A man sometimes finds profit in adversity” Ecclesiasticus 20:9 Did you know that the birth of American entrepreneurship saved the pilgrims from starvation? If you think this is a wild pro-business bit of propaganda, a history revisionist might dish out to once again demonstrate the blessings of free enterprise, you are wrong. It really happened. As we recently celebrated “Thanksgiving,” paying homage to our stomachs and the first New England settlers, I think this piece of history that I ran across in the book: “Saints and Strangers,” by George Willison, is timely and fascinating. He tells us about the dark and difficult days these courageous souls lived during their first few years in New England. It is their story of near starvation, poverty, and despair as recorded in William Bradford’s journal while he was the first governor of the Plymouth settlement known as the “Plimouth Plantation.” Surprisingly the history of the lives of our Mayflower Pilgrims in the early years of Plymouth was unknown until the 19th century. Few records were kept, not even civil records for the first decade. Most pilgrims were illiterate and schooling was a luxury. The fight against nature left little time or resources for anything but daily survival. Fortunately Bradford left us with a written record of those trying times. But his journal itself has a strange history; it was hidden for nearly two centuries and not discovered until the mid 1800’s in London England. It is believed that during the British occupation of Boston at the time of the Revolutionary War, the diary was stolen by “Redcoats” and sold in England. Around 1790 another strange circumstance was the discovery of some pages from the journal uncovered in a Halifax market being used to wrap fish. It was mistakenly thought by historians of the day that the pages rescued were all that remained and the rest lost to history. According to Bradford, the winter of 1620 nearly wiped out the fledgling settlement. It was only with the help of local Indians that half of the original adventurers did survive. After that awful winter, using the agricultural knowledge of the Indians, they planted corn and with meager harvests existed on a near starvation diet for the first few years. Believing they were creating a city of God, under the leadership of Bradford and Standish, they organized the first collective farm. Land was held in common, and all land tilled for crops was owned by all and farmed by the collective efforts of the community. As they were building a religious community, free enterprise and self interest were secondary to the interest of the group (State). Sound familiar? Karl Marx was two hundred years away. But it was not working. The collective corn fields suffered from a meager crop year after year. The men of the community worked in the fields out of necessity but with little enthusiasm. It was a common excuse to be away hunting, fishing, or building a dwelling. The foundations of capitalism, with its rights of ownership and the powerful motivating force of economic incentive did not exist. The Hebrew work ethic, one of the building blocks of the Protestant Reformation, disappeared when it came to working in common in the corn fields. All this changed the day entrepreneurship was born on New England soil. The ruling elders after a debate over the usual lack of corn meal for winter storage and the lack of interest in working the fields relented to the idea of privatization. Out of disgust, it was suggested that the land be divided and each family raise its own corn. Thus lazy Pilgrims would go hungry and it would be there own fault. But the ambitious and selfish would eat. The idea was met with opposition as it was felt to be a harsh and selfish measure-not Christian in its approach to sharing and the group welfare. Luckily the opposition lost and private ownership of the “factors of production” became reality. You know what happened- corn production soared. Within two years they had a surplus and began trading it with Indians and other small settlements for furs to export to England in exchange for supplies. Corn became currency as the whole family worked in their own patch of New England soil to better their lives. They were America’s first entrepreneurs. Copyright 1999-2003 Paul E Adams Dr Paul E Adams, Professor Emeritus Business, Ramapo College of New Jersey & Retired Entrepreneur, Syndicated Columnist, Host of the access cable TV program "Tri -State Movers and Shakers," and Author of “Fail-Proof Your Business,” Available @ Amazon.com. Comments, questions, or suggestions to: xpaul@pikeonline.net