Thanksgiving, Just a Little History Lesson

Thanksgiving 2014 is nearing and there is so much misunderstanding about this Thanksgiving Holiday I feel compelled to present the true history of Thanksgiving. 

The Mayflower, filled with religious separatists from England,  was supposed  to land at the mouth of the Hudson River, present day New York but after being blown off course by a storm while crossing the Atlantic they made landfall at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts in 1620, To settle there, they would have wait for permission from the King which would take several months. In order to establish a civil society while they waited, they wrote and signed the Mayflower Compact.

The text of the Mayflower Compact is as follows:

"Having undertaken for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together in a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the gen eral good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sov ereign Lord King James, of England, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini 1620."

For the next few months many of the settlers stayed on the May flower while ferrying back and forth to shore to build their new settle ment. In March, they began moving ashore permanently. More than half the settlers fell ill and died that first winter, victims of an epi demic of disease that swept the new colony. After the epidemic was over they began a serious effort to build a self sustaining  colony.

In March of 1621, they began farming and planting crops in order to provide the colony with a constant supply of food. They were aided a native American named Tisquantum, better known as Squanto, who would become a member of the colony. He taught them how to plant and grow corn. Corn was not native to England. He also taught them where to hunt for wild game. The Pilgrims learned much from Squanto about surviving in this new land.

Squanto knew and understood English because had been kidnapped by explorer John Smith and taken to England where he stayed until he could escape back to his native land. He acted as interpreter and mediator between the leaders of the colony and the native Americans.

In  the fall of 1621, after a successful season of planting and harvesting, the Pilgrims shared a meal along with their friends from the Pokanokets tribe that lasted for three days. Even with all the hardships and deaths that settling in the cold northern climate had brought them had no problem thanking God for the His blessings. That was considered the first Thanksgiving.

William Bradford became the first governor of the Plymouth colony and governor for 30 years and penned in his journal: 

"Being thus arived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees & blessed ye God of heaven, who had brought them over ye vast & furious ocean, and delivered them from all ye periles & miseries therof, againe to set their feete on yefirme and stable earth, their proper elemente. And no marvell if they were thus joyefull, seeing wise Seneca was so affected with sailing a few miles on ye coast of his owne Italy; as he affirmed, that he had rather remaine twentie years on his way by land, then by sea to any place in a short time; so tedious & dreadful was ye same unto him.

"But hear I cannot help but stay and make a pause, and stand half amased at this poore peoples present conditions; and so I  thinke will the reader too, when he will considers ye same. Being thus passed ye vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as nat be renenber bt yt which wente before0, they had now no friends to welcome then, nor inns to entertaine or refresh their weatherbeaten bodys, no houses much less townes to rapaire too, to seek for succor....."

Thanksgiving did not become an official holiday in 1863 when, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of “prayer, thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens” to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November.