Throughout Of Plymouth Plantation, Bradford and his fellow colonizers frequently describe indigenous people by comparing them to all manner of animals and beasts. These comparisons emerge as a motif not only in this book but in most literature written by Europeans about the indigenous people of the so-called "New World" during this time period.
This motif would serve the interests of both European capitalism and religious evangelism. Once indigenous people were dehumanized through such comparison to animals, white colonists were better able to justify to themselves their own immorality—in other words, these comparisons enabled colonists to ignore the moral implications of genocide and violent expansion into what they told themselves were "unpeopled" lands.
Bradford first makes use of this motif in Book 1, Chapter 4 when describing the Plymouth settlers' decision to leave Holland and colonize America:
The place they fixed their thoughts upon was somewhere in those vast and unpeopled countries of America, which were fruitful and fit for habitation, though devoid of all civilized inhabitants and given over to savages, who range up and down, differing little from the wild beasts themselves.
The colonists decide to settle in America because they view the continent as empty space. Indigenous people, to them, are less than human, "differing little" from other "wild beasts." Making this assumption, the colonists choose to view themselves as refugees and explorers rather than violent occupiers.
Throughout the book, Bradford and his fellow Puritans often compare themselves, through biblical allusion, to the Israelites. This emerges as a motif in the work, critically highlighting the colonists' view of themselves as oppressed peoples chosen by God to populate the "promised land" of New England.
An instance of this motif occurs in Book 1, Chapter 6, where the pastor of the Leyden congregation gives a sermon from 1 Samuel 23:3-4:
“And David’s men said unto him, see, we be afraid here in Judah; how much more if we come to Keilah against the host of the Philistines? Then David asked counsel of the Lord again.” From this text [the pastor] taught things very aptly and befitting the present occasion,—strengthening them against their fears and perplexities, and encouraging them in their resolutions.
Taken within the context of this passage, the pastor is teaching his congregation to directly identify themselves with the ancient Israelites as they decide upon whether or not to leave Holland for North America. In the quotation from 1 Samuel, David's men state plainly that staying in Judah is dangerous, arguing that they might as well face the unknown in Keilah. The pastor implies in this passage that the Leyden congregation faces a similar conundrum, deciding between a known threat in Europe and unknown dangers in North America. Through this allusion, the Israelites' tale becomes an allegory of sorts, through which the Puritans can understand and make decisions about their present circumstances.
