One of our favorite books is Voyage to Freedom, The Story of the Atlantic Crossing 1620 by David Gay, illustrated by Sandra Evans, Banner of Trust c1984. This is historical fiction that gives a view of what the voyage on the Mayflower might have been as seen through the eyes of the Lovelace family. They experience hard and difficult times while crossing the ocean in a leaky ship to arrive at a rocky shore and on a dismal November day.

From The Introduction:

"You are standing on a narrow quayside waiting to board a small ship. You are about to make an exciting but dangerous and uncomfortable voyage. I want you to pause, just for a moment or two. There are a few things I want you to know about the story of the voyage you are about to take. I want you to have a look at the little ship, its passengers and crew, and I want you to know the reason for making such a journey.

The first thing I want you to know is that the story is true. That is, it is based on historical fact. It tells the exciting story of the historic voyage of the 100 or so Pilgrims who crossed the Atlantic ocean in 1620. Master Reynolds, John Howland and William Butten all existed. It is a true story.

But, of course, we do not have a detailed record of all that went on during the voyage. We do not know all that was said. I have tried to weave a story around four imaginary characters - the Lovelace family - to show what the voyage must have been like. It happened very much as I have tried to show it.

The voyage was hard - very hard and very, very dangerous. I have tried to show you how hard a time the Pilgrims had. The ship was very tiny. The QE2, for example, is 66,000 tons. The Mayflower was only 180 tons. If you can imagine 6 or 7 family cars parked nose to tail - that is how long (or short) she was - and only about 4 cars wide! And yet she carried 100 passengers and 20 or so crew. A crossing of the Atlantic in recent times would only take a few days - the Mayflower took 9 weeks! The passengers were crammed into a very tiny wooden ship without proper rooms, food, air, beds or sanitation. It must have been horrible! They passed through storms. They were cheated and abused. They were blown off course.

Nor must we forget that it was a tremendous risk to take. They left their familiar and friendly homes and crossed the ocean to a new, unknown and dangerous land. Remember, the longest journey most people undertook in those days was less than 30 miles from their homes - and at the speed of a horse. The Pilgrims sailed 3,000 miles!

Why did they do it?

The Pilgrims were Puritans. They wished to worship God simply - no special buildings - no special robes - no candles - no altars - no prayer books. They wished to worship God according to the way he had told them in his Word, the Bible. To do this, they had to leave England. The laws of the land, at that time, would not allow them to worship God according to the Bible and their conscience. They put God and his Word first in their lives - before their comfort or safety. They would endure anything and everything to obey God's laws.

God did not fail them. He protected them and took them safely to their new home. In such a voyage in those days, it was very common for many of the passengers to die. Not one of the Pilgrims died. In fact, one - Oceanus - was born during the crossing.

And now, the story is in front of you. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you feel something of the fears and hopes of young Justice and Prudence. I hope you learn of the God the story speaks of. May we all be true Pilgrims!

Fare you well, as you embark on this great adventure."

Here's a small excerpt from the beginning of the book on page 4:

"Why do they want to go to America to live?" You say they're English -- why ever can't they set up here then? If they're English what were they doing in Leyden in the first place? What are folks coming to these days, I say."

" . . . They're Pilgrims . . . they say they want to worship God in the way that they see in the Bible. They want to worship God in a simple way. They don't believe the way we've been told is right. They're against the ways our laws tell 'em to worship and they want to go and live somewhere else where they can be free to do as they feel right. That's why they went to Holland in the first place. But now they want to live in their own country. They want to run their own affairs. They say they want to be free to worship God as they see in the Bible. D'you get it, now? You must have seen 'em carrying their great Bibles about. Surely you've heard all the talk they make about their conscience? Haven't you heard them making their speeches about living according to the Bible and in the light of their conscience and such like?"

Our other favorite Thanksgiving books listed here.

Searching online, we found informative links about Pilgrims and Thanksgiving:

about William Bradford by a descendant, a biography about William Brewster by a descendant, primary sources: William Bradford's journal Of Plimoth Plantation, Edward Winslow's Mourt's Relation, Pilgrim letters, Pilgrim journals, Mayflower Compact-the first government of the Pilgrims, the Geneva Bible they brought to the New World but is now some what a forgotten translation - read it here -- see the 1560 Geneva Facsimile or about the reprinting here, and their Bay Psalm Book -- Preface to the Bay Psalm Book 1640. More about Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims and Puritans here.

Answers to good questions can be found online:

What is a "Mayflower"? What is the Mayflower ship? How did it sail the sea? What did it look like inside? What navigational instruments did the crew use? What is known about the Good Ship Mayflower? What were the names of the Pilgrims and passengers? Who were the crew? What happened on the voyage? What route was taken and what maps did they use? What is the geography of Cape Cod? Who were the two Mayflower Dogs?

There are many hand made crafts to make and use for decoration or gifts:

A pilgrim pal made from a cardboard toilet tissue tube, Pilgrim photo napkin rings, a printable coloring placemat, a finger print turkey which can be used for cards or a dinner table place card, free printable bookmarks, a hand print turkey, a "thanksgiving tree", a pilgrim's hat for girls and boys, a harvest basket, stand-up maple leaf turkey from b/w or color templates links on the right side of page, an oak leaf turkey, another version of a hand print turkey, follow the Pilgrim's voyage and make a Mayflower replica, and how to make your own quill pen.

For children who enjoy paper games and worksheets there are more free printables:

Two mini books "Colors I Eat on Thanksgiving Day" and "I'm Thankful For", another mini book the "First Thanksgiving", letter fun, a help the Pilgrims maze, another maze: Looking For Land, what is "not" found in a pilgrim home, a connect the dot turkey to color, connect the dot pumpkin, math worksheets, a color-cut-paste-place turkeys in numerical order, a turkey shaped book to make with a cover and lined page for writing, regular lined paper with border trimmed in turkeys, primary lined paper with turkey border, a turkey alphabet match, Thanksgiving alphabet for tracing, a pumpkin color-cut-paste worksheet or a pre-colored version for cut & paste, writing practice worksheets with the letter "T" for "turkey" in Zaner-Bloser or D'Nealian, a "T" worksheet with color-cut-paste to use in a mini book part one and part two, "O Give Thanks" Bible verse coloring page, a free printable color page of pilgrims praying here, more free printable coloring pages: pilgrim couple -- giving thanks -- pilgrim woman --pilgrim man -- planting corn -- pilgrim girl & boy -- free printable coloring page of the "Mayflower" -- more consonant Digraph "Sh" Ship Theme ship printables, a variety here, and still more coloring pages.

Here are Bible verses for Thanksgiving and all year, a free printable lined writing practice worksheet of the Doxology, and other hymns here.

A free printable mini unit study "Sail to the New World" from Tapestry of Grace.

Vocabulary:

CONSCIENCE, n. [L., to know, to be privy to.]

1. Internal or self-knowledge, or judgment of right and wrong; or the faculty, power or principle within us, which decides on the lawfulness or unlawfulness of our own actions and affections, and instantly approves or condemns them. Conscience is called by some writers the moral sense, and considered as an original faculty of our nature. Others question the propriety of considering conscience as a distinct faculty or principle. The consider it rather as the general principle of moral approbation or disapprobation, applied to ones own conduct and affections; alledging that our notions of right and wrong are not to be deduced from a single principle or faculty, but from various powers of the understanding and will.

Being convicted by their own conscience, they went out one by one. John 8.

The conscience manifests itself in the feeling of obligation we experience, which precedes, attends and follows our actions.

Conscience is first occupied in ascertaining our duty, before we proceed to action; then in judging of our actions when performed.

2. The estimate or determination of conscience; justice; honesty. What you require cannot, in conscience, be deferred.

3. Real sentiment; private thought; truth; as, do you in conscience believe the story?

4. Consciousness; knowledge of our own actions or thought. The sweetest cordial we receive at last, is conscience of our virtuous actions past. [This primary sense of the word is nearly, perhaps wholly obsolete.]

5. Knowledge of the actions of others.

6. In ludicrous language, reason or reasonableness.

Half a dozen fools are, in all conscience, as many as you should require.

To make conscience or a matter of conscience, is to act according to the dictates of conscience, or to scruple to act contrary to its dictates.

Court of conscience, a court established for the recovery of small debts in London and other trading cities and districts.

GOV'ERNMENT, n. Direction; regulation. These precepts will serve for the government of our conduct.

1. Control; restraint. Men are apt to neglect the government of their temper and passions.

2. The exercise of authority; direction and restraint exercised over the actions of men in communities, societies or states; the administration of public affairs, according to established constitution, laws and usages, or by arbitrary edicts. Prussia rose to importance under the government of Frederick II.

3. The exercise of authority by a parent or householder. Children are often ruined by a neglect of government in parents.

Let family government be like that of our heavenly Father, mild, gentle and affectionate.

4. The system of polity in a state; that form of fundamental rules and principles by which a nation or state is governed, or by which individual members of a body politic are to regulate their social actions; a constitution, either written or unwritten, by which the rights and duties of citizens and public officers are prescribed and defined; as a monarchial government, or a republican government.

Thirteen governments thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without the pretence of miracle or mystery, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind.

5. An empire, kingdom or state; any territory over which the right of sovereignty is extended.

6. The right of governing or administering the laws. The king of England vested the government of Ireland in the lord lieutenant.

7. The persons or council which administer the laws of a kingdom or state; executive power.

8. Manageableness; compliance; obsequiousness.

9. Regularity of behavior. [Not in use.]

10. Management of the limbs or body. [Not in use.]

11. In grammar, the influence of a word in regard to construction,as when established usage required that one word should cause another to be in a particular case or mode.

PIL'GRIM, n. [L. peregrinus. Gu.L. peragro, to wander, palor.]

1. A wanderer; a traveler; particularly, one that travels to a distance from his own country to visit a holy place, or to pay his devotion to the remains of dead saints. [See Pilgrimage.]

2. In Scripture, one that has only a temporary residence on earth. Heb.11.

PIL'GRIM, v.i. To wander or ramble. [Not used.]

PU'RITAN, n. [from pure.] A dissenter from the church of England. The puritans were so called in derision, on account of their professing to follow the pure word of God, in opposition to all traditions and human constitutions.

Hume gives this name to three parties; the political puritans, who maintained the highest principles of civil liberty; the puritans in discipline, who were averse to the ceremonies and government of the episcopal church; and the doctrinal puritans, who rigidly defended the speculative system of the first reformers.

PU'RITAN, a. Pertaining to the puritans, or dissenters from the church of England.

THANKSGIV'ING, ppr. Rendering thanks for good received.
THANKSGIV'ING, n. The act of rendering thanks or expressing gratitude for favors or mercies.
Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if received with thanksgiving. 1 Tim.4.

1. A public celebration of divine goodness; also, a day set apart for religious services, specially to acknowledge the goodness of God, either in any remarkable deliverance from calamities or danger, or in the ordinary dispensation of his bounties. The practice of appointing an annual thanksgiving originated in New England.