PING!
“There was no First Thanksgiving, as we want to believe it happened...”
Actually, there was a first Thanksgiving. The Puritans were starving because of imposed socialism and when they gave that up and went into individual farming, they had a bumper crop and celebrated it with a large cook out.
The mystique of the first "Thanksgiving" of the Pilgrims is just one of many historical events that bear little or no resemblance to actual event. It's just the way it is. People like their history in neat little packages.
It's like the common scene of Jesus being born in a manger with three Wise Men immediately coming into the birth scene bearing gifts and riding camels after following a star in the sky. It likely didn't happen exactly as neatly as that. But these are the images conveyed to us over the centuries. And they end up sticking.
The Pilgram Lions, playing a crude form of football, lost to the Redskins that year.
bump
Thanks. Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.
That was a nice article.
The Puritans escaped persecution in England. Only to do the very same thing here they escaped from.
My ancestors from England. 3 of them signed the death warrant for King Charles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWoL0oGXHUM
Abraham Temple came to the new world and landed at Salem MA 1635-36. He had been financed by William Finnese (SIC) who wanted to establish a title in the Conn area and become lord of the area. Abraham ducked out and stayed in Salem, and then moved to Concord where his son, Richard, had a sawmill on Spensors brook. That was the start of the family line in the forest products history in the USA.
Seriously.
The 1599 Geneva has been recently released. i use it as my main English Bible. The study notes are exceedingly helpful. It was reproduced by Tolle Lege Press, and at a quite reasonable price.
My wife and i both have a copy and use it. It was less than $60.
The only changes have been that the spelling and certain changes (such as the apostrophe to indicate possession) have been moderenized. However, the text is original 1599 Geneva.
Jamestown was up and running for a decade before these glory hog Pilgrims stopped for a beer run at Plymouth Rock.
In the meantime, warfare and Europe herself underwent a transformation - from a battle of religions it became a battle of dynasties, of nations in a sense. Catholic fought Protestant in what was to become Germany for the seat of Holy Roman Emperor in the beginning; in the end the Protestant Swedes and the Catholic French fought all of the others for their own ends. Certain areas in Germany experienced a depopulation of 50% or more. Villages, towns, all dead, burnt, gone.
If we are to understand the Pilgrims within the context of their own times, that's what we have to digest. It was on the crest of that wave that they entered the New World. Starvation, torture, mass and individual murder - that was truly the currency of the time. I don't know if that excuses the funny hats, though.
My favorite lie is the way modern urban leftists portray bith Pilgrims and Puritans as prudes.
Sure: With large families, animal husbandry, and faith in God as its Creator, they were embarassed about sex. Sure, I believe that. /sarcoff
Good article!
I really like that he explains the differences between the Separatists and Puritans.
My ancestors were Puritans, arriving at Boston in 1632. They went on to found Springfield, Mass, and then Milford, Connecticut. Then Vermont, Tennessee and finally Alabama. Others drifted and bred with various peoples all over the place...
That’s where I came in. An American Mongrel!
All of this was taught to us in US History in middle school or elementary school.
Back when US schools still taught US history.
How far we have fallen. ):
Read the story of Squanto. That was truly the hand of God at work. Exactly what the Pilgrims needed.