Author Topic: The True, Abridged Story of the "First Thanksgiving."  (Read 674 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline jmyrlefuller

  • J. Myrle Fuller
  • Cat Mod
  • *****
  • Posts: 22,326
  • Gender: Male
  • Realistic nihilist
    • Fullervision
The True, Abridged Story of the "First Thanksgiving."
« on: November 25, 2021, 01:47:33 am »
Well, folks, it’s that time of year again: one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving. Along with its traditions, it is first and foremost a day of gratitude, a day to express contentment with the blessings one has experienced in life.

The idea is as old as humanity itself, though America's national holiday for it dates to the Civil War, and much of the northeastern United States has celebrated some form of it for several decades before that. It's traditionally ascribed to the early 1620s, particularly with two harvest celebrations hosted by the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony, in modern-day Massachusetts, that was also attended by local natives. Because of the involvement of English settlement and natives, the holiday has been commandeered by left-wing social justice warriors accusing white men of committing genocide against the indigenous people of the western hemisphere. Even if we assume that we can trace Thanksgiving back to the Pilgrims, which is not at all certain, this narrative has no truth to it.

First of all, let's go back to the 1620s.

In the early 1600s, the natives of this continent, particularly in the northeastern part of what is now the United States, were still living a tribal existence, battling for territory with neighboring tribes. In what is now New England, there were several: in Massachusetts, there were the Patuxet and the Wampanoag; in Rhode Island, it was Narragansett territory, while in Connecticut, the Pequot reigned supreme. For much of the 16th century, European fishermen came into contact with these coastal tribes. One, a Patuxet we know as Squanto, was among those sold off to slavery in Europe against the wishes of most of the commanders of the expeditionary missions. Christian missionaries intercepted the slaves, instructed them in Christianity and returned home, but while he was gone, in the 1610s, a plague swept through eastern North America, driving the Patuxet into extinction and inflicting heavy losses on the Wampanoag; the Pequot and Narragansett were largely spared. By the time Squanto returned, his tribe was gone, and he was taken in by the Wampanoag, where his knowledge of English made him a valuable asset to the tribe.

This skill would become particularly important when the Mayflower landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620. The Wampanoag realized that these were not the itinerant fishermen they had encountered up to that point, nor were they waging war. This ship had women and children. Even if they were not here to wage war, though, the English settlers would have superior weaponry and would make for important allies in their feuds with neighboring tribes. It was also likely not lost upon Squanto that the settlers whom we now know as Pilgrims were also devout Christians, even if they broke from the orthodoxy of the churches of the era, and because he owed his life to Christians, it almost certainly left a positive impression. So, Squanto and Samoset, who also spoke some limited English, struck an alliance with the Pilgrims.

The Pilgrims were faced with numerous hardships in their first winter on the continent. Their supply ship could not make the journey across the Atlantic, winter was harsh, the Pilgrims had little knowledge of how to live on their new land, and if you listened to Rush Limbaugh's interpretation, their decision to communalize the company's limited resources led to a tragedy of the commons. Many Pilgrims died in the conditions that year. As spring arrived, Squanto aided the Pilgrims in their adaptation to life in North America, and by 1621, Plymouth Colony was recovering.

The Plymouth Colony held a harvest dinner that autumn. Among the celebrations was celebratory gunfire; the Wampanoag heard it and were afraid that a battle was about to erupt, but they instead found the celebration. Such was the abundance of the feast that, despite there being only 53 surviving Pilgrims, there was still enough food for the 90 Wampanoag that attended the feast. This is the first basis for the "First Thanksgiving" legend we acknowledge today. Squanto died in 1622 of a viral infection, possibly the same plague that had killed his fellow Patuxet.

There is one recorded instance of hostilities between the natives and the Pilgrims, when Myles Standish launched a pre-emptive strike on a native tribe by mistake, which damaged the Pilgrims' reputations and was not repeated. Eventually this rift healed, and for most of the 1620s, the Wampanoag and Pilgrims had become close allies. They eventually made peace with the Narragansett. In the 1630s, the Pequot, in an apparent sense of superiority, tried to attack Plymouth Colony and were crushed in the Pequot War.

On the whole, there is no evidence to speak of the Pilgrims having any organized hostility toward Native Americans. They saw the natives as their peers, not as savages to be exterminated. The model of the Pilgrims is one to be looked upon with admiration, especially for the times. In other words, the claims of a select few "woke" social justice warriors are simply untrue—and given their long history of complaints, it is likely that gratitude is a lost art for them, anyway.

So pass the overpriced turkey, turn on the football, and let's say thanks to God that even in this mess of a past couple of years, we still have blessings.
New profile picture in honor of Public Domain Day 2024

Offline Hoodat

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 35,815
Re: The True, Abridged Story of the "First Thanksgiving."
« Reply #1 on: November 25, 2021, 02:21:34 am »
The "First Thanksgiving" took place in Virginia in 1619.
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

-Dwight Eisenhower-


"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."

-Ayn Rand-