AP marked the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s arrival in 1620 by interviewing descendants of the Pilgrims and the Indigenous people who helped them survive – all discussing the legacy of the Pilgrims’ arrival and how it manifests in today’s world confronting racial and ethnic injustice.
This was supposed to be the year for lavish celebrations of the Mayflower’s arrival in 1620, with President Donald Trump, Queen Elizabeth II and other dignitaries in attendance. The pandemic foiled those plans. But AP launched a transatlantic effort to track down descendants of the Pilgrims and the Indigenous tribe that helped them survive, only to suffer disease, persecution and injustice in the long run. Enterprise photographer David Goldman conducted the interviews in the U.S.; London video production director Steve Barker contributed from the U.K.; and Boston reporter Alanna Durkin Richer pulled it all together in an illuminating text story that also featured a photo gallery of Goldman’s elegantly composed stills, complemented with work from photographers Matt Dunham in London and Brynn Anderson in Atlanta.
Olivia Musoke, 19, a direct descendant of a Pilgrim who arrived on the Mayflower, poses for a portrait in Atlanta, Sept 25, 2020. “Considering my ancestors helped incite the racial hierarchies that caused the need for these movements now, I do feel ashamed that that had to be part of history,” said Musoke, whose ancestor on her mother’s side arrived on the Mayflower. Musoke, whose father is Black, said the pride she feels in coming from people who helped settle this country “gets diminished by the role they played in kind of manipulating and terrorizing people of color, which trickled down to the structures we have today.”
AP Photo / Brynn Anderson
Seth Handy, 53, a direct descendant of a Pilgrim who came over on the Mayflower, stands for a photo outside his home in Providence, R.I., Sept. 22, 2020. For Handy, it’s a difficult issue to reconcile. “The pilgrims came out of religious persecution in England. And I’m very proud of the fact that they set off to create their own independent culture,” said Handy. “But they came to a place where there was existing culture. And, you know, the history is not friendly and that is troublesome,” he said. Handy added that it’s more important now than ever now to “recognize everyone’s role in our history and the great diversity of this country.”
AP Photo / David Goldman
Mayflower descendant Vicky Cosstick poses for a portrait in the back garden of her home in the town of Seaford, on the south coast of England, Oct. 2, 2020. Cosstick said she’s troubled by the suffering the indigenous people endured, but she doesn't feel guilt. “I’m of course horrified and appalled to know what happened as a result of British colonialism in America and what happened to their Native American tribes and the Wampanoags,’ Cosstick said. “It’s not as if they went to America in order to steal land from an indigenous population,” she said. “Much of it was clearly wrong, but there are many stories that need to be told. And I think the anniversary gives a chance for all of those stories to be told.”
AP Photo / Matt Dunham
A picture of the Mayflower hangs behind Ginny Mucciaccio, 90, as she talks with a friend on Oct. 1, 2020, at 27 Leyden Street, the site where once stood the Mayflower Pilgrims’ first Common House, the first structure built after the Pilgrims landed in the New World, in Plymouth, Mass. Mucciacco a descendant of Mayflower passenger Degory Priest, said the Pilgrims’ work ethic was admirable. “To have this tie to our early history is really, I won't say it’s a privilege, an honor. But it’s just something to be proud of because so many of them worked so hard, for so many years to help establish this country. And it’s just very important to me,” said Mucciacco. “We just have a hard working history in my family going back. We’ve worked for everything that they have. And I still work two days a week.”
AP Photo / David Goldman
Hazel Harding Currence, 78, a Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribe Elder, holds a photo of her ancestors as she looks through family memorabilia in her backyard in Bourne, Mass., Oct. 6, 2020. “We were exposed to disease. We were exposed to slavery. I mean, what happened here was people who came not just for religion, that might have been their purpose of leaving their homeland, but they came here and wanted to wipe out the existence of a whole culture,” said Currence. “We should have never been treated the way that we were, our ancestors,” Currence added. “I think that if they were here now, if they were looking down on us, I think they’d be very proud at the movement that’s going forward now.”
AP Photo / David Goldman
One Mayflower descendant, 19-year-old Olivia Musoke, whose father is Black, said the pride she feels in coming from people who helped settle this country “gets diminished by the role they played in kind of manipulating and terrorizing people of color, which trickled down to the structures we have today.”