Free Republic

The Pilgrims didn’t bring ‘genocide’ to America. They barely brought themselves, with half of their company dying that first winter, in 1620-21.Americans have a great and exuberant tradition that touches our sense of belonging and our pride in coming together. No, I am not referring to Thanksgiving, that festival of gratitude, generosity, and welcome. I am referring to the equally great and exuberant tradition of trash-talking other people. Supposedly we have reformed. Ethnic slurs that were once common have retreated to the dark corners of dive bars and the even darker corners of anti-social media. We live in a time...

Revisionist histories are nearly always written (or posted to the internet) with an agenda in mind — it's no different for the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving.Four hundred years after the Pilgrims landed in Massachusetts in November 1620, this Thanksgiving promises to be the most isolated celebration in living memory. Thanks to the internet, however, virtual gatherings will be possible. Thanksgiving in the age of the internet also means, for many amateur historians, debunking the many myths surrounding the story of the original Thanksgiving. This project of correcting the Thanksgiving legend has picked up steam in recent years. It is part of...

I write opinions. I form my opinions on the basis of common sense, historical research and my God given ability to reason. Being human, I’ll freely admit to a curiosity (and a slight touch of vanity) about what people think about the opinions I write. In a recent article (“A Tale of Three Plumbers”) I made reference to the fact that Plymouth Colony was America’s first failed experiment in socialism. Plymouth Colony survived and thrived when it abandoned that experiment and turned to free enterprise and capitalism. I can’t say I was surprised when I read the following comment in...

The Great Thanksgiving Hoax By Richard J. Maybury Each year at this time school children all over America are taught the official Thanksgiving story, and newspapers, radio, TV, and magazines devote vast amounts of time and space to it. It is all very colorful and fascinating. It is also very deceiving. This official story is nothing like what really happened. It is a fairy tale, a whitewashed and sanitized collection of half-truths which divert attention away from Thanksgiving's real meaning. The official story has the pilgrims boarding the Mayflower, coming to America and establishing the Plymouth colony in the winter...