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The History of Thanksgiving

The common perception of Thanksgiving’s origin is that of the Pilgrims, having completed a long journey across the Atlantic Ocean, and having been exposed to the harsh elements of the New World. They were rescued by the Natives who presented the Pilgrims with food at a massive banquet in the cold, dreary time of that late November. To remember this kindness, we celebrate Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. It is a time of family, a time of peace, and a time to remember all the blessings we’ve received over the past year.

At least, that’s what’s often taught in schools and presented in television commercials. In truth, the history of Thanksgiving is a bit more complicated than one is often led to believe. Take, for example, the Natives that rescued the Pilgrims and so generously shared food and supplies with the haggard travellers - where are they now? Well, for one thing, the settlers that travelled across the Atlantic were Puritans, a group of extremist protestants who believed the Church of England must be further rid of Catholicism (“purified”). This particular group was made of Separatist Puritans, who believed the Church of England couldn’t be reformed and had to be abandoned for a new settlement where the Puritans would be free to spread their religion as they wished. As one could imagine, this group of religious extremists didn’t always get along well with the “Pagan” natives.

Just a generation after this original banquet, the Pilgrims and the Natives were fighting against each other in King Philip’s War, a conflict that lasted from 1675-1678 and led to mass amounts of death on both sides. The Natives had been pushed into this war following the expansion of the Pilgrims who threatened to push them off of their ancestral land, yet were eventually defeated and driven out regardless.

Perhaps these gray areas between the Natives and the Pilgrims don’t make for charming Thanksgiving stories, but they do reflect a clearer portrait of the original American settlers - extremists, who likely found the idea of living with people of other religions intolerable.


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