed”. A motion to its annual conference, now postponed because of the coronavirus, claims Mayflower 400’s “colonial narrative” risks undermining efforts to make children aware of the dark side of colonialism.
Huw-Tindall Jones, a humanities teacher and secretary of the NEU Plymouth branch, which brought the motion, said: “The educational resources provided by Mayflower 400 should also reference the negative impacts of colonialism, such as slavery, in an age-appropriate manner.”
Roberts, however, said: “Americans today enjoy the blessings of the English tongue, Magna Carta-based rights and all the other benefits of the English and Scottish enlightenment.”
Mayflower 400 said that it “aims to tell all aspects of the story. We have worked with the Wampanoag tribal nation to ensure that they can tell it from their perspective.”