The First Thanksgiving: setting the record straight
Our story begins with the Pilgrims. Their first winter in what was known as the Plymouth Colony was a rough one. Half the pilgrims died that first winter. Let that sink in, one half of colony perished in their first year. That spring they had their first contact with the natives. Despite the tales of savagery and barbarism that they had heard about, their first encounter with the natives occurred without incident. Then a lone Indian named Samoset wandered into the colony. Amazingly he spoke broken English, English he had learned from the explorers and fishermen that occasioned the area. The pilgrims were astonished. Samoset told the pilgrims that a fierce warring tribe was recently wiped out by strange plague. Previously this tribe lived on the land where the pilgrims had settled. Due to the devastation caused by the plague all neighboring tribes were afraid to establish themselves in that place. They believed the ruinous plague was the work of an evil spirit and they stayed clear of the area. The land was vacant and abandoned. AntiWhites will say the pilgrims murdered their way onto the land and that the plague was brought by the Europeans as if there was never nor could be rampant diseases at loose without the presence of Whitemen. The pilgrims learned much from Samoset and consistent with their biblical beliefs treated him as a friend.
Samoset left, but soon returned with some Wampanoag Indians and their chief, Massasoit. Among these Indians was Squanto, a Patauxet Indian, a surviving member of the fierce tribe that the plague had wiped out. When Massasoit and his men left, Squanto stayed. The pilgrims were in for another shock, Squanto spoke fluent English. In 1614, 6 years before the pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, Squanto was captured by Captain Thomas Hunt, along with 26 other Indians and sold into slavery in Spain. Catholics had numerous societies working to free slaves, mostly purchasing White Christian slaves from the muslim moors and setting them free. But their beneficence was not limited to only White slaves and they purchased Squanto and his companions, and set them free. Squanto somehow worked his way to England learning the English language and the customs of the English. It is believed that Squanto took a position as translator for the English Captain Thomas Dermer when Dermer voyaged to the new world. Squanto separated from the ship’s company upon returning to what today is known as Massachusetts. He found his people wiped out from disease. Interestingly enough the standard AntiWhite narrative is that the Whitemen brought the disease that wiped out the Patauxet. Well 17th Century Europe was anything but hygienic and disease free yet Squanto survived his time in Spain and England quite well. I would be dubious of the AntiWhite narratives that claim the new world was disease free until Whitey arrived.
Squanto, as if prepared by Providence, and seeing how unprepared and ill equipped the pilgrims were to survive another winter taught them the skills necessary to survive off the land. With Squanto’s help the Pilgrims had been able to harvest enough food to survive the upcoming winter. In recognition of such, governor William Bradford declared a day of Thanksgiving. Grateful to God, Squanto, and the neighboring Wampanoag, the pilgrims invited Chief Massaoit and his men to their Thanksgiving celebration. Massaoit came with 90 men. The piligrims totaled 4 women, 14 young boys and girls, 13 infants and very young children, and only 22 men. The antiWhite narrative would have you believe that the pilgrims were racists that disposed the natives and only wanted to kill them, that there was a great enmity and hatred between the pilgrims and the Indians. If this were the case Massasoit and his men would not have been invited to break bread with the pilgrims and regardless his warriors could easily have snuffed out the pilgrim colony in an instant at any time. On the menu for that first Thanksgiving was deer, turkey, fish, lobster, eels, vegetables, cornbread, herbs, berries, and pies. There were also athletic games including running, jumping, and wrestling that all, including Massaoit and men participated in. And when the pilgrims prayed their prayers of Thanksgiving, Squanto explained the religion of the pilgrims to Massasoit and how they always gave thanks to the Great Spirit as he is the father of all and provides for all. Massasoit enjoyed his time so much that he stayed an extra 3 days with the pilgrims. That winter no one starved.
Squanto spent the next two years continuing to tutor the pilgrims in ways of the land and native survival skills. Then he became deathly ill and died. Governor Bradford recorded in his journal that he, Squanto desired me to pray for him, that he might go to the Englishmen’s God in Heaven. He bequeathed sundry of his things to sundry of his English friends as a remembrance of his love, of whom they had a great loss.
Happy Thanksgiving.