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November 20, 2008 at 21:49:51
Promoted to Headline (H3) on 11/20/08: by Mikhail Lyubansky Page 1 of 1 page(s) |
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Thanksgiving is just around the corner. The holiday has always had particular significance for my family. Because we arrived to this country in late November, 1977, just days before Thanksgiving, it is the day that we celebrated not just the Pilgrims’ survival but our own immigration to the United States. Like many converts, we enthusiastically adopted all the traditions and trappings of the holiday: the turkey, the cranberry sauce, and, within a remarkably short time, even the Cowboys and Lions. Being Jewish, we obviously didn’t celebrate Christmas, and we never really got into the 4th of July, but on Thanksgiving, as tacky as it might sound, there was no family more proud to be American than mine.
To tell the truth, I still feel grateful to be here. I love traveling and living abroad, but I also love coming home. Moreover, though I sometimes get upset with this Iraq war or that Patriot Act, the fact is that I have never wanted to live anywhere else, and I still find a lot of meaning in celebrating Thanksgiving. But as I’ve become more socially conscious, the question that keeps gnawing at me is what should that celebration look like.
I admit that I’m still looking for a satisfactory answer to that question, but as I started to research the holiday, one thing became remarkably clear: Many of the stories we saw on television and learned in school about the first Thanksgiving and the events that led up to it are entirely inconsistent with what historians have actually uncovered over the years. The purpose of this article is to share some of these myths (and the corresponding evidence), not with the intention of dampening the holiday, but with the hope that, particularly in these trying times, we can celebrate it in a more honest way, acknowledging both the positive and the negative characteristics of the people who settled in the town they called New Plimouth. The information below comes from several different historical internet sites, as well as a book called Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen.
Myth 1: The Mayflower was filled by Puritans, who wanted to purify the church of England and who were seeking religious freedom.
Historical Evidence: Puritans wanted to purify the Church of England, while Separatists took a more extreme approach: They wanted to separate from the Church of England entirely. Mayflower passengers (at least those passengers belonging to the Pilgrim's church in Leyden) are properly classified as Separatists and referred to themselves as such (the term "Pilgrim" was tacked on later by historians). Many were not merely seekers of religious freedom but rather strict fundamentalists who were intent on building their version of the "Kingdom of God," in the New World. Moreover, the Pilgrim Separatists only numbered 35 of the 102 settlers aboard the Mayflower. The rest were ordinary folk seeking their fortunes in the new colony.
Myth 2a: The Pilgrims discovered unoccupied wilderness, which with hard work, they cleared and settled
Myth 2b (this one is more recent): The Pilgrims stole the land for their Colony from the Indians, and mistreated them
Historical Evidence: Little or nothing appears in school texts about a monumental event that happened in New England from 1616-1619 when a "plague" (most likely Smallpox introduced by European visitors) killed 90% of the Indian population. When the "Plimouth Colonie" was founded in 1620/21, the Indians were decimated and could offer no resistance. However, the Pilgrims hardly started from scratch in the wilderness. Throughout New England, American Indians had burned the underbrush and cleared the fields, which they used to grow corn. The town of New Plimouth was actually none other than Squanto's village of Patuxet, which was almost entirely wiped out by the plague (Squanto survived because he was earlier kidnapped by European explorers and taken to Europe, where he learned English, prior to escaping and making his way back to his hometown). The colonists appropriated the cornfields. Moreover, they raided and robbed Indian houses (New England Indians did not live in teepees) and dug up Indian graves, from which they took bows, dishes, bowls, and other items. Incidentally, the Pilgrims were well aware of the plague. Indeed, King James and the Pilgrims gave thanks to the plague, which, to them, was proof that God was on their side. At the same time, it should be noted that Pilgrim-Indian relations mostly started on a positive note and remained that way throughout the first generation's lifetime (about 50 years). The Plymouth colonists usually paid the Indians for their land. Moreover, in some instances, they settled Indian towns because the Indians invited them to do so, as protection against another tribe. They did not cause the plague and were as baffled about its origins as the Indians, and like the Indians, suffered from diseases such as scurvy and pneumonia, so much so that half of them died within their first year.
Myth 3: The "first" Thanksgiving in 1621 was the first such celebration
Historical Evidence: Eastern Indians had observed Autumnal harvest celebrations for centuries. There were also harvest festivals and feasts in Europe for centuries. The first Thanksgiving in Plymouth was likely a combination of the two traditions. Moreover, since the first settled European colony was in Virginia in 1607 - not Massachusetts in 1620/1 - the Jamestown Colony might have well celebrated their survival with such a group feast.
Myth 4: The first Thanksgiving was called "Thanksgiving"
Historical Evidence: The word "Thanksgiving" was not applied to any feasts like the celebration that took place between the Pilgrims and the Indians. A 1636 law recorded in Plymouth County Records mentioned "..solemn days of humiliation by fastings, etc., and also for thanksgiving as occasion shall be offered." Stratton presents that a "thanksgiving" was a religious end to a fasting period, and refers to another book, W.D.D. Love's "Fast and Thanksgiving Days In New England" (1896) for other data.
Myth 5: The Mayflower passengers always wore black and white clothes, without any color, and had big buckles.
Historical Evidence: Wearing only colorless clothing was occasionally a Puritan extreme, but not one endorsed by Separatists.
When a Mayflower passenger died, an inventory of the person's estate was taken by the Court, for purposes of probate. These inventories show that John Howland had two red waistcoats. William Bradford had a green gown, violet cloak, lead colored suit with silver buttons, and a red waistcoat. And William Brewster had green drawers, a red cap, and a violet coat. Black, white, grey, and brown were by far the most common colors worn by the Pilgrims, but were definitely not the only colors. The Pilgrims did not have buckles on their clothing, shoes, or hats. Buckles did not come into fashion until the late 1600s--more appropriate for the Salem Witchcraft trials time period than for the Pilgrims time period. Despite the ample historical records, the clothes worn by the Pilgrims during the first Thanksgiving continue to be misrepresented, even by educational websites, like this one: click here Of course, some educational websites, like this Scholastic one, do get it right: click here
Myth 6: Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgims and their descendents every year thereafter, until the present day.
Historical evidence: The Pilgrims had the "first" Thanksgiving, but it was never made into an annual event. When William Bradford's History Of Plymouth Plantation was rediscovered in 1854, it brought a lot of interest and attention to the Pilgrims history. Encouraged by the lobbying of Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale, President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863.
Final note:
For many, if not all, American Indians, Thanksgiving is not a time of celebration but a time of sadness and regret -- a yearly reminder of how European settlers changed their way of life. Many of them are, in the words of Frank James, "working toward a better America, a more Indian America, where people and nature once again are important.” I don’t want to romanticize Native culture, but this is a vision I want to embrace. Learning the real history seems like a reasonable first step. The rest of the journey? I’m still trying to figure that out.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
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| 14 comments |
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Thanks for this, Mikhail.
Have you seen the movie, The New World, by Terry Malick? It's about Jamestown, Captain Smith and Pocahantas, in Virginia and finally, in England. The movie's musical score, pacing, and repeatedly its images, really captured for me what "The New World" must have meant to Europeans from about 1607 to 1620. by GLloyd Rowsey (104 articles, 65 quicklinks, 60 diaries, 828 comments [4 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 6:12:29 AM  (0+)
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Reply: No, haven't seen it
and so can't comment on it, but the Disney film is not rooted in history at all. by Mikhail Lyubansky (15 articles, 11 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 184 comments [7 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 9:43:19 AM (0+)
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Er,
I should have written "British," not "Europeans." The caribs and other indian tribes all over the Carribean were being wiped out from 1492 to 1607 by Europeans, including the British. by GLloyd Rowsey (104 articles, 65 quicklinks, 60 diaries, 828 comments [4 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 6:22:46 AM (0+)
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Interesting history...
as the real history always is. It is my understanding that turkeys are not fond of Thanksgiving either (but at least they don't cheer for it, like middle class and poor folks voting for Bush or McCain). by Daniel Geery (26 articles, 95 quicklinks, 126 diaries, 912 comments [27 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 8:43:50 AM (0+)
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Oh, well
the myths surrounding certain events (Halloween or Thanksgiving) are common. US is by far not an exception. Very few people know, for instance that Marselliese was written by Captain Rogues De Lille who, after that declined to serve in the Revolutionary Army because he could not bear the arrest of the King and Queen. Another example- May Day, the day of the Labor solidarity originated onhe Heymarket Square in Chicago but who mentions that in the US? BTW, ' People's History of the US' by Howard Zinn is a nice source of info at least about the US. BTW, why do we have to eat all that turkey when it is so... bad. I never eat turkey at all. by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [131 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 9:25:29 AM (0+)
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Reply: Mark.
My first article here at OEN was posted by some professor-editor, and it screwed me up -- registering and name-wise -- for about a month. But I digress. The article was actually the first part of a three parter - composed of vignettes. The first vignette was about my father and his friends shooting doves in central Texas in the 1950s, and the subject was machoism in Texas (which of course was not stated). Imagine my fun when the only comment on it was a mildly abusive comment from a lady objecting to my killing birds. Which I didn't even know how to reply to. But I digress. Actually that comment was mirrored at Dissident Voice, where I'd previously posted a different version of the same vignette. There, several commentators took off from my vignette and discussed the condition of chickens being industrially crowded, and the meaninglessness of the term "protein free chicken feed". But I'm getting to the point(s). (a) Turkeys have less fat, and are raised in more humane conditions than chickens. (b) But I sure wouldn't want to be even a wild gobbler in central Texas next week. (c) You can read all three of the vignettes here at OEN, the article is named "Damaged Animals". (d) No American Indian I've ever known was offended by this article. by GLloyd Rowsey (104 articles, 65 quicklinks, 60 diaries, 828 comments [4 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 10:23:32 AM (0+)
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Reply: the vignettes
Wow -- those vignettes are powerful! I'm going to remember them for a long time. I realize they're autobiographical, but you might consider trying to publish them as "flash fiction". There's probably a much bigger market for flash fiction than short memoirs, and these stories need to be read. They're some of the best writing I've read on this site. by Mikhail Lyubansky (15 articles, 11 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 184 comments [7 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 10:50:12 AM (0+)
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Reply: Thanks to you, Mikhael.
But they're not very thanks-giving. I recommend again the flick The New World, and I just walked away from my flat-screen TV, as TCM (Turner Classic Movies) was announcing 4 DAYS of Thanksgiving Movies! God it's insane out there. by GLloyd Rowsey (104 articles, 65 quicklinks, 60 diaries, 828 comments [4 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 11:03:54 AM (0+)
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As I said before, thanks for this piece, Mikhail.
It's excellently researched and excellently written. And congratulations on its being promoted to the headlines. Now that we can expect some heavy readership, I think I ought to put in the link to my Vignettes, here at OEN. by GLloyd Rowsey (104 articles, 65 quicklinks, 60 diaries, 828 comments [4 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 1:34:13 PM (0+)
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Reply: read those
It is interesting that people remember from childhood their perceptions about adults. My parents, 77 now write memoirs and I read them. I guess you should give those vignettes to your children to read. Otherwise, the ' refusal' courage and dealing with it happen to be common in many stories of the childhood. I read those stories even from medieval times. funny as it sounds. Parents, whoever they are are just human and not many of them can be Atticus Finch. You are 67 now? Did you do better than your father and mother? by Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [131 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 1:55:04 PM (0+)
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Reply: Yes.
. by GLloyd Rowsey (104 articles, 65 quicklinks, 60 diaries, 828 comments [4 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Nov 22, 2008 at 10:50:57 AM (0+)
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Romanticizing the natives and their lives
Guess what! I *do* want to romanticize the Indians and their way of life. Having worked in a Native American art gallery for five years, where we only had the authentic thing and no copies were allowed (many of htem Smithsonian artists), I talked on occasion with natives who came to the gallery. I was struck by what beautiful people they are, from within. Some of them are "burned" and very angry with us white folk, which is very understandable. I join them in their anger. However most of them are extremely gracious, receptive and kind people, who work with their hearts instead of their greed (quite unlike us white folk). In fact, when I suggested to some of them that they ought to charge more for their work, that us "Scalping" them for such hard labor really made me sick, they actually looked offended at the suggestion. They attach a blessing and other such messages to their work: Symbols of abundance, wishes for the light to come in, addressing the Great Spirit, etc----these messages are embodied in the symbols in their artwork, pottery, jewelry, etc. Incidentally the squash plants, ie the pumpkin, would be symbols of abundance and no wonder we have it at Thanksgiving! Guess where that tradition ever came from? by Kathryn Smith (110 articles, 2 quicklinks, 43 diaries, 542 comments [23 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Nov 21, 2008 at 6:59:53 PM (0+)
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Reply: Not historically accurate, not a good idea
I think Native cultures have many beautiful traditions, and I have also met several wonderful individuals. However, Indian history is also filled with violence, betrayal, and deceit, and there are examplars of both moral and immoral members of Indian communities. Since this is an article about Thanksgiving, I offer as evidence the story of Squanto, who while providing immeasurable help to the Plymouth colony was at the same time extorting money and power from several local Indian chiefs by claiming to be able to control the Pilgrims' war impulses. I'm not trying to make the argument that all cultures are equally moral or just, but if we're honest, it's likely that each one has a complex history that has both positive and negative aspects. by Mikhail Lyubansky (15 articles, 11 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 184 comments [7 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Nov 22, 2008 at 1:39:43 PM (0+)
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Good article!
Black was a very dressy, high-class color to wear back back then, therefore it was worn by those with money, e.g. the Puritans who started Massachusetts Bay; whereas the Pilgrims pretty much got here (and hung on) by the skin of their teeth, which might also tend to explain some of their less generous actions and attitudes towards the native peoples. Reading Nathaniel Philbrick's recent book (THE MAYFLOWER, possibly?), it's interesting to notice that while the Pilgrims themselves, with the sometimes exception of Myles Standish, pretty much worked to accomodate the natives, and it was people who came later, who were far more interested in what English law would allow them to get away with rather than what God might think about it, who set about exterminating the Indians. In fact, I was amazed by the similarity between those later arrivals and our current administration in Washington. by Jill Herendeen (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 213 comments [13 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Nov 22, 2008 at 4:11:26 PM (0+)
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