The theme connecting all these readings is found in the title:  "Planting a Sense of Community."  The selections touch on the community spirit and brotherhood shown by the Pilgrims and Puritans, and also by the Native American named Squanto.

   The reading selection titled "The Land and Property Question" raises the difficult question of the limits of community action.  The original plan of "share and share alike" did not produce enough food from the fields.  Within a few years, the Pilgrims assigned individual plots to families.  As the reading tells, suddenly the settlers were more eager to work, and the harvest was much larger than before.

   Students may ask if the original plan was an example of communism or socialism.  Those terms usually refer to political and economic ideas that grew in the 1800s and 1900s.  It's probably better to use a term like "communal" for the Pilgrims' first plan for producing crops.  Certainly it is worth pointing out that the same basic result that ended the Pilgrim's communal plan also ended communism in the Soviet Union.  The Pilgrims, of course, realized the mistake in their plan much more quickly than Soviet leaders did.

   Students can connect with this easily if they are asked about "group work" projects they have been involved with in their classes.  What are the benefits of group work assignments compared to individual assignments?  What problem often arises on group assignments?  Which do they prefer?

Group discussion questions

1.  The Pilgrims barely survived the first winter at Plymouth, and only because of the selflessness shown by those healthy enough to help the others.  Scurvy and other diseases struck, and the cold winter added to their miseries.  Half of the group died the first winter. 
   The account tells how a small number who remained healthy kept the others alive.  They kept fires going, cooked food, and washed the clothing of the sick.  The writer says that in spite of the awful conditions, the spirit of love and community motivated the healthy Pilgrims to do whatever they could for the sick and dying.

2.  The original plan for producing crops called for sharing the work in the fields and the harvest equally.  Other work, such as preparing meat and washing clothing, was also apparently assigned as part of a community-wide plan.  But the plan was resented by the settlers, both men and women. 
   A new plan assigned individual plots of land to each family.  The writer describes how this was very successful in producing more corn from the fields.  The settlers were obviously more motivated, because each family knew that if they planted and grew more, their own family would get the increase.

3.  Winthrop's sermon urges his followers to live in a spirit of brotherhood and sharing when they built their settlement at Boston.  Winthrop said their journey and work was part of a covenant, or agreement, with God.  To keep the agreement, therefore, the Puritans must "rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our community as members of the same body."
   Winthrop's vision for the Puritans' settlement was based on the teachings of Christianity.  The reference in the last paragraph to "a city upon a hill" is from the Bible.  A city upon a hill is visible all around to everyone.  Winthrop is trying to motivate his listeners to live up to their ideals.  He tells them that if they do not, the settlement will fail because God will no longer help them.  Winthrop says that the failure of the settlement (and its ideals) would be noticed and talked about all "through the world."