The wilderness

The Pilgrims came to the New World to find a new life. They did not know how hard it would be. They did not know they would live in such wilderness.

The land needed clearing. Rocks and tree stumps were pulled from the ground. Logs from the trees were used to make homes and furniture. Scraps became firewood. Crops had to be planted and barns had to built.

The Pilgrims had to build the barns before they built their own homes. Otherwise the animals wouldn’t survive the long winter. The first homes were little more than holes dug in the ground. The dirt was cold and damp, and the fires filled the homes with smoke.

Eventually, the Pilgrims made houses out of wood. They used axes to chop trees and strip bark off the logs. They cut notches in the wood to help lock the logs together. Each house was just one room in which the whole family cooked, ate, and slept. The homes all had a fireplace in the room that was used for heat and light. There was no electricity.

When the Pilgrims came to America, they faced challenges they had never imagined.