Imagine you have decided to move to Plymouth Colony. There is no moving truck waiting at the dock. No hardware store will greet you when you arrive. You cannot order something you forgot and have it delivered next week. Whatever you take must cross the Atlantic with you.
So what do you pack?
Fortunately, we don’t have to guess. Edward Winslow, one of Plymouth’s early leaders, actually left prospective settlers advice about provisions for the journey. His recommendations give us a wonderfully practical glimpse into what emigrating to Plymouth really involved.
And yes—beer was on the list.
First Things First: Bring Beer and Water
Winslow recommended that travelers carry water and beer in iron-bound casks, allowing approximately a hogshead for every five people. Why beer?
Beer was a familiar part of the English diet, but it would be misleading to repeat the popular claim that the Pilgrims drank beer simply because water was universally unsafe. The historical picture is more complicated. What Winslow’s list establishes is that both beer and water were considered important provisions for an Atlantic voyage.
Pilgrim Hall Museum’s collection of early provisions lists gives us Winslow’s recommendations in remarkable detail. He advised travelers to take beer and water aboard in casks strong enough to withstand the voyage. A leaking barrel in the middle of the Atlantic was more than an inconvenience.
When the nearest replacement was an ocean away, packaging mattered almost as much as what was inside it.
Pack the Flour Carefully
Food had to survive the crossing too. Winslow recommended that meal—the ground grain used for food—be packed in casks and pressed down tightly. He suggested putting meal at the bottom and top of the container, with oatmeal in the middle, because oatmeal could become musty if it were not properly protected. That tiny detail tells us something important about seventeenth-century travel.
Today we tend to think about what we need. A Plymouth-bound traveler also had to think about whether it would still be usable months later. Food could spoil. Containers could leak. Clothing could become wet. Tools could break. Preparation meant anticipating failure before it happened.
Your Suitcase Would Look Very Different
Winslow recommended taking enough clothing for the voyage and additional clothing for after arrival. But there was no 50-pound airline baggage allowance. Clothing was valuable. Fabric represented raw materials, labor and money. Replacing a garment in Plymouth was nothing like stopping at a store on the way home from work.
Bedding mattered too. Prospective settlers were advised to bring bedding sufficient for their needs. Once again, this sounds mundane until we remember the destination. You were preparing to sleep through a New England winter in a settlement where houses, furniture and basic infrastructure still had to be created. So a blanket wasn’t décor – it was survival equipment.
Don’t Forget the Butter
The provisions list becomes even more interesting when we reach the food. Winslow recommended bringing such things as butter and salad oil. Pilgrim Hall’s records also show prospective colonists being advised about food staples and the quantities necessary to sustain them while establishing themselves.
Then the list takes an unexpected turn.
Lemon juice. Winslow recommended lemon juice for the voyage. Seventeenth-century people did not understand vitamin C as we do today, but citrus had long been associated with health during sea voyages. For travelers facing months aboard ship, preserving health was a serious concern.
He also recommended aniseed water. The Plymouth-bound pantry, apparently, was more interesting than we sometimes imagine.
Bring Your Own Window
One of the most delightful items on the list has nothing to do with food. Winslow advised emigrants to bring paper and linseed oil for windows. Glass was expensive and difficult to obtain. Pilgrim Hall explains that oiled paper could be used to cover window openings, allowing some light into a house while providing protection from the weather.
Think about that for a moment. You weren’t merely packing things to put inside your future house. You were packing part of the house. That changes the way we think about immigration to Plymouth. The settlers weren’t moving into an established community. They were carrying pieces of a future community across the ocean with them.
And Bring Something to Light It
Windows weren’t the only lighting concern. Winslow recommended bringing cotton yarn for lamps. Before electric switches, streetlights and flashlights, darkness was a practical problem. Oil lamps, candles and the hearth provided light, and materials needed to make or maintain those sources of illumination had to be considered before departure.
Imagine writing your packing list: Beer. Water. Meal. Clothing. Bedding. Butter. Oil. Lemon juice. Window material. Lamp wicks. And we’re nowhere near finished.
Tools Were an Investment
Anyone expecting to build a life at Plymouth needed tools. Early provisions lists included axes, saws, augers, hammers, shovels, hoes and other equipment needed for construction and agriculture. These weren’t optional accessories for a hobby. They were the means by which a wilderness settlement became inhabitable.
A broken axe could delay construction. A missing agricultural tool could affect food production. A tool you didn’t bring might not be available when you needed it. This is one reason surviving seventeenth-century objects are so fascinating. To us, an old tool may appear humble. To a Plymouth household, it could represent the ability to build shelter, produce food or earn a living.
Yes, You Probably Needed a Musket
Winslow also recommended weapons and ammunition. Plymouth was an isolated settlement whose residents expected to hunt and understood that they might need to defend themselves. Pilgrim Hall’s provisions material includes muskets, powder, shot and related equipment among recommended supplies. That may seem startling beside the butter and bedding.
To a seventeenth-century traveler, it wasn’t. The same family preparing meals, building a house and planting crops also had to think about hunting and security. The packing list reflects the complete reality of settlement rather than the tidy categories of modern life.
What Couldn’t You Pack?
Perhaps the most interesting question isn’t what the settlers brought. It’s what they couldn’t. They could bring tools, seeds, clothing and provisions. They could bring books and household possessions. They could bring skills learned in England and Holland.
But they couldn’t pack certainty. They did not know exactly what conditions they would encounter. They could not guarantee a successful harvest. They could not know which tools would prove most important or which supplies would run out first.
Preparation had limits. That may explain why the early provisions lists feel surprisingly relevant four centuries later. Good preparation isn’t knowing exactly what will happen. It is thinking seriously about what might happen and taking responsibility for what can reasonably be anticipated.
So, What Would You Pack?
A seventeenth-century packing list turns history into something personal. It is easy to say, “The Pilgrims sailed to America.” It is different to imagine standing beside a pile of possessions and deciding what your family would need to survive an ocean crossing and establish a home where no home yet existed.
Would you bring another blanket or another tool?
More food or another cooking pot?
Which possessions would you leave behind forever?
And what would you do when you discovered the one thing you desperately needed was the thing you forgot?
The people who traveled to Plymouth faced those decisions for real. Their surviving packing lists remind us that history isn’t made only through declarations, treaties and famous speeches. Sometimes history begins with a much more ordinary question: Did anybody remember to pack the lamp wicks?
For the original resource list, please visit Pilgrim Hall Museum’s Early Provisions Lists and “It Came on the Mayflower”.
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