An amplification to your story on Plymouth Rock symbolizing both perseverance and persecution (which is true indeed) … the Rock also has another symbolic meaning – American independence. This was expressed in the lead-up to the Revolutionary War when, in 1774 (250 years ago), Colonel Theophilus Cotton and some of his militiamen attempted to drag the Rock up to Town Square. The thinking seemingly was, it was here that the first American colonists separated themselves geographically from England, let’s finish what they began by separating ourselves politically. In being moved, the Rock broke in two, reinforcing the whole idea. Theophilus et al continued to Town Square with the top half, the bottom half remaining on the waterfront (top and bottom being reunited much, much later). That the symbolic meaning of the Rock was widely recognized is seen in a story in the Pennsylvania Journal of 29 November 1775, after the start of hostilities, when two captured British supply ships were brought into the port of Plymouth and “Capt. Coit (a humorous genius) made the prisoners land upon the same rock our ancestors first trod when they landed in America, where they gave three cheers, and wished success to American arms.”
Keep up the good work.
– Peggy Baker
Baker is the former director of Pilgrim Hall Museum.