By Peter Butzerin.
As it turns out, the history of Thanksgiving that most of us were taught as kindergarteners was only partly true. As a history buff, I’m always keen to discover what is historically accurate and what is legend. History lessons tend to leave out messy issues and oversimplify what really happened.
Military history, my first love, is always written by the victor. The losers are the irredeemable villains, and the winners are morally flawless. While you were making those cute Thanksgiving turkeys out of colorful construction paper, your teachers tried to share the history of Thanksgiving with you. To be clear, I love turkey, and they got much of it more-or-less right. However, here are some eye-opening tidbits to flesh out the real history of Thanksgiving.
To begin with, The Plymouth Rock Pilgrims were not the first to observe a “Thanksgiving” celebration in America. They missed that distinction by a few years. The first Thanksgiving was observed by English settlers who landed in what is now Virginia in 1619. They were given orders from the company that chartered their expedition to celebrate the day they safely landed and to commemorate the occasion annually.
Thanksgiving was not a new concept; it was a day set aside to thank God for His providence. For example, the British had a Thanksgiving holiday to observe their defeat of the Spanish Armada. The Plymouth Pilgrims, as former British subjects, were familiar with the practice of Thanksgiving, but they used the tradition because their harvest was good.
Many know that Indians were very kind and helpful to the Plymouth settlement. The very first Indian to approach the Plymouth settlement was actually Samoset, who spoke some English and had a fondness for beer.
The Pilgrims were also incredibly lucky to stumble across another Indian who was the sole survivor of his tribe, whose now-empty homes they had located their settlement on. This was Tisquantum, or who we more often refer to as Squanto. He spoke fluent English, was aware of Christianity, and he understood English ways, because he had been kidnapped many years before by white trappers and sold into European slavery. He was freed by a group of Catholic monks who bought him, shared their faith with him, and released him to return to North America. Meanwhile, his people, the Patuxet tribe, had been completely wiped out by a water-borne virus, which was common in the days before plumbing.
That gets us back to the question: Why were the natives so kind and helpful to the Plymouth settlers? They shared food, taught them how to plant native crops, and how to use fertilizer. The Indians of the Wampanoag tribe attended the Thanksgiving celebration and brought a lot of food.
These Indians were warriors, however, their conflict was with other Indian tribes. The Wampanoag tribe’s implacable foe was the Narragansett tribe. Squanto and Samoset helped broker a military alliance between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag. The Pilgrims had firearms, which all Indians in the area were in awe of. It was for this reason, rather than the kindness of their hearts that the Indians were so friendly. If that sounds bad, you must remember that never-ending wars over territory, hunting, fishing, resources, and slaves were the way of life for these Indians. To be fair, Squanto truly appreciated the Plymouth Pilgrims, and his advice, diplomacy, and teaching saved many from starvation.
People tend to incorrectly credit Abraham Lincoln for establishing Thanksgiving Day. Instead, it was George Washington who created and proclaimed November 26, 1789, as the first Thanksgiving Day of the new national government, even though the holiday was already widely observed.
What Abraham Lincoln did was to move it to the final Thursday of November, proclaiming it an official federal holiday. That is not where it stayed though; in 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted it on the “next to last” Thursday of November, because there were five November Thursdays that year. He wanted to help get Christmas shopping started sooner to help struggling merchants. However, this led to the possibility of two possible Thanksgivings in some years. To remedy the confusion, Congress and FDR made it a federal law in December 1941, where they fixed the date as “fourth Thursday of November.” Dizzying, I know!
I hope you enjoy your family this Thanksgiving, partake of your favorite dishes, and savor the festive atmosphere. Let’s all give thanks to God for our many blessings. We pray that all Americans have plenty and enjoy a time of peace this Thanksgiving Day.
–Peter J. Butzerin
