(From Alden House History: A Work in Progress by James W. Baker, 2006)

Today we are so accustomed to the fame of John and Priscilla, “America’s First Couple,” that the basis for their importance in American culture may be overlooked. Considered objectively, there is no particular historical justification for the Alden’s primacy. We know very little about Priscilla’s life beyond the relative prosperity of her origins in Dorking, Surrey, while John, quondam cooper of the Mayflower, may have been a pious, civic minded and respected member of the Plymouth colony community, but hardly a candidate for mass appeal. Why are not the Bradfords, or the Howlands, or the Winslows as well-represented in popular culture as the Aldens? The Bradfords were far more important politically, but they seldom are given precedence in art or literature. John and Elizabeth Howland may be as beloved by their innumerable descendants as the Aldens are, but they remain by comparison, mere historical ciphers. Edward and Susanna Winslow were wealthy and the Winslows are by far the best pictorially-represented Pilgrim family, but they, too, get little recognition. It is the Aldens who have been accorded the most attention by far.

The responsibility for their celebrity is Longfellow’s. Just as Hiawatha (the historical Onondaga chieftain) and Paul Revere were give quasi-fictional immortality through his verse, John and Priscilla – and Myles – received their celebrity status from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s immensely influential romantic poem, The Courtship of Myles Standish. But there was more at work than literary triumph. The Courtship touched just the right romantic and domestic note at a time when the sober pieties of the Age of Reason were being superceded by the sentimental impulses of the Victorian era.

Since the time of the Revolution, the Pilgrims had been celebrated for the “Landing on Plymouth Rock” and associated events such as the flight from Holland, the signing of the Mayflower Compact, and the tragedy of the First Winter. Highly revered and widely admired, these austere granite saints were presented to the world as symbols of “aggregate virtue” in Peter Gomes’ felicitous phrase, not approachable human beings with strengths and weaknesses like everyone else. Rufus Choate insisted in 1843 that the Pilgrims were heroes in a heroic age, something more than human and something unique in American history. Commemorative impulses of this sort, which resulted in massive monuments, parades, orations and civic dinners might be characterized as the heroic or masculine vision of history. Great men and glorious events are presented with broad sweeps of rhetoric and abstraction, making plaster (or bronze and granite) saints out of historical figures to emphasize the unsullied virtues and awesome accomplishments of the past.

However, by the 1850s another side of colonial history was starting to receive attention –  the history of real, ordinary people in everyday life. This domestic or feminine perspective on history did not dispute the classic narrative, but it did descend from the heights and take an intelligent interest in who the Pilgrims actually were, what they were like as individuals, and how they lived their lives. The new antiquarian or social history focused of the people themselves, their daily lives, their humble dwellings and belongings and all of the quotidian things that went on when there weren’t any stirring voyages or battles to talk about. Rather than heroic canvases or granite effigies, the new historical perspective was expressed in smaller, more intimate paintings, engraved illustrations and Rogers’ groups. Poetry, plays, novels and pageants gave the Pilgrims more human appeal than their sainthood had allowed. The result was often sentimental and idealized but it was a corrective to the previous austere, one-dimensional representation.

An early instance of this trend was story of Mary Chilton. A tradition arose that Chilton was the first person to set foot on the sacred rock. She was actually in competition with claims for John Alden for this honor, but as John Davis said in 1826, “As there is a great degree of uncertainty on this subject . . . we may expect from the friends of John Alden that they should give place to the lady.” 1 Even though neither she nor John were anywhere near Plymouth Rock on December 11, through her association with the Landing, Mary Chilton became the first woman to be individually celebrated among the Pilgrims.

However, the most striking example of this was the publication of Longfellow's Courtship of Miles Standish in 1858.  The earlier symbol of the Landing of 1620 evoked separation from the Old World at a time when the American Revolution could benefit from such an image. The Courtship in turn brought a much-desired intimate quality to the Pilgrim Story at a time when the fear of national division mitigated against the older symbols of separation and rebellion. Longfellow’s poem, published by Tichnor and Fields in Boston, achieved instant success. The publishers sold 25,000 copies in two months (at a time when 2,500 copies was more than respectable), and more reprintings followed. Twenty-four English publishing houses brought out the “Courtship” simultaneously and ten thousand copies were sold in London in a single day! 2  Its importance is perceptively described by Rev. Peter Gomes: “Had Henry Wadsworth Longfellow devoted himself to the Romance languages, of which he was Smith Professor at Harvard, rather than to mediocre but memorable verse, the perception of American history may well have quite different.  Paul Revere would have remained an unknown Boston artisan, and the Pilgrims of Plymouth would be little more than aggregate virtue.  It was Longfellow's disciplined meters and undisciplined history that launched them both into immortality.” 3

Although the Courtship found its most famous and influential expression in Longfellow’s 1858 poem, the story of the Pilgrim lovers had appeared in print before. In 1814, Rev. Timothy Alden published the family tradition in the third volume of his Collection of American Epitaphs, which was later quoted in James Thacher’s History of the Town of Plymouth (1832) and Justin Winsor’s History of the Town of Duxbury (1849).

DUXBOROUGH, MASS.
620. Note….It is well known, that, of the first company consisting of one hundred and one, about one half died/ in six months after landing, in consequence of the hardships they were called to encounter. Mrs. Rose Standish, consort of captain Standish, departed of this life, on the 29 of January, 1621. This circumstance is mentioned as an introduction to the following anecdote, which has been carefully handed down by tradition.

In a very short after the decease of mrs. Standish, the captain was led to think, that, if he could obtain miss Priscilla Mullins, a daughter of mr. William Mullins, the breach in his family would be happily repaired. He, therefore, according to the custom of the time, sent to ask mr. Mullins’ permission to visit his daughter. John Alden, the messenger, went and faithfully communicated the wishes of the captain. The old gentleman did not object, as he might have done, on account of the recency of captain Standish’s bereavement. He said it was perfectly agreeable to him, but the young lady must also be consulted. The damsel was then called into the room, and John Alden, who is said to have been a man of most excellent form with a fair and ruddy complexion, arose, and, in a very courteous and prepossessing manner, delivered his errand. Miss Mullins listened with respectful attention, and at last, after a considerable pause, fixing her eyes upon him, with an open and pleasant countenance, said, prithee, John, why do you not speak for yourself? He blushed, and bowed, and took his leave, but with a look, which indicated more, than/ his diffidence would permit him otherwise to express, However, he soon renewed his visit, and it was not long before their nuptials were celebrated in ample form. 4

In 1843, The Rover, a small weekly New York magazine published a version of the courtship story in verse attributed to “Moses Mullins, 1672.

“Ballad”

Miles Standish in the May-flower came
Across the stormy wave,
And in that little band was none
More generous or brave.
Midst cold December's sleet and snow
On Plymouth Rock they land;
Weak were their hands but strong their hearts,
That pious pilgrim band.
Oh, sad it was in their poor huts
To hear the storm-winds blow;
And terrible at midnight hour,
When yell'd the savage foe.
And when the savage, grim and dire,
His bloody work began,
For a champion brave, I have been told,
Miles Standish was the man.
But, oh, his heart was made to bow
With grief and pain full low,
For sickness on the pilgrim band
Now dealt a dreadful blow.
In arms of death so fast they fell
They scarce were buried,
And his dear wife, whose name was Rose,
Was laid among the dead.
His sorrow was not loud, but deep,
For her he did bemoan,
And such keen anguish wrung his heart,
He could not live alone.
Then to John Alden he did speak,
John Alden was his friend,
And said "friend John, unto my wish
"I pray thee now attend.
"My heart is sad, `tis very sad,
"My poor wife Rose is gone,
"And in this wild and savage land
"I cannot live alone.
"To Mr. William Mullins, then
"I wish you would repair,
"And see if he will give me leave
"To wed his daughter fair."

Priscilla was the maiden's name;
Comely and fair was she,
And kind of heart she was withal,
As any maid could be.
John Alden, to oblige his friend,
Straightway to Mullins went,
And told his errand like a man,
And ask'd for his consent.
Now Mr. Mullins was a sire
Quite rational and kind,
And such consent would never give,
Against his daughter's mind.
He told John Alden, if his child
Should be inclin'd that way,
And Captain Standish was her choice,
He had no more to say.
He then call'd in his daughter dear,
And straightway did retire,
That she might with more freedom speak,
In absence of her sire.
John Alden had a bright blue eye,
And was a handsome man,
And when he spoke, a pleasant look
O'er all his features ran.
He rose, and in a courteous way
His errand did declare,
And said, "fair maid, what word shall I
To Captain Standish bear?"
Warm blushes glow'd upon the cheeks
Of that fair maiden then:
At first she turn'd away her eyes,
Then look'd at John again;
And then, with downcast modest mien,
She said with trembling tone,
"Now prithee, John, why dost thou not
Speak for thyself alone?"
Deep red then grew John Alden's face;
He bade the maid good bye;
But well she read, before he went,
The language of his eye.

No matter what the language said,
Which in that eye was rife—
In one short month Priscilla was
John Alden's loving wife. 5

It was Longfellow’s poem, however, which made Myles, Priscilla and John household names. Two illustrated editions were published the following year, giving readers their first visual impressions of the Pilgrims as individuals, as opposed to the heroic gatherings in portrayals of the Embarkation, Departure, Signing or Landing. Illustrations by John Ehninger in the United States and John Gilbert in England provided the basis for later artistic representations of the famous romantic triangle by artists such as George H. Boughton, Howard Chandler Christie, and N. C. Weyth.

The Courtship was the first important Pilgrim story not associated with the Landing epic to achieve popularity. Representations of the Pilgrim lovers (especially in the works of the expatriate American Boughton) soon surpassed the images of the Landing (in number if not in size) as the most popular images of the Pilgrims. The story of John, Priscilla and Myles gave a new humanity to the Pilgrims, and Longfellow’s evocative poetry introduced a number of humble images from Priscilla’s spinning wheel to the apocryphal white riding bull to American popular culture. The Courtship did not supersede the older story but rather expanded the Pilgrim corpus and introduced a new romantic theme quite different in tone from the dour tale of the Landing and the first winter.

The Courtship and the serious art it inspired was only the beginning. The end of the 19th century saw the beginnings of what has been called “the culture of consumption.” Suddenly there were many new publications to be bought and innumerable products to be advertised amid an unprecedented explosion of popular material culture. The images of the young Pilgrim couple were seized upon in much the same manner that popular characters in movies or books are “merchandized” today, appearing in magazine cartoons and on Thanksgiving covers, labels, prints, cups, candles, postcards, book ends, lamps, plaques and all manner of other things. A popular women’s needlework magazine was named “The Modern Priscilla.” John Alden became the brand-name for cranberries, cigars, cigarettes, and codfish, to mention just a few. Interestingly, poor old Myles Standish got lost in the rush. It was the Pilgrim lovers which caught the imagination of the nation. Everyone knew when you saw a representation of a colonial couple in their 20s (more or less) that they were John and Priscilla.

It was in this way that the Aldens’ fame outstripped the other Mayflower passengers to make them become the most widely recognizable Pilgrims on earth. America’s First Couple: The Influence of the Courtship of Miles Standish on American Culture, a new exhibit presented by the Alden House Historic Site, will trace the evolution of the Courtship, explore John and Priscilla’s rise to celebrity, and display examples of John and Priscilla’s role in art, literature, advertising and popular culture.