The True Story of Thanksgiving

“This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end. Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than what it really was. That happened, don’t misunderstand. That all happened, but that’s not — according to William Bradford’s journal — what they ultimately gave thanks for. “Here is the part that has been omitted: The original contract” that they made on the Mayflower as they were traveling to the New World…

They actually had to enter into that contract “with their merchant-sponsors in London,” because they had no money on their own. The needed sponsor. They found merchants in London to sponsor them. The merchants in London were making an investment, and as such, the Pilgrims agreed that “everything they produced to go into a common store,” or bank, common account, “and each member of the community was entitled to one common share” in this bank. Out of this, the merchants would be repaid until they were paid off.

“All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well.” Everything belonged to everybody and everybody had one share in it. They were going to distribute it equally.” That was considered to be the epitome of fairness, sharing the hardship burdens and everything like that. “Nobody owned anything. It was a commune, folks. It was the forerunner to the communes we saw in the ’60s and ’70s out in California,” and other parts of the country, “and it was complete with organic vegetables, by the way.

“Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that” it wasn’t working. It “was as costly and destructive…” His own journals chronicle the reasons it didn’t work. “Bradford assigned a plot of land” to fix this “to each family to work and manage,” as their own. He got rid of the whole commune structure and “assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage,” and whatever they made, however much they made, was theirs. They could sell it, they could share it, they could keep it, whatever they wanted to do.

What really happened is they “turned loose” the power of a free market after enduring months and months of hardship — first on the Mayflower and then getting settled and then the failure of the common account from which everybody got the same share. There was no incentive for anybody to do anything. And as is human nature, some of the Pilgrims were a bunch of lazy twerps, and others busted their rear ends. But it didn’t matter because even the people that weren’t very industrious got the same as everyone else. Bradford wrote about how this just wasn’t working.

“What Bradford and his community found,” and I’m going to use basically his own words, “was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else… [W]hile most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for well over a hundred years — trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it — the Pilgrims decided early on,” William Bradford decided, “to scrap it permanently,” because it brought out the worst in human nature, it emphasized laziness, it created resentment."

SNIP

What we’ve all been taught is a part of the history: The Pilgrims came, they almost starved, the Indians taught them how to survive, and they had a big feast. All true. But it’s the tip of the iceberg.

The Puritans were being persecuted in Britain by the Church of England. They decided to get out. They first went to the Netherlands. After several years there, they decided to go to the New World for religious liberty.

They found some sponsors for their journey, who made William Bradford, their leader, sign a contract. It provided that every Pilgrim would get one share in a common store and they would all work for the community. (They would own nothing and be happy.)

They arrived at Plymouth Rock in 1620. Between the journey and that harsh first winter, about 44 of the original 100 settlers died. Including Governor Bradford’s wife.

The Native Americans taught them how to plant corn and fish, but according to Governor Bradford’s notes, even the most industrious didn’t work very hard at it. After all, why work so hard when you’re only going to get the same amount as the ones who don’t? Why expend all that effort for other people’s families when they’re not willing to expend the effort for themselves? So Governor Bradford changed the system.

Bradford assigned each family a plot of land and told them to work it as they saw fit, and they could keep the proceeds or trade it or sell it or give it away, if they chose. (Does this sound familiar?)

Well, they thrived. They produced an abundance of food and goods. Probably more than they could figure out what to do with. In gratitude to God, they had a big community feast to use and share all they had produced, and they invited the Indigenous to thank them for their help (and as a gesture of friendship.)

The original system in which everyone worked for the collective failed. It almost starved them to death. The new system, which incentivized producing as much as you wanted, produced an abundance they had to share.

Accordingly, one of the things I am grateful for today is Governor Bradford’s decision to abandon the failing collectivism of the original Compact and adopt a system based on incentive, which gave rise to an abundance we still enjoy.

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