John+Alden

John Alden Interview
I was 21 years old when I was hired to be the cooper, or barrel maker. I was a barrel maker; no I did not travel to the Netherlands. Yes I was married.
 * Tell us about your life in England or the Netherlands.**

We couldn’t cook on the Mayflower. The bread was as hard as a rock and we had to bang it on the tables to get all the bugs out. All the beer had gone bad and even sometimes we would have to eat the same things over and over again for sometimes a week. It was really boring on the Mayflower because there was nothing to do. The sleeping arrangements were very uncomfortable because most I had to sleep on the floor and it was very very cold. The storms were very brutal and even one time one of the poles had cracked, so that’s when all of us had gotten scared that the other one would break and we would have no sails to sail with. Most of the time when it was stormy the deck had gotten icy and no one was able to go on deck.
 * Why did you decide to go to the New World on the Mayflower? What was that voyage like?**

John Alden # 3
 * How did the land and climate of Plimoth compare to what you were used to in England or the Netherlands?**

England and The New World were different because England had trees, but not a lot and The New World had a lot of trees. When we got to the New World and off the ship we were scared because we thought there was Indians behind every tree. We couldn’t hunt animals or cut down any trees because the king owned them. But when we got to the New World we could hunt and cut down as many trees we wanted because there was no king. When we got to the New World we had religious freedom. In England we had no religious freedom. That’s the reason why we came to the New World is for religious freedom.


 * What was the first year like? What was hardest about adjusting to life in a new place?**