Loewen highlights the fact that in 1634 Winthrop wrote to a friend in England and said, “But for the natives in these parts, God hath so pursued them, as for 300 miles space the greatest part of them are swept away by the smallpox which still continues among them. So as God hath thereby cleared our title to this place, those who remain in these parts, being in all not 50, have put themselves under our protection.”
Loewen punctuates the quote by writing, “God, the Original Real Estate Agent!”
Essentially, the whole origin of Thanksgiving (the historical point of reference) is based on the fact that Puritans thought God “chose” a bunch of white dudes, white dudes who left Europe in search of religious freedom, to be occupiers of the land.
As Loewen explains, natives inferred that their god had abandoned them in much the same way that Europeans thought God had abandoned them when the Black Death was ravaging Europe. Cherokee, “lost confidence in their god and the priests destroyed the sacred objects of the tribe. None had access to germ theory of disease. Native healers could supply no cure; medicines and herbs offered no relief. Religion provided no explanation. That of the whites did. Like the Europeans three centuries before them, many American Indians surrendered to alcohol, converted to Christianity, or simply killed themselves.”
The majority of the chapter can be read for free on Google and I encourage people to read it. Loewen dedicates a full chapter to detailing the “truth about Thanksgiving.”
Now, that’s the origin of Thanksgiving. But, why do we have a holiday?
As History.com explains, the holiday wouldn’t exist if the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, Sara Josepha Hale. Hale believed that America needed an annual holiday for all Americans to collectively give thanks. She remembered that Puritans used to do this---they used to periodically observe Thanksgiving days of prayer following beautiful harvests.
Hale, the first female magazine editor, published impassioned essays petitioning for a national day of thanks and also wrote letters to the president. When the nation became divided by civil war, Hale’s appeals finally paid off and Lincoln finally established Thanksgiving.
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