Puritan Clothing Currier and Ives; Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division We are approaching a monumental 400th anniversary: the landing of the Mayflower Pilgrims in November, 1620.  They were followed by the Puritan settlements beginning in 1621 and through the Great Migration years, all nearing the 400 year anniversary. Maybe it is due to our childhood education that the month of November brings up visions of the first Thanksgiving.   The Mayflower Pilgrims are some of the most iconic figures in American history. One glimpse of their black clothes and buckled hats and you automatically know who they are . But those images are not completely accurate.  The Pilgrims and Puritans are often represented as wearing black or grey clothing but in reality they seldom wore black, preferring to wear what they called “sadd” colors.  These included green, rust, orange, purple, brown and other colors.  In the 17 th century black was the color of formal garm