Rebecca Nurse In The Crucible

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How would someone respond if asked the question “What is an American?”? Many might consider an American to be an individual from the United States. Others may reveal a deeper meaning to this question and answer in a less literal way. The stories read in class from Unit One help to answer this ambiguous question. Their description of American history provides insight into the lives of the people who first settled the land. Some impressions of the past are still seen in America today. The Pilgrims, Olaudah Equiano, and fictional Rebecca Nurse in The Crucible were willing to fight for what they believed in no matter the consequences, making them very persistent people. When the Puritan Pilgrims and the slave Equiano came to America, they were …show more content…
This Puritan group came to America to escape religious persecution in Great Britain. However, the trip on the Mayflower was not an easy one to make. William Bradford described difficulties of the pilgrims’ voyage in Of Plymouth Plantation. The ship was “met with many fierce storms with which the ship was shroudly shaken, and her upper works made very leaky; and one of the main beams in the midships was bowed and cracked, which put them in some fear that the ship could not be able to perform the voyage.” (Bradford *). The Pilgrims could have accepted defeat and returned to Great Britain, but instead they managed to make the long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The pilgrims landed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts in the November of 1620. Bradford says that “... they had no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain them or to refresh their weather-beaten bodies, nor houses or much less towns to repair to, to seek for succor.” (Bradford *Pg. 60). Winter was quickly approaching and the Pilgrims had nowhere to go. They had planned to arrive at Jamestown, a settlement located in present day Virginia, but the ship did not take the correct route. The Pilgrims would not survive harsh weather without shelter, so they began to build their own settlement. They found a way to overcome every obstacle they faced. Nothing was going to prevent them from obtaining the freedom they so desperately craved. Without the perseverance of the Pilgrims, Americans would not have the freedoms they have