Preview

Throughout the month of December, VDARE.com will feature a series of letters from our readers, honoring our Pilgrim forebears and the powerful legacy that their survival story still inspires in patriotic Americans today.

VDARE.com's Matthew Richer wrote earlier this year that, “[T]he Pilgrims did not immigrate to the New World, they settled it. And those whose ancestors immigrated to America afterwards are indebted to them because they paved the way for the rest of us …

However, many Americans who do not descend from the Pilgrims (like myself) still consider them our forefathers—and that is an example of a phenomenon once favorably known as ‘assimilation.’

“...Those who love this country will want to celebrate this anniversary. Those who loathe it will obnoxiously denigrate it.”

— Matthew Richer, We Are All Puritans Now! 2020 Election Will Be Debate On Mayflower Anniversary/America’s Founding. Trump Will Win

Now, we want to hear from you:

Are you a Mayflower descendant?

The Pilgrims were prolific. Among their 35 million descendants are a dozen Presidents including both Adamses, both Roosevelts and both Bushes, along with many other notables as diverse as Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, Amelia Earhart, Astronaut Alan Shepherd, Warren Buffett and Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England.

Or are you, like Richer, an “assimilated” part of the Historic American Nation for whom the Mayflower story nevertheless has personal meaning and significance?

The Mayflower Compact and subsequent government were the first exercise in self-government in the English speaking world, not to mention the New World, and it inspired the framers of the Constitution.

In either case, please help us remember and celebrate the historic American nation by letting us know:

What does the Mayflower mean to you, to your family and to our nation? Please send all submissions to [email protected].