Mary Allerton Cushman was the last surviving passenger of the Mayflower, dying at age 88 in 1699. The Plymouth Colony would not have survived without them.

The Last Pilgrim: The Life of Mary Allerton Cushman captures and celebrates the grit and struggle of the Pilgrim women, who stepped off the Mayflower in the winter of 1620 to an unknown world – one filled with hardship, danger and death. Last but not least, Mary is a strong character and her spirit is admirable. Knowing Noelle as an academic writer I felt safe in her hands to trust the historical accurateness, everything felt plausible and informative.

Through a variety of characters different perspectives illustrate the hardships, the obstacles, dangers, tragedies and the fight for survival.Įxploitation by the land owners, religious differences and politics also come into play but all is wrapped around the central character Mary Allerton.Īs European I feel I learned an enormous amount about those early days of settlement, how natives and settlers interacted and how many people didn’t make it. Noelle describes the characters in a series of narratives that depict the crossing with its difficulties, the landing, the search for a suitable location, the troubles establishing themselves as a village, as neighbours to natives and as a community. This book is a rich resource of well researched historical facts and a concise re-telling of the story of one of many Mayflower pilgrims.

The Last Pilgrim by Noelle A. Granger