The Courtship of Miles Standish by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

During the late nineteenth century and until the middle of the twentieth, many elementary classrooms in America featured (along with a Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington) a black-and-white print of a group of New England pilgrims on their way to church, the men carrying their muskets. Every school child at that time was intimately acquainted with the story of the Mayflower and the Plymouth colony in Massachusetts. Among the historical figures, one of the best known was Captain Miles Standish, the military commander of the little “army,” which consisted of a bare handful of men, who repeatedly defeated many times their number of hostile Indians. The children also knew the friendly Indian Squanto and the young pilgrim gentleman John Alden and the lovely maiden Priscilla Mullins. In the middle grades practically all students used to read Longfellow’s long narrative poem The Courtship of Miles Standish, telling the story of these real people. The plot is initiated by Standish’s request ...

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Episodes

Tuesday Jan 02, 2024

The Courtship of Miles Standish by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Episodes

Part 1 - Miles Standish

Part 2 - Love and Friendship

Part 3 - The Lover’s Errand

Part 4 - John Alden

Part 5 - The Sailing of the Mayflower

Part 6 - Priscilla

Part 7 - The March of Miles Standish

Part 8 - The Spinning-Wheel

Part 9 - The Wedding-Day