The Real Thanksgiving

The Thanksgiving Myth

At the hands of a malevolent English king, a group of meek and devout protestants suffer the unrelenting cruelty of his majesty's reign. To remain here in their beloved country would mean heavy taxation, the practice of their religion in secret, confinement or stripes if discovered, or worse––a trip to the gallows. In short, to remain in England would mean a life of guaranteed suffering.

These folks simply could not bear to go on living this way, and so, these holy and devout Christians decided to flee their country in hopes that a better life could be had in the treacherous but promising New World. They had already heard tell of many other people––people quite like themselves––who had made the journey and lived. They knew the dangers and knew their chances of survival were slim––but not so slim as their chances of living happily in England.

And so, they acquired a ship and began their pilgrimage to the New World. They sailed for many months 'cross the Atlantic, weathering harsh storms and tumultuous seas, all while staving-off the pangs of hunger and nausea of seasickness. But after much tribulation, and by the grace of God who delivered them, they finally arrived on the virgin shores of the New World and made a home in the Bay of Cape Cod––at a little place called Plymouth.

Despite their prior hardships and the promise of more hardships to come, these few modest pilgrims were teeming with optimism. They set to work to construct homes and a shelter for the few goods that still remained from the voyage. They had to work quickly, for it was already mid-December when they arrived, and the depths of winter were fast approaching.

As expected, the winter was harsh and many of their friends and family succumbed to exposure or scurvy. Those who survived took care to gather as much food as possible, subsisting on mostly cod or bass from the ocean and clams dug up from the sand. As winter broke and spring dawned, the ground had thawed just enough to allow for the plowing of fields and the setting of corn. Spring couldn't have come soon enough: the pilgrims were going hungry.

Unfortunately for the colonists, their hunger would only worsen. While waiting for their crop to mature, their rations had been depleted, and the colonists had no choice but to rely on the fish, game and berries that nature supplied. But nature's supply was spent. Game was scarce, schools were few and fleeting, and the energy expended in gathering was hardly sufficient to restore one person, let alone a village.

As the weeks went by the colonists became dismayed by the size of the crop. Their fields were not growing, the deer had run off and the fish had swam away. They were hungry, sick and dying, and feared that they would soon join those friends and family members who had already perished from the famine now afflicting them.

In their desperation they cried out to God and prayed that he bless them with rain and restore their crop. But God did not give them rain or good crops. Instead, God sent them an Indian...

An Indian named Squanto, to be exact. Upon first encountering Squanto the colonists were fearful and defensive. They took up their arms and readied them with gunpowder and shot, anticipating that he and his Savage brethren would attack at any moment.

As Squanto approached the colony he called out to them...in English. Perfect English. The King's English. The colonists, much relieved by this curious Indian's familiar tongue, lowered their arms and met him willingly (but with their reservations still very much intact). As they soon came to discover, this Indian called Squanto had spent many, many years in Europe––particularly, England and Spain. He was not only accustomed to the ways of English life and living but also with those of the local Indians! The colonists readily accepted Squanto into their company.

While touring him through their homestead and discussing the prospect of diplomacy with surrounding Indian tribes, they passed the pitiful fields of wilting corn. Perhaps due to their shame or Christian upbringing, they cared not to dwell on their misfortunes while this guest was in their midst. But Squanto was deeply concerned and would not allow them to so casually dismiss the severity of their situation.

As if it were common, offhand knowledge, Squanto asks whether they had fertilized the field with fish remains. "These lands do not bear fruit well. If you plow under the remains of your catch, only then will your corn turn to blossom." Taking his advice to heart, the colonists do as he suggests and scatter the remains throughout the fields. Grateful for his advice and eager to develop relationships with he and the other Indians, the colonists extend a permanent welcome to Squanto, and the two become great friends.

A few months hence, the colonists still languished in hunger and a few more have died. But fortunately, harvest season has come and it is time to bring in the crop. As their hands reap the harvest and the bushels are hauled off to the storehouse, the bushels keep coming, and coming, and coming... Soon enough the storehouse is filled to the brim and the colonists realize that they will no longer go hungry. Squanto was right!

In their ecstasy and elation, so overcome with joy and gratitude for the blessings showered upon them by God in the form of this righteous and noble Indian, the colonists call upon Squanto to come and feast with them, and to bring his whole tribe!

Squanto obliges and tells his chief about the invitation they've received from their friends at Plymouth. They readily accept and venture out to the colony, some 90 Indians in total!

When they arrive, not only are they met with great hospitality, friendship and games, but also a truly bountiful feast that lasts not one, not two, but three days!

And so, the First Thanksgiving was born and the rest is history!

The Forgotten Ignored History

Well, I hope you enjoyed that little story––if not for its prose then for the feeling of fellowship and nostalgia it inspires. See, that story was the story told to me throughout my grade school education, and is more or less the very same story told to youngsters today. It's a nice story and an important one. But it isn't true.

No, that story is almost pure fiction. The real story of thanksgiving is far more interesting.

The Pilgrims' Flight From England

1608––Yes, the pilgrims were persecuted for their religion in England. They sought to flee but did not go to America straight away. First, they went to Holland in 1608 and lived in Amsterdam for a year. The reason for settling in Holland was simple enough: it was the only country which permitted freedom of religion. However, the pilgrims left for Leiden after a year, worried that their church would come into conflict with the already established church of Amsterdam:

1609-1620––Having now arrived in Leiden, Holland, they remained there for "about some 11 or 12 years" [Ch. 4, ¶30]. The reasons for leaving Leiden were many: first, most of the pilgrims were farmers and unfamiliar with the trade and commerce which Holland specialized in, and thus lived quite poorly; second, many of them were becoming old, and feared that the younger ones among them would scatter after their passing; third, their poverty forced their children to undergo heavy labor, and life in Holland corrupted their children; fourth, they wished to spread their religion in the remote parts of the world, and hoped to become an inspiration to others seeking to spread the gospel:

All this led to the pilgrims seeking passage to America. To accomplish this, they first required a patent for a plot of land, and second, they needed investors to finance their voyage across the Atlantic. After approximately two years of difficulties, they managed to acquired a land patent (though it was not for the land that would become the Plymouth colony) from the Virginia Company in 1619.

As for acquiring the money to finance their journey, the arrangement made between them and the financiers turns out to be the crux of The Real Thanksgiving story. So here it is...

Trouble From The Start

c. early 1620––The pilgrims had sent two messengers to England on their behalf: Robert Cushman (representing the pilgrims) and John Carver (representing the financiers). These two were given instructions to deliver their conditions to the financing company (called the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London) led by Thomas Weston. As Plymouth's governor William Bradford stresses in his Of Plimouth Plantation (OPP):

But Cushman did exceed his commission––much to the misfortune (and tragedy) of the pilgrims. The Company's man, Thomas Weston, refused to agree to the pilgrims' terms, and insisted that they would not receive a single penny unless the terms were modified.

Robert Cushman, feeling that this opportunity was the best and last offer the pilgrims would get, agreed to them––albeit reluctantly and with great regret. Governor Bradford writes in Plimouth Plantation that 10 alterations were made to the contract. For the sake of brevity and relevance, here are the three that sealed the pilgrims' doom:

So, to summarize, in an attempt to prevent the colonists from working their privately owned land more than the company land, the company imposed communism on them. Yes, communism.

This is the principal reason for all the suffering that follows. In fact, Robert Cushman tells-all in a letter––dated the Summer of 1620––of the abuse and criticism he received from the pilgrims for condemning them to slavery:

"Yet notwithstanding all those reasons, which were not mine, but other men's wiser than myself...here cometh over many quirimonies [questions], and complaints against me, of lording it over my brethren, and making conditions fitter for thieves and bondslaves than honest men..." [OPP, ¶64].

The Pilgrimage Begins

c. July 22nd, 1620––The pilgrims sail from Leiden, Holland to Southampton, England (view map) [OPP, ¶74].

September 6th, 1620––The pilgrims set sail in the Mayflower from England to Cape Cod [OPP, ¶91]. Originally, the voyage would be made by two ships, but one of the captains lied and said their ship wasn't seaworthy because he and his crew didn't want to spend a year in Plymouth as they were required to do [OPP, ¶85-6]. As a result, some of the pilgrims stay behind and return to London, including Robert Cushman.

November 11th, 1620––The pilgrims land at the hook end of Cape Cod, but not Plymouth. Here is where and when the Mayflower Compact is signed and made. The original document has not been found, and the only record of its existence is what is presumably a transcription of the document found in Bradford's Of Plimouth Plantation [see: OPP, ¶110]. As an aside, the significance of the Compact is much overstated and becomes entirely moot when the pilgrims receive a new land patent authorizing their settlement at Plymouth.

December 15th, 1620––The pilgrims sail to Plymouth but fall just two leagues (about 6 miles) short of their destination [OPP, ¶107].

December 16th, 1620––The winds pick up which moves the Mayflower closer to the shore and allows the pilgrims to set foot on land [OPP, ¶107].

December 25th, 1620––The pilgrims erect the first common house [OPP, ¶107].

The Plymouth Colony Established

The colony thus being established on December 25th, 1620, the pilgrims were now bona fide colonists. Unfortunately for them, their untimely arrival (the dead of winter) did not bode well for the colony's future. As Bradford writes:

"[I]n 2 or 3 months time half of their company had died...being infected with the scurvy and other diseases...so as there died sometimes 2 or 3 a day...that of 100 and odd persons, scarce 50 remained" [OPP, ¶111-12].

To make matters worse, the common house they'd built went up in flames on the 14th of January and many of the colonists had to remain on the ship, spreading their disease and sickness that much quicker [OPP, ¶121]. An untold number of the crew fell sick and died as a result, delaying their departure.

By March, 1621, with a little more than half of the colonists dead––and all the rest sick, malnourished or both––they find some comfort in making the acquaintance of a couple friendly, English-speaking natives. The first they encountered on May 16th––an Indian by the name of Samoset and a member of tribe in Maine. In one of the journal entries recorded in A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth (Journal), a colonist writes:

"Friday the 16th...we were interrupted again, for there presented himself a savage, which caused an alarm...He saluted us in English, and bade us welcome...we cast a horseman’s coat about him, for he was stark naked, only a leather about his waist, with a fringe about a span long, or little more" [Journal, ¶51].

Samoset told them of the local chieftain of the Wampanoag, chief Massasoit, and of the other English-speaking Indian, Squanto––the last living tribesman of the Patuxet, the original inhabitants of Plymouth.

Just a few days later Samoset, Massasoit and Squanto return to the colony to return the colonists' stolen tools and manage to broker a peace treaty with the Wampanoag "which hath now continued this 24 years" [OPP, ¶115]. Earlier, the colonists had discovered a stash of Indian corn and took some of it to use as bargaining chips in future negotiations with the natives. The Wampanoag Indians had then retaliated by stealing the colonists' tools. Evidently, it all worked out in the end and the colonists and Wampanoag became very good friends:

"We have found the Indians very faithful in their covenant of peace with us, very loving and ready to pleasure us. We often go to them, and they come to us...We entertain them familiarly in our houses, and they as friendly bestowing their venison on us. They are a people without any religion or knowledge of any God, yet very trusty, quick of apprehension, ripe-witted, just." [Journal, ¶83]

With the Wampanoag made friendly and spring having sprung, on March 25th, 1621 Bradford writes that the sick and lame began to recover (remember: there are fewer than 50 colonists now) and the colony was now revived in spirit and ready to begin sowing their first fields:

"The spring now approaching, it pleased God the mortality began to cease amongst them, and the sick and lame recovered apace, which put as it were new life into them; though they had borne their sad affliction with much patience and contentedness, as I think any people could do. But it was the Lord which upheld them, and had beforehand prepared them; many having long borne the yoke, [since] their youth" [OPP, ¶120].

The colonists set to sowing their fields in early April 1621, shortly after the Mayflower departs [OPP, ¶121]. It is here, in the colonists' first season, that the colonists receive the advice of their friend Squanto. The passage that follows is thus one of the principal sources for the mythology that persists in the common telling of the "First Thanksgiving":

From here the myth builds on itself by drawing from the colonists' accounts of this first harvest. Governor Bradford, Edward Winslow, and others, report that the harvest was plentiful and the colonists well-fed. Bradford writes the following with respect to this first harvest, c. September 1621:

Edward Winslow's account of this harvest is then used to bolster the myth's narrative by emphasizing the crucial role of Squanto and the friendliness and charity of the Indians (none of which are in dispute). Winslow writes the following in his A Letter Sent from New England (Letter):

A few problems of historical interpretation immediately present themselves if one is inclined to interpret this harvest as the "first thanksgiving": 

(1) Edward's letter and the others are sent to England aboard the Fortune in December 1621, so he can't have had more than one harvest in the New World to use as a reference. Therefore, when he speaks of other harvests and how plentiful this one was, he can only be comparing it to the harvests of Holland and England. Furthermore, his excitement with regard to the harvest is qualified by his saying "although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us..." Edward, here, is expressing the same level of gratitude that people always express during harvest season, but is also modestly conveying to his friend that the experience at Plymouth is one of widespread hunger and famine. Ultimately, Edward's report is an attempt to but his friend at ease.

(2) In that same letter, he speaks about the arrival of a ship (The Fortune) which brought 35 more pilgrims to the colony, and takes care to warn his friend that when he arrives at the colony he will not be able to depend on the colony for food!

The fact that the colonists' temporary boon is, in fact, temporary is made all the more obvious when we read what Governor Bradford had to say about the arrival of 35 new colonists in November 1621:

So, within one month of this harvest, the colonists are right back where they started: fending off hunger and starvation by rationing the food and supplies held in common.

Given all that has been laid out thus far––given the death, famine and misery suffered by these people and that of their friends and family––did any of the Thanksgiving mythologists ever hazard to answer the most important question of all:

What, exactly, do the colonists have to be thankful for?

The Real Thanksgiving

Now we get to the meat of this history. I assert that the propagandists upholding the 1621 harvest as the "first Thanksgiving" are either nefarious in their motives, poor readers, or both. In short order I will show that the events of and leading up to the harvest of 1623 are not only the origin of the real Thanksgiving, but also that the decision to pray and give thanks to God was officially proclaimed by the governor of Plymouth himself––William Bradford.

Had the mythologists decided to read just a little more of Bradford's OPP they'd have been able to make quick sense of the events occurring between December 1620 and April 1623––alas, poor readers! Had they read of the events of 1622 and 1623 they'd have learned what actually occurred in the colony and which Bradford gave no indication of until later chapters. Perhaps this is because in writing his book he thought people would read it in its entirety.

Here's what really went on at Plymouth prior to April 1623.

The Harvest of 1622

Theft! Since their landing at Plymouth, "much was stolen both by night and day before it became scarce eatable." And despite these thieves being "well whipped" when caught, it didn't prevent other hungry colonists from stealing.

Not unless one reads the events of 1623 can you understand the full extent of Plymouth's depravity; a depravity which Bradford resolves in April 1623:

Thus, Bradford does away with the communism imposed on them by the Merchant Company and assigns private property to each family.

Bradford writes that this "had very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been...and gave far greater content."  [OPP, ¶162].

Furthermore, he goes on to explain that the theft, slavery and misery he conveyed in his telling of the events of 1622 were not particular to that year alone, but were the "common course and condition, tried sundry years, and that amongst godly and sober men..." [¶163].

The results of this reform were incredibly telling:

"The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn, which before would allege weakness, and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression."

Immediately after, Bradford offers an analysis of the experience at Plymouth which can only be interpreted as the strongest condemnation of communism:

But Bradford goes on to expand upon the conditions that prevailed at Plymouth. He writes of the discontent, injustice and animosity that colonists felt toward one another; how men resented that their wives were forced to take care of other women's husbands; how wives resented their husbands providing for other families' children; how feelings of distrust and hatred were sewn among close friends:

Drought, Pray, Live

Now, with private property having been instituted in the Spring of 1623, the harvest season was looking quite promising. But the colonists would not be so lucky. During the Summer months, Plymouth had suffered a serious drought and their crops began to fail. Edward Winslow writes in his Good News From New England (News) that in July:

"[I]t pleased God, for our further chastisement, to send a great drought...both blade and stalk hanging the head, and changing the color in such manner, as we judged it utterly dead" [News, ¶54].

This was made all the worse by the fact that 60 new colonists joined the settlement in mid-April––all hungry and requiring sustenance to last the winter. And so, in their distress the colonists did the only thing they could do: they prayed.

As their leader and governor, William Bradford organizes his fellow colonists and instructs them that they will set apart a special day for fasting and prayer in hopes that God will end the drought:

Thus, not only did the drought end, but the colonists had yielded the largest crop to date! So large it was enough to sustain even the 60 new members who arrived too late to plant their own fields, and larger still to last the whole year!

As Bradford says in the above, the effect of their "particular planting," that is, their private planting, was obvious and "well seen" by everyone. Not only was this private ownership better and understood to be better, it was so much better (and God so gracious) that the yield from the harvest was enough to supply them for the whole year.

But most importantly of all, Bradford's final comment stands out as particularly impressive: these reforms were so effective that "any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since to this day." Of note here is the fact that by the time Bradford decides to write his Of Plimouth Plantation, the year is already1647––some 24 years later.

And last but not least, the first thanksgiving!

The Real Thanksgiving

After the colonists engage in their fasting and prayer and the drought ends, Governor Bradford takes it upon himself to commemorate the occasion by instituting a regular day of observance of God's grace. That this is not known by the Thanksgiving mythologists is a product of their repeating what has been said by others and not referring to the source material!

Had they done so and acquired a copy of Bradford's original manuscript they would know that in a footnote, Bradford clearly describes the drought, the breaking of the drought, the liberal harvest, and the creation of the holiday; the very same footnote in which Bradford ever used the word "Thanksgiving" himself!!!

So there you have it: For God's mercy in ending the drought and bringing a permanent end to their famine, the colonists decide to set aside a day of thanksgiving to God.

This is the real Thanksgiving.