What if Plymonth was sent back in time in the year 1620?

[triassicd]

Let's set the scene, its 1:00 pm and every person in the United States will be given a loud announcement from a mysterious being in the sky (probably an Alien Space Bat) that would announce that the entire county of Plymonth would be transported back in time specifily on November 10, 1620, swapping places with its past self.

And is given one year to be prepared and contact any government body for help. A hologram of a giant digital clock would appear in the sky counting down how much time Plymonth has before they get transported.

To prevent people from leaving, a dome would be placed over the entirety of Plymouth county that prevents any human being from leaving even if they try to dig (there will be no loopholes) but can allow any human being to enter Plymouth. The dome will disappear when the transportation to the other timeline is done.

Questions:

How would everyone react?

What will these time travelers do in order to survive?

How would they affect history?

[Otto Kretschmer]

They will be shocked. They are probably going to switch to a more agricultural economy in order to survive.

Aa for how they are going to affect history... Profoundly so.

If you mean the county of Plymouth, Massachussets, that's 500,000 people. Half a milion people with modern education and living in an area with modern infrastructure.

They are going to expand across all of North America, assimilating both Native Americans and arriving British colonists alike[br

They will likely try to recreate the United Dtates of America.

[575]

Seeing that hologram will be some mental strain to those inside. Good theres some room for freaking out - guess quite a number will do. Even if no way of digging out possible to dig graves? How about the waterfront - no diving under I guess.
If any sane heads remain there will be a lot of preparation to do. Something about how to handle colonization this time around and how to survive. What hardware to bring along. Get Government prepare as the cost will be huge.
Turn economy from tourism to agriculture and industry to feed itself upon ISOT and make it able to manufacture. Boat wharf and industry to provide fishing. Use the schools to start traing kids for survival and more basic skills - won't be no internet on which to order stuff. Gonna be a very rude awakening. That museum may have busy days teaching the locals - if they want to (both!)
Effect upon history - basically depends upon the outlook of the locals regarding the present Americans once they ISOT and what's been prepared.

[Otto Kretschmer]

BTW I expect the world of 1820 AD (at least North America) to be at 2023 tech level, that's how much change the ISOT is going to bring.

[stevep]

   The interesting question would be what groups and equipment will enter the pocket before the ISOT occurs.  What would the government and local governments supply?  Supplies in terms of food and equipment but how much would be supportable for long?  Also what sort of individuals and small groups would seek to go back to the past - although actually its going to be a different universe?  Suspect that a lot of people interested will want to shape the new US their thinking of founding in their image so could see a wide range of groups and interests although I would expect they would largely be dwarfed by the initial inhabitants of the region as half a million people are a fair amount.