City on a Hill: Pilgrims, Puritans, and the Origin of America

What is at stake in the creation, retelling, and remembering of a national origin story? And how has the United States in particular crafted origin stories to serve its needs? This chapter answers such questions by focusing on the myth of the Pilgrims. Beginning with Daniel Webster’s 1820 speech on the bicentennial of Pilgrim Landing, stretching through the 19th century with the spread of the Pilgrim origins story through schoolbooks, and ending in the Cold War with Perry Miller and Ronald Reagan both centering the United States on a Puritan sermon declaring America the “City on a Hill,” this chapter tells the story of how and why the Pilgrims and Puritans have so often served as an origin story for America. By tracing the way this story has developed, the chapter offers insights into the processes of national memory through the telling of a particular tale.