"The fascinating story of Stephen Hopkins, perhaps the most important person on board the Mayflower when it sailed from England in 1620. The only member of the expedition who had been across the Atlantic before, as a survivor of the colony at Jamestown, Hopkins played a vital role in bridging the divide of suspicion between the Pilgrims and their Native American neighbors. Without him, these settlers would likely not have lasted through their brutal first year."-- Provided by publisher.

Hopkins and the Sea Venture -- An Uncommon Education -- Hopkins All Alone -- Hopkins in Hursley -- The Third Supply Mission to Jamestown -- Hopkins's Life-Changing Decision -- A Dreadful Tempest -- Bermuda -- Mutiny -- Hopkins at Jamestown -- Picking Through the Ruins -- Hopkins in Virginia: 1610-1616 -- Hopkins Returns Home -- The Pilgrim Expedition -- Continental Religious Wars -- The Separatists in the Netherlands -- Thomas Weston and the Merchant Adventurers -- A Group of Strangers -- The Lure of the New World -- A Lack of Experience -- Disarray and Delay Before Departure -- Telling Stories -- Storms and the Giant Screw -- Land Ho -- The Mayflower Compact -- Heading South, Turning Back -- A Dispute About Authority -- The Solution: A Voluntary Compact -- Concise and Singular -- Origins of the Conflict -- Echoes from Bermuda -- Servants and Servitude -- Draftsmen at the Table -- The First Election -- Significance of the Mayflower Compact -- Mutual Suspicion -- How the English Viewed Native Americans -- How the Native Americans Viewed Europeans -- Finding Plymouth Rock -- The First Exploration -- The Second Exploration -- The Third Exploration -- Making a Decision -- A Deadly, Discontented Winter -- Massasoit Gathers the Powwws -- The Awful Toll of Disease -- Massasoit Watches, Waits -- Samoset and the Spring Thaw -- Samoset in Hopkins's Home -- Samoset and Massasoit Have a Talk -- Massasoit and the First Treaty -- Squanto Lends a Hand -- Journey to Pokanoket -- Giving Thanks Together -- A Melancholy Unraveling -- New English Settlements: Weston, Morton, and the Massachusetts Bay Colony -- Hopkins Continues to Lead -- The Pivotal Years of the Pequot War: 1636 and 1637 -- Drinking and Sabbath Fines -- The Dorothy Temple Affair -- Hopkins's Growing Disenchantment -- An End Among Friends -- Bradford, Standish, and Hopkins -- Standish's Promise -- A Peculiar Item in Hopkins's Estate Inventory -- A Solemn Ritual -- Three Shipmates Say Goodbye -- Epilogue Hopkins's Legacy: "Friend of Indians" -- Hopkins's Legacy -- Jonathan Hatch -- Hatch After Hopkins -- A Different Kind of Disobedience -- King Philip's War -- A Small Reunion.