11/16/2025
Let me preface this by saying that I generally like most of Thomas Kidd's work. This new Prager U video has a few admirable things in it too, but he's guilty of a post 1865 Northern bias overall.
1. Jamestown certainly did have many settlers seeking for financial gain. In part that was why the London Company was formed. To say that the religious aspect wasn't involved is somewhat ignorant. Evangelizing local tribes was written into many of the Virginia Company's charters. Further, and I have to assume Thomas Kidd knows this, the Plymouth settlers were to settle in Virginia, not Massachusetts. In fact, the Pilgrims wouldn't have even been the first of their denomination in Virginia. Puritans had been settling at Lawne's Neck, Basse's Choice, and Bennett's Welcome since at least 1616. That's not even mentioning other such plantations with large Reformed influence such as Berkeley Plantation.
2. On the note of Berkeley, since this video references Thanksgiving. Those Berkeley settlers arrived in 1619, and as part of their official charter celebrated Thanksgiving in December of that year. That being the case, Berkeley's Official Thanksgiving predates Plymouth's by almost two years.
3. The Mayflower Compact, as noted in the video receives too much extra importance by many. It was an important document, but it was not the first of her kind in the New World. Virginia had been governed by a series of governmental charters before 1620. In fact, in 1619, Virginia birthed American representative government when the 8 original shires produced representatives who convened at Jamestown in late July to early August 1619 in order to form what became known as the House of Burgesses. This body became bicameral in the 1640s, thus offering a well-established model for our current House of Representatives and Senate.
The Compact, as I mentioned, was important, but why was it written? Simply, because the Mayflower settlers knew that their expedition landed north of the Virginia Charter's boundaries. Because they were north of Virginia's established borders, the settlers took it upon themselves to write a governing charter, because, as they saw it, they were out of Virginia's legal bounds, therefore, not under Virginia's legal framework. So, they created a quick legal framework to appease their minds, while setting about surviving the New World.
4. Lastly, it should be noted that the Virginia settlers did know about the Pilgrims. In fact, they even warned them about how to and how not to establish a colony. One such warning encouraged the Pilgrims to not collectivize their efforts. Virginia had already tried that experiment for almost a decade, before they realized it's failure and opened the colony to private land ownership.
Yes, to***co was important, but as is often the case, its importance is overstated. It did bring money to the colony, but much more than the "Evil W**d" as King James called it, was needed. And sure, cultivating that crop required more labor (not all of it was negro slave labor), but 1620s-1630s Massachusetts had legalized slavery, and a higher proportion of slaves than did Virginia during the same time frame.
Bottom line, even "Conservatives" fall for a progressive version of history. It's a version that doesn't do them any favors when fighting against their "left-leaning" foes. As much as I admire Kidd's work, this video isn't among that body of scholarship.
