Pilgrims' Progress, or the Story of Thanksgiving: Caroline Baum (Capitalist Roots of Thanksgiving)

Caroline Baum is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- It is the tradition of this column every year at this time to relate the story of Thanksgiving. For source material, I am grateful to the accounts of William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth Bay Colony beginning in 1621. (Bradford's History ``Of Plimoth Plantation'').

Posted as a recommendation by Donald Luskin:

THE REAL STORY OF THANKSGIVING This site can hardly do more as a Thanksgiving message to its readers than link to this wonderful column by our friend, Bloomberg's Caroline Baum. It's the story of the true capitalist roots of Thanksgiving, drawn from the memoirs of William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth Bay Colony beginning in 1621. Baum points out that the prosperity for which thanks are being given was the result of the overthrow of communal farming and the restoration of property rights in each farmer's own capital.

On May 13, 1607, three ships, the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery disembarked 104 English colonists upon the shores of a small peninsula jutting into the river. It seemed an ideal place. Thirty-six miles inland from the Chesapeake Bay, it would escape notice of Spanish ships along the coast. It was easily defended against attack and provided a good deep harbor for the ships.

The settlers named the river James and the settlement Jamestown after their sovereign King, James I.

This settlement would become the first permanent English Colony in North America, the first capital of Virginia and the site of the first English representative government in America. It would be the social and political center of the Virginia colony for more than 92 years.

But before permanency was assured the colonists would suffer trials, hardships and tribulations unimaginable at the time. Disease, hunger, internal squabbling and conflicts with the native population would take their toll. Of those first 104 adventurers only 38 survived to the next spring. It would take several more cruel years before this new colony had established a strong enough foundation to ensure permanency.

On December 4, 1619 settlers stepped ashore at Berkeley Hundred along the James River and, in accordance with the proprietor's instruction that "the day of our ship's arrival ... shall be yearly and perpetually kept as a day of thanksgiving," celebrated the first official Thanksgiving Day.

Thirteen years later after the 1607 Jamestown landing, 102 settlers aboard the Mayflower landed in Massachusetts at a place they named Plymouth. With these two colonies, English settlement in North America was born. In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims held a celebration to give thanks to God for his bounty and blessings. This occasion was the origin of the traditional Thanksgiving as we know it today.

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