As America continues to battle its way through the COVID-19 pandemic that has infected over 13 million Americans and killed 263,000 more, we have reached the busiest travel season of the year: Thanksgiving. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has requested all Americans avoid travel this year, and consequently, over 61 percent of Americans have decided to change their travel plans. While you’re at home on Black Friday, let’s take some time to understand how Thanksgiving came about, and debunk some of those myths you were told about the holiday back in school.
Firstly, let’s get a few myths about the Pilgrims out of the way. Most people have heard of the story about the Mayflower landing in 1620 to be the first Europeans to step foot in New England. However, it is now known that since at least the 1400s, Europeans have already established contact with the American Indians. The fishing industry off Maine and New England had already been thriving for many years by the time the Pilgrims got there on the Mayflower. And it is documented that Italian explorer Giovanni de Verrazano made contact with the Wampanoags and the Narragansetts back in 1524. Even more surprisingly, a number of Indians already spoke English when the Pilgrims got there. In fact, Samoset, Squanto, and Epenow, three famous Indians who helped keep peace between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags, all spoke English.
Also, the Pilgrims did not come to America purely because they were seeking religious freedom. The main reason for coming to America was that they wanted to maintain their culture and make money. The Pilgrims had already previously settled in Holland, which granted them religious freedom from the Church of England. However, it was difficult to find jobs and they didn’t want to be too influenced by Dutch culture. Also, they wanted to convert the Indians to Christianity, so while the Pilgrims wanted freedom to practice their religion, they didn’t want anyone else to have that right (American history is full of hypocrisies).
(And before anyone says it, no, the Pilgrims did not land on Plymouth Rock.)
The final, and largest myth, was that in the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims sat down together with the Indians and had a very fanciful feast with turkey, bread, pie, cranberries, etc. This is one that most people still believe to this very day. And though the Pilgrims did share a meal with the Wampanoag Indians in Cape Cod in 1621, it was far from being as rosy as we are told.
(And no, the Pilgrims were not dressed in black and white clothing, or wore pointy hats and buckles, and neither did the Indians attend in loincloths and body paint only. Who would wear just a loincloth in Massachusetts in November?)
For starters, we have no evidence that turkey, potatoes, or even bread dressing was consumed at this first “Thanksgiving.” We are only sure that venison and fowl were eaten, and probably corn and fruit too.
In addition, many people believe that the Indians welcomed the Pilgrims heartily, gave them food, and taught them how to live, disappear, and then letting the Englishmen create a great country founded on the principles of liberty, equality, and opportunity (if you were white). The main reason why the Wampanoags wanted to enter an alliance with the British was because they were suffering through a deadly epidemic and wanted the British to help fend off rebels and competing tribes. In fact, this uneasy relationship ended up in one of the most horrific and deadly Indian-Colonist wars on record, King Philip’s War. (Sidenote: the Wampanoags still exist today. If it wasn’t for their survival techniques and adaptations, they would have been wiped out by now.)
The first “real” Thanksgiving reportedly occurred in July 1623, where the Pilgrims had a large feast, followed by a fast, and then a period of rain. This celebration was held to celebrate the end of a near-devastating long draught. And the “official” first Thanksgiving occurred in 1637 when the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony dedicated a day of “thanksgiving” to “give thanks” for the “great victory” of their colony’s men, who had just got back from massacring over 700 Indians in what is now Mystic, Connecticut. It was celebrated annually from then on. (This means that the Thanksgiving we have today came into existence via the celebration of the massacring of hundreds of American Indians.)
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln finally made Thanksgiving a federal holiday in a “Thanksgiving Proclamation” and declared Thanksgiving to the final Thursday in November in order to unite a divided nation suffering bitterly through a civil war. Thanksgiving has been celebrated on this day annually ever since (aside from in 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved it up a week to spur retail sales during the Great Depression. It was met with opposition and in 1941, he reluctantly signed a bill codifying the date of Thanksgiving into federal law: the fourth Thursday in November).
As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, let’s all remember to give thanks to the biggest heroes of 2020: the frontline doctors and nurses who risk their lives daily to try and cure America of the COVID-19 pandemic.