Caroline Tanico

Abstract:

This project aims to explore our culture’s perception of the life and death of Dorothy May Bradford, who fell off of the Mayflower in 1620 and drowned. Literature surrounding her death since the mid-1800s has largely framed her death as a suicide, with varying motivations given for the act. However, these rumors are unfounded by written records from Bradford’s time. This project examines the trends in ways that Bradford’s alleged suicide has been presented in media over the years. Analyzing the media in which Bradford is featured over the centuries since her death reveals clear patterns in her portrayal to us: from a jilted wife, to a mistress, to a depressed woman unable to cope with the future ahead of her. These trends reveal more about the shifts in our culture and its behavior towards women’s mental health than it does about Bradford. Analyzing Bradford’s story with this in mind challenges us to confront our preconceived notions of what the Pilgrims were really like and encourages us to remember the humanity of a group of people who have become mythical in the American mind.