Find “The past as the present”: the place of the pilgrim fathers in the memory of the American nation

The purpose of the article is to characterize the basic ideas of the residents of the United States about the history of the Pilgrim Fathers that have been identified in modern historiographic studies. Sources and research materials used in the article are presented by the works of historians published in the USA in 1990-2019 and devoted to the collective memory of the American nation. The story of the founding of the Pilgrim Fathers of a settlement in New Plymouth is one of the meaningful plots of US history. The article shows the internal dynamics of the myth of the Pilgrim Fathers in the context of the social and political transformations that the USA went through over 400 years existence. The article demonstrates how this myth was used in the rhetoric of competing groups. For example, the descendants of the British colonialists, who played a dominant role in the life of American society for a considerable time, rooted their identity in the ideology of the settlers of New Plymouth. At the same time, the author shows the experience of attributing the myth of the Pilgrim Fathers among immigrants from southern and central Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. The author notes that the image of the Pilgrim Fathers had a powerful competitor in the struggle for the status of the ancestors of the nation. Until the middle 19th century the story of the Pilgrims was opposed by the myth of the Indian princess Pocahontas, who was popular in the southern states. The image of Pocahontas crashed along with the defeat of the Confederation of the South in the Civil War. Pilgrim Fathers firmly occupied the position of the national ancestors. The author notes that this perception by Americans of their “roots” dominated until 1970s of the 20th century, when revision of ideas about the past began in the wake of social movements and the “explosive” development of new directions in historical science. The traditional story of the pilgrims was deconstructed. The main initiators in this deconstruction of the dominant ideological discourse were the Indians, who considered themselves victims of European colonization. Summing up, the author believes that there are cyclic repetitions in the use of the myth of the Pilgrim Fathers: each new peak in the popularity of the history of the pilgrims occurred at times when a single American identity was challenged. The author concludes that the image of the Pilgrim Fathers survived a series of transformations from the symbolic ancestors of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants to the forerunners of all immigrants of the past and future. The myth continues is developing due to this versatility. It remains the foundation of American national memory, despite ongoing critical reevaluation.

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