The
Real Thanksgiving
By Dr. Mikhail Lyubansky
November 20,
2008
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 Pilgrims 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.
Author's
Bio:
Mikhail Lyubansky, Ph.D., is a member of the teaching
faculty in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign, where he teaches Psychology of Race and Ethnicity and
Theories of Psychotherapy. His research and writing interests focus on
conditions associated with changes in social identity and beliefs about race,
ethnicity, and nationalism, especially in immigrant and minority populations.
He is a regular contributor to edited volumes on popular culture, including
Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and House MD, published by BenBella and recently co-authored a book on the
Russian-Jewish Diaspora: Building a diaspora: Russian
Jews in Israel, Germany, and the United States. Born in Kiev, Mikhail
immigrated with his family to the United States as a child in 1977. He
currently serves as a senior editor at OpEdNews. All
material on this site published under his byline remains the property of
Mikhail Lyubansky, copyright 2008. Permission is
granted to repost and distribute, with proper attribution. Authors
Website: http://www.psych.uiuc.edu/~lyubansk/
Original
Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-real-Thanksgiving-by-Mikhail-Lyubansky-081120-725.html