What do readers think of Two Ships by David S. Reynolds? Write your own review.

This is a stellar read (thank you NetGalley and Penguin Press for allowing me access to this ARC). Using two ships as symbols of the divide in America for the Civil War was such an interesting concept. The argument is that the Mayflower, arriving in Massachusetts in 1620, represents "antislavery" and the White Lion, a ship that brought twenty slaves to Jamestown in 1619, could represent the antithesis is explored in this book. Many of Lincoln's contemporaries noted this as did Fredrick Douglass.
A northern journalist after Lee surrender wrote that "The Slave Ship has foundered. The Mayflower floats in triumph."

The book explores the differences between Jamestown and Plymouth Colony though the dueling ships. Entrenched in this story was the reality that everyone knew at that time of the Cavaliers and the Puritans - the North versus the South. Though this is lost in our times, the idea of these dueling ships brings back a reminder of the rough road to freedom for all humans. One quote in this book stuck with me when Reynolds writes borrowing from another historian that the South was a slave society but the North was a society with slaves. The South was governed by monarchists who had rigid social classes while in the North there was a more democratic flavor with the belief the "only monarch" was Christ (in today's America I think a few folks have forgotten this). A great irony Reynolds points out that both Jamestown and Plymouth were administratively founded by the sane man: Robert Rich.

This is a revelatory book for me and possibly others about how two 17th C could reveal so much about our country.