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A Prank Led to America’s First Nominated Female to Office, and Other Lesser Known American History Facts

Khalid Elhassan December 13, 2019 33 min

31. The Manhattan Pilgrims?

The Mayflower’s intended vs actual routes. Scholastic

The Pilgrims’ initial destination had been a Virginia Colony island teeming with wildlife and natural resources, fronted by a huge and navigable natural harbor, and bordered by a navigable river that led deep into the interior. Back then, the Virginia Colony’s borders were not the same as those of today’s Virginia. In 1620, the Virginia Colony’s northern boundary was about 225 miles farther north than Virginia’s current border, and the island where the voyagers intended to establish their colony is today called Manhattan.

Instead, the lack of beer led the Pilgrims to explore the coastline of Cape Cod and the nearby mainland region, until they finally decided upon a site. On Christmas Day, December 25^th, 1620, the Pilgrims founded Plymouth Plantation as their new colony, and importantly, the site where they would brew up a fresh batch of beer.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.