Happy Thanksgiving!
Some Thanksgiving Myths
You know that genealogists are packrats. Our GFS Chuck recently came across something he received from a lady several years ago that he wanted to share with you. It describes a fascinating lecture presented at the Smithsonian in 1993, called "The First Thanksgiving: Myths and Legends" by Dr. James Loewen of the University of Vermont. (Another opinion regarding Thanksgiving traditions and myths, thoughtfully provided by the renowned Jeremy Bangs, can be found at http://hnn.us/articles/15002.html.) Here are some of the nuggets from the 1993 Smithsonian lecture:
Myth: The 1620 Plymouth Pilgrim's Thanksgiving was the first in America
Fact: In 1620, the Indians had been in North America for some 40,000 years, no doubt celebrating harvest before 1620
. Fact: There were Europeans in North America well before 1526 - there was an established Spanish settlement in SC in 1526, which included African slaves. The Spanish left, and the Africans remained. So the longest continuous settlement in North America after the Indians is the African Americans.
The Spanish had lasting settlements in FL by 1565, and in NM by 1598. The English were in Jamestown VA in 1607, and Dutch were settled in Albany NY in 1614. So the 1620 "Pilgrims" (who called themselves "Separatists" - the name "Pilgrim" was tacked on by historians) were hardly the hosts of the "First Thanksgiving".
The Indians there did not roam and wander and live in tepees. The New England tribes were settled farmers, with fields of crops. The foods they brought to the "First Thanksgiving" had been staples of their farming for years - and they taught the colonists how to plant and use them.
Myth: Mysterious Error in American History Books
Fact: Little or nothing appears in school texts about a monumental event that happened in New England from 1616-1619 when a "plague" (probably carried by European visitors) killed 90% of the Indian population. When the Plimouth Colonie was founded in 1620/21, then, the Indians were decimated and could offer no resistence. It took 50 years for their numbers to regenerate - and King Philip's War of 1676 was the first massive resistance - but by then the English were well established and prevailed.
I bet if we asked 100 otherwise educated people what the biggest crisis was in the New England native community in the years immediately preceding the arrival of the English Plymouth colony - I wonder how many would know it was this terrible disease.
The speaker asked the audience to go home and check their kids' American history text books and see if it was featured.
Samuel Eliot Morison's "Builders of the Bay Colony" (1930) describes it briefly - and the Pilgrim's less-than-"friendly" attitude towards it (p.13), citing contemporary writings: "It was fortunate for the Pilgrims that a pestilence among the Indians of Massachusetts Bay - a special dispensation of Providence in the opinion of Captain John Smith and Thomas Morton - had decimated the tribes along our coast 1617-18....The few Indians who had any spirit left had it knocked out of them by Miles Standish and his army of eight. This advantage became all the more palpable when in 1622 an uprising of the Indians in Virginia set that colony back a decade...."
Our "myth" of the "friendship" between Indians and Plymouth colonists may have been overdone in our school books
..... Myth: The word "Thanksgiving" didn't apply to harvest feasts
Fact: There were autumnal "harvest" festivals and feasts in Europe for centuries, and since the first settled European colony was in Virginia in 1607 - not Massachusetts in 1620/1 - we can expect that the Jamestown Colony might have well celebrated their survival with such a group feast. Stephen Hopkins, of the Plymouth Colony, had been in Virginia years earlier.
One of the Plymouth colonists described such a meal in New England in a contemporary "advertisement" .... Edward Winslow. Quoting from Eugene Aubrey Stratton's "Plymouth Colony: Its History and People 1620-1691" . Ancestry Pub. Co. (Salt Lake City:1986), pp. 24-25.
"Our harvest being gotten in, our Governour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a more speciall manner rejoyce together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labours; they foure in one day killed as much fowle, as with a little helpe beside, served the Company almost a weeke, at which time among other Recreations, we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoyt, with some nintie men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governour, and upon the Captaine, and others. And although it be not always so plentifull, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plentie..."
Stratton points out that Winslow wrote this to be sent to England to attract new settlers, and that he no doubt greatly overstated the settlers being "farre from want" - as they all suffered greatly from hunger for many years in the new colony.
Besides deer and game birds, they might well have eaten the new food introduced to them by the Indians - corn, plus peas and barley. In 1621, Winslow reported "we set... some twentie acres of Indian Corn and sowed some six Acres of Barly and Pease." The main beverages were water and beer. In a letter of 1623 describing another celebration for a wedding, records mentioned eating "the best grapes .. divers sorts of plums and nuts..." And they had fish and lobster - Winslow also wrote: "God fedd them out of the sea for the most parte."
So the foods we often use today - turkey, peas, corn, fruits and nuts - would have been available to the Pilgrims. No word about cranberries although the major source of them today is still Plymouth County!
The word "Thanksgiving" was not applied to any feasts like this. 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.
As previously noted, the above discussion of the myths of Thanksgiving come from a fascinating lecture presented at the Smithsonian in 1993, called "The First Thanksgiving: Myths and Legends" by Dr. James Loewen of the University of Vermont. An alternating opinion regarding Thanksgiving traditions and myths associated with them, provided by the renowned Jeremy Bangs, can be found at http://hnn.us/articles/15002.html.
The Genealogy Forum - Main Page
Beginners' Center | Surname Center | File Libraries
Internet Center | Message Boards
Resource Center | Reunion Center
Genealogy Forum News
Shop With Us
Some Images obtained from IMSI's Masterclips Premium Image Collection,
1895 Francisco Blvd. East, San Rafael, CA 94901-5506, USA
© 1999, All Rights Reserved.
Genealogy Forum.com is a production of Golden Gate Services, Inc. of Armada, Michigan. © 1999 - 2005 All Rights Reserved. Brenda Jean Bova, President. The Genealogy Forum is a member of the Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Genealogical Society.
Tree logo provided by MeadPond Designs and is the trademark of GenealogyForum.com.
If you have any questions or comments,
please contact GenealogyForum@aol.com
