Freedom's Voyage

By Cissy Hunt

Author Cissy Hunt takes on the persona of her ancestress Eleanor Billington, and through extensive research of diaries and ship logs, recreates the voyage of the Mayflower to the New World.

Through her diary entries, Eleanor recounts the struggles and hardships of the Mayflower passengers in vivid and poignant entries, taking the reader along on a true Freedom's Voyage.

The story of a woman, Eleanor, who gave up everything to travel across the ocean to a new world in search of a new life... As Eleanor Billington gazed across the sea, looking for a ship to appear on the horizon, doubt assailed her. Were she and her husband, John, doing the right thing for their family? They had made the momentous decision to search for a new life in the New World, but now, on the dock, among the crates that held their belongings, she wondered if the promise of becoming landowners was worth leaving behind home, family and friends.

As passengers on the Mayflower, the couple and their two sons would endure adversity that threw their new life in doubt -- severe weather, sickness, even death accompany them on their voyage to freedom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cissy Hunt
• Release date: Oct 17, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393911920

Cissy Hunt

I grew up, attended school, and spent my young adult life around and in central Louisiana. I have been a Licensed Practical Nurse for over thirty-five years, during part of that time I was a travel nurse. Now I live with my husband in Northwest Arkansas in the beautiful Ozark Mountains with our three Pomeranian dogs and two cats. We live out of town in the country, where I fell in love with the peace and beauty of the area. We live a simple life in that we love to night fish and work in our yard. I have been an ordained minister since August of 2007. I am called to minister to hurting women who carry the emotional scars of domestic abuse. The statistics show that: One in four women (25%) has experienced domestic violence in her lifetime. •Between 600,000 and 6 million women are victims of domestic violence each year. •Women ages 20-24 are at the greatest risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence. • Between 1993 and 2004, intimate partner violence on average made up 22% of nonfatal intimate partner victimization against women. For as long as I can remember I have always loved to write. Growing up a shy person, when I couldn't express myself verbally, one only had to hand me a pen and paper and out would flow my thoughts. I have written poetry most of my life and now my life-long dream has come true. I have written a book. My book, A Rose Blooms Among the Thorns, is about a woman's journey from domestic abuse, through healing, to forgiveness. At this time I am working on another faith based book.

Book preview

Chapter 1

The gray skies that had engulfed Lincolnshire beat down upon all our shoulders, seeming to engulf us. No matter how hard we struggled, it became clear we had no future in this area. No matter how hard we worked, we would never be more than we already were.

Even though England considered itself the pillar of world civilization, they reserved the best for only a privileged few. The rest of us scraped for the leftovers. There was very little left after the hungry rich consumed more than their share. They had established the rules here for hundreds of years. We found there was no land to be had anywhere. They had gobbled up most lands in England a long time back and handed it down in their families for generations. Now we had a great opportunity – an opportunity to own land – to be free landowners.

It all started late one evening. John excitedly came home, telling me about this chance for a brighter future. He told me about Master Thomas Weston from a company called London Merchant Adventurers. He told of how Master Weston wanted to recruit us to go to the new land in Virginia. He explained how the future would change for our children and for both of us.

He was so thrilled about going to this New World. He kept shouting, We will be free – not owing anyone – we will have a good life – we will own land!

I listened to all he had to say. It sounded too good to be true. I told him, Dear husband, please, let me think about it. This will be a big change for our family. A change I’m not sure we really want to make. His good news had one big drawback. To have this new, good life, we had to travel to the other side of the Atlantic, to the New World. At first, I was rather reluctant to accept this idea and thought this change to be too great and scary, yet the alternative we had did not usher us into better perspectives. We discussed this issue over and over for a few days. I asked John, Do you think it will be safe, especially for our sons? His final statement about the subject of leaving England convinced me finally to give in to his insistence to take hold of this opportunity. He said, Dear wife, I know this is a serious decision we need to make. Whichever way we decide, it will affect our family greatly for the rest of our lives.

I remember looking at him with tears running down my cheeks and saying, I know, that is why I am so worried. We need to make the right decision. We need to pray for God’s guidance. John then said, We have one of two choices. The first is, we stay here and always work for another man, – never owning our own land, – barely making enough to feed our sons. He paused and looked me straight in the eyes before continuing. The second choice is to get on that ship and travel to freedom. They will give us our own land to work – to harvest. We will be free landowners. I tried to talk but only stuttered out, but... but... but... I stopped, took a deep breath, then tried again to speak. I cried, But, John, it could be dangerous! He gathered me in his arms and gently said, Yes, I know it will be hard, but we are tough. We have strong, robust boys that work in the fields all day. We are survivors! I didn’t know at the time that my dear husband spoke words that would come back to haunt me years later. We are survivors.

After making our decision, we next had to sell off our belongings. We needed to get rid of everything we could not take with us to the New World. The money we received from selling our goods would buy essentials for the trip. We took with us only the supplies needed to help us in settling in our new homeland, things like a few muskets, cooking utensils, farming, and building tools, and some seeds, non-perishable food, clean drinking water, plus all the clothes we could carry with us.

Now I asked around, trying to find out what a winter in the New World would consist of. No one seemed to be able to answer my question. They knew of no one who had traveled to the New World. I packed winter and summer clothing. I knew the season was a hot summer, but by the time we arrived in the New World, it would be close to the beginning of winter. I noticed our boys, Johnny and Francis, upon realizing that we were truly leaving England for good, were sad about leaving all they known behind. Yet, they were very excited to start this new adventure. I knew how they felt, because facing the unknown was a scary thing.

Even though the boys were young, they were both at that in-between age – too old to be considered young ones, yet too young to be considered men. I hoped they understood that we were taking these actions for their own future. I decided I would reinforce these thoughts on the long trip over. 

When we arrived at the docks, our ship, the Mayflower, had not arrived. My husband said we would have to wait for its arrival. I saw there were another a hundred people waiting, perhaps for the same reason. These people had divided themselves into small groups, probably some of them knew each other, but all were complete strangers to me.

I feared for my life and the life of my family for two reasons. The first reason was one ever knows what might happen when you are out on the sea so far away from civilization. The second reason was that one never knows what will happen among complete strangers cooped up on a ship for months.

I kept both my boys near me as John went out to explore. Many people going back and forth crowded the waterfronts. I noticed the deck hands had stacked all kinds of merchandise around the docks, waiting for the ship’s arrival. I had never traveled by ship, let alone over such great distances.

As I was waiting with my sons, I pulled up one of our crates and sat down upon it. As I sat there staring out to sea, my thoughts drifted. All kinds of myths and dark stories about the wrath of the sea invaded my mind. Before I knew it, a great fear crept up inside of me. I had to change my thoughts, because thinking the way I was made me ready to call the whole trip off. The thoughts were not of my own experiences, but things I had heard from other people who had traveled by ship. The fear, they said, could be felt just below their skin. My moment of reverie was shortly interrupted by John who came back rather furious.

What happened? What did they tell you? I asked, but he refused to explain anything. He paced back and forth.

Husband, is everything all right? I insisted. He turned his face toward me and shouted.

Leave me alone, wife... can’t you see I am stressed enough? Stop nagging me with your questions!

In shock, I looked at my husband. He was a stern man, but he had never raised his voice to me. I stopped asking questions. I knew, that given John's mood, asking would get me no answers.

Later, while I walked around the dock, I pondered on John’s disposition. As I passed close to a small group of men engaged in deep conversation, I overheard what the holdup was. It seems we were waiting for another ship to bring passengers from Holland.

This group of passengers called themselves Separatists. They left Europe in search of religious freedom. These Separatists were traveling here on a ship called the Speedwell. I also learned we were to share this voyage to the New Land with this group of people. I noticed a couple walking toward me. As they drew closer, I spoke to them, How do you fare? The man answered, Good morrow. He tipped his hat as they strolled past. I returned my attention back to my boys. Francis asked of his father’s whereabouts. After scanning over the crowd of people, I answered, "Thither," as I pointed toward a group of men.

The day grew hotter as the sun climbed higher in the sky. Sweat rolled down my face. I used my handkerchief to wipe it away. I pulled my bonnet down lower over my face, shielding my eyes from the bright sun. Yet, I constantly watched the sea for our ship. Soon I heard cheering. I turned and looked in the direction where the noise came from, checking on what caused the commotion. All the people on the docks were looking out to sea. Soon, the Mayflower was seen on the channel. It had