31. Why the Pilgrims Landed On Plymouth Rock
Few things can kill a party or put a damper on festivities as quickly as running out of beer. However, the lack of beer seldom produces results as far-reaching as what occurred in the summer of 1620. Weird as it might sound, the Pilgrims ended up settling in Massachusetts because they were running low on beer. Today, that could seem like a trifling reason for making such an important decision. Back then, however, beer was a serious matter.
It began on August 5th, 1620, when the Mayflower departed Plymouth, England, for a journey across the Atlantic to the newly established Virginia Colony. In other words, when they set out, the Pilgrims’ destination had not been Massachusetts, but a point significantly further south. The vagaries of weather, the hardships of crossing an ocean in a seventeenth-century sailing ship, coupled with low levels of beer, led them to change their minds about where to settle.