Must be a lot of ducks, geese and turkeys there.
Posted on 11/27/2015 4:42:05 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
The Thanksgiving tale of the Pilgrims and the Indian has an astonishing, less well-known back story.
The story of how the Pilgrims arrived at our shores on the Mayflower—and how a friendly Patuxet native named Squanto showed them how to plant corn, using fish as fertilizer—is well-known. But Squanto’s full story is not, as National Geographic’s new Thanksgiving miniseries, “Saints & Strangers,†shows. That might be because some details of Squanto’s life are in dispute. The important ones are not, however. His story is astonishing, even raising profound questions about God’s role in American history.
Every Thanksgiving we remember that, to escape religious persecution, the Pilgrims sailed to the New World, landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620. But numerous trading ships had visited the area earlier. Around 1608 an English ship dropped anchor off the coast of what is today Plymouth, Mass., ostensibly to trade metal goods for the natives’ beads and pelts. The friendly Patuxets received the crew but soon discovered their dark intentions. A number of the braves were brutally captured, taken to Spain and sold into slavery.
One of them, a young man named Tisquantum, or Squanto, was bought by a group of Catholic friars, who evidently treated him well and freed him, even allowing him to dream of somehow returning to the New World, an almost unimaginable thought at the time. Around 1612, Squanto made his way to London, where he stayed with a man named John Slany and learned his ways and language. In 1618, a ship was found, and in return for serving as an interpreter, Squanto would be given one-way passage back to the New World.
After spending a winter in Newfoundland, the ship made its way down the coast of Maine and Cape Cod, where Squanto at last reached his own shore.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Saints and Strangers was pretty good but could have gone further back in history. Even 6 months before the arrival would have made a much more complete story.
More Thanksgiving tales of our early days. This one is a little politically incorrect too, to say nothing of white microaggressions against the native Americans. This is a story I was NOT taught in school, but should have been.
Enjoy!
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this ping list for Revolutionary War/Founding father interests.
I was so annoyed with Saints and Strangers that I stopped watching and deleted both halfs. The smug lady near the beginning who dismissed the travails of Jamestowne and called them a “failed” colony just lit my southern fuse.
I am a descendent of those “failed” Jamestowne colonists, along with tens of thousands of other Americans. We don’t dismiss our ancestors.
I was a little disgusted at how feminized they made Squanto look. I get Native American paint and decoration, but the heavy eyeliner made him look like a drag queen.
Amazing! The hand of God!!!
I quizzed several school age kids and they didn’t know anything about the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving.
I too am a direct descendant of Jamestown colonists.
From the book, “The Light and the Glory”, by David Emanuel and Peter Marshall, an account of the first encounter the Pilgrims had with Samoset.
Captain Standish shook his head, even as he went to look out the window, to see a tall, well-built Indian, wearing nothing but a leather loincloth striding up their mains street. He was headed straight for the common house, and the men inside hurried to the door, before he walked right in on them. He stopped and stood motionless looking at them, as though sculpted in marble. Only the March wind broke the silence.
“Welcome!” he suddenly boomed, in a deep, resonant voice.
The Pilgrims were too startled to speak. At length, they replied with as much gravity as they could muster, “Welcome.”
Their visitor fixed them with a piercing stare. “Have you got any beer?” he asked them in flawless English. If they were surprised before, they were astounded now.
“Beer?” one of them managed.
The Indian nodded.
The Pilgrims looked at one another, then turned back to him. “Our beer is gone. Would you like some brandy?”
Again the Indian nodded.
They brought him some brandy, and a biscuit with butter and cheese, and then some pudding and a piece of roast duck. To their continuing amazement, he ate with evident relish everything set before him. Where had he developed such an appetite for English food? How, in fact, had he come to speak English? For that matter, who was he, and what was he doing here?
Anything to separate today’s youth from knowledge of God’s providence and the Western European heritage of our early Founders.
Those stupid English. They didn’t know how to farm, or hunt, or cut trees, or anything. Well, they knew how to make ocean going vessels. (Best Monty Python voice). “And the gunpowder. Don’t forget the gunpowder.”
I agree. Three, maybe four segments instead of just two.
Dang, yer old!
Agreed, it actually would have been nice to see a mini-series starting in Holland thru the King Phillips War.
Must be a lot of ducks, geese and turkeys there.
They really needed to go back to when the plans were made.
Most people outside of historians don’t know that the trip began with two ships poorly outfitted and that one (The Speedwell) began to fall apart just 200 miles out from England forcing both ships to turn back. They ended up losing many water damaged supplies on the Speedwell and nearly doubled the number of passengers on the Mayflower.
They were 6 weeks late in arriving well north of their pre scouted landing location and already starving when they arrived in November. Most had little experience with hunting and they had little knowledge of the already scarce local foods to gather.
Nice looking shotguns. Say, .....didn’t some of those savages in Paris use shotguns? I’d love to see what brand and model they were.
L
Great point.
How Ironic a Catholic INDIAN met the settlers at Plymouth Rock trying to escape all remnants of Catholicism. Squanto also saved them from Hunger!
The 2 Spanish Friars were actually Jesuits who bought him to FREE him. Pope Paul III 100 yrs previous declared any Identifying Catholic Country was forbidden to have slaves. Any Exploration of NEW lands had to better the natives life.
So, the two of us were not taught the true nature of THANKSGIVING in our classrooms. The first grade, here, was in 1953 (a grade school in a small Texas town south of Big D). After learning the revised, PC story, many years later, it is now questioned just when were the necessary adjustments made in teaching the youth of AMERICA? And as to the Constitutional Amendment any child born on AMERICAN soil was given the gift of American Citizenship. When were students pouring out of the classroom stating that scenario for the first time? And how long will we allow the same clap trap in our education system.
AMERICA first needs to change her schools and how children are taught by Conservative, truthful teachers. For many years American youth were taught by dishonest leaders with an untruthful agenda..and that agenda grew as the roots went deeper each year. GET GOVERNMENT out of our school system!!
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