1579?

England

1647

Maine

Massachusetts fur trader and author

Portrait: Thomas Morton. Reproduced by permission of Archive Photos, Inc.

"The setting up of this Maypole was a lamentable spectacle to the precise separatists that lived at new Plymouth."

Thomas Morton.

Thomas Morton had a colorful career in the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a fur trader and critic of Puritanism (a branch of Christianity that stressed strict moral and spiritual codes). Soon after arriving in Massachusetts he set up a furtrading post called Merry Mount, where he sold rum and guns to Native Americans. Much to the disapproval of Plymouth settlers, Merry Mount attracted rowdy colonists, Native Americans, and even pirates (people who rob ships or plunder the land from the sea). On May Day 1627, Morton infuriated the Puritans by building a giant Maypole and hosting a celebration with drinking, dancing, and merrymaking. Massachusetts authorities twice deported (forcibly sent...