The truth about thanksgiving.ppt

The truth about the first Thanksgiving

A

History

Mystery!

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Let’s think about the basics of the story of the first Thanksgiving

• The pilgrims land and are not prepared for this new land

• The American Indians, who were friendly, help them survive

• The next year, learning from the natives,

The Pilgrims have a successful harvest and celebrate the first Thanksgiving


Lets think about that first feast...

• It would have looked very different from our traditional feast today.

* First, there was no milk, so therefore no butter

* There was little to no sugar, so no berries

* There were no ovens, so no roasted turkey or pies

Christopher, George W. “Biological Warfare; A Historical Perspective.” Journal of the American Medical Association. 278.5 (1997): 412-417. <http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v278n5/fpdf/jsc7044.pdf> .December 6, 2002


If all this is different from the historical myth...

• “Considering that virtually none of the standard fare surrounding Thanksgiving contains an ounce of authenticity, historical accuracy, or cross-cultural perception, why is it so apparently ingrained? Is it necessary to the American psyche to perpetually exploit and debase its victims in order to justify its history?” - Michael Dorris

Then maybe other differences exist as well

Lets see by looking at the first Thanksgiving through

the eyes of Squanto...


Some Context For decades before the Pilgrims landed, British and French fisherman came to the coasts of southern New England to fish.

It is likely that they brought some of their European germs and diseases to the New World before any settlers.


• One wave of fisherman/New England native contact occurred in 1617. Within three years, disease had wiped out between 90% to 96% of the native New England population.

“Whole towns were depopulated. The living were not able to bury the dead; and their bodies were found lying above the ground many years after.”


The pilgrims land in 1620• Although many textbooks say that

the pilgrims bribed their captain to land in Massachusetts and not Virginia, historical sources find this difficult to believe. The pilgrims were only 35 of the 102 passengers on the ship, the others were ordinary settlers.

• Massachusetts was attractive to the pilgrims and settlers alike for one reason that Virginia was not - few native peoples. They might also have heard the area described by Squanto ...


WHAT? • How could Squanto have described the land to

the European settlers and pilgrims in Europe??!!

Let start with the myth that when the Pilgrims arrived they had to “start from scratch”

After landing, the Pilgrims chose to live near “beautiful cleared fields, recently panted corn, and ...fresh water.”


• Since the native peoples had died due to disease; the Pilgrims moved right in, plundering and using native materials.

Indeed this beautiful land was already a town. It was Squanto’s home village of

Patuxet!

One colonial sailor’s account noted that “we found a place like a grave. We decided to dig it up. We found first a mat, and under that a fine bow…we also found bowls, trays, dishes, and things like that. We took away several of the prettiest things to carry away with us…”

It wasn’t “like a grave” -

it was a grave!


More importantly, the Pilgrims found Squanto, who spoke English.

• In 1605, Squanto was captured by a British captain

during a summer fishing trip.

Squanto’s Story

• He was taken to England where he spent nine years working, the last three for Captain Gorges on his ship.

•In 1614, a British slave raider seized Squanto and some fellow Indians and sold them into slavery in Spain


Squanto’s Story II

• Squanto eventually escaped from Spain and made his

way back to England. • He then traveled to Newfoundland, and in 1619

convinced Captain Tomas Dermer to take him back

to New England on his next fishing trip.

Squanto returned to his village to find that “he was the sole member of his village still alive.”

All the others had perished in the epidemic.


As sociologist/historian, Jim Lowen has noted “No wonder Squanto threw in his lot with the pilgrims!”

• Like the “traditional” history, it seems that Squanto helped the colonist learn to survive in the

New World.

In the fall of 1621 the colonists and several natives sat down to several days of feasting and thanksgiving to God.


Many sources note that the “pilgrims had never seen such a feast”

• Of course, the Pilgrims had never seen such a feast – literally – nearly all the foods were

indigenous to the Americans and had been provided by help with the local natives


Another interesting historical fact: Thanksgiving did not exist as a national holiday until the Civil War.

In 1863 Abraham Lincoln felt that such an observance would boost patriotism

Jim Lowen has described the idea of the “First Thanksgiving” as our “national origin myth”


Talk Amongst Yourselves:

What does it say about us as a nation that we persist on this imagery of the first thanksgiving even though historians have discovered an alternative account?

Remember the quote from the beginning of this presentation- Why is this idea of thanksgiving so ingrained?

“Is it necessary to the American psyche to perpetually exploit and debase its victims in order to justify its history?” - Michael Dorris

Quotes and history cited from James Lowen, Lies My Teacher Told Me

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The truth about thanksgiving.ppt