History of Thanksgiving Day – the Shocking Truth behind the Myth!

Thanksgiving Day in America is a happy occasion. It is the beginning of the holiday season and there is a lot of excitement in the air. But history reveals to us a different picture behind Thanksgiving. It is always the same school plays with children enacting a bunch of happy Pilgrims and happy Native Americans joining hands to usher in an era of peace and brotherhood. The History of Thanksgiving Day is very different and not without its share of bloody battles and ransacking of Native homes.

Facts about the History of Thanksgiving Day

1. The First Thanksgiving did NOT take place in 1621. In fact, no one knows when the ‘first’ harvest celebration occurred. It was probably part of the Native American culture much before the Puritans set foot on the North American soil.

2. The Mayflower passengers were NOT called ‘Pilgrims’. Most of those who came to Plymouth from England had broken away from the Church and called themselves ‘Saints’ or ‘Separatists’. Some called themselves ‘Puritans’ because they wanted to purify the practices of the Church. The term ‘Pilgrims’ was used the first time during the American Revolution.

3. The Colonists came to Colonize and NOT seeking freedom of religious practice. The ‘Pilgrims’ were not innocent refugees. By 1620, much of the Native American population had already been captivated and enslaved because they were believed to be ‘wild’ and their land ‘unimproved’, hence taken do with as the Colonists liked.

4. The ‘Pilgrims’ did NOT land on ‘Plymouth Rock’. The Mayflower was anchored at sea and the ‘Pilgrims’ used a ‘shallop’ to come to the mainland. If they had docked at a Rock, the shallop would have been destroyed.

5. Pilgrims were NOT the first to find corn. The corn they found were caches of Indian corn in graves which they ransacked along with other precious items that were buried with the corpse. Stolen corn was probably never restituted.

6. The ‘Pilgrims’ did NOT invite the Indians to the First Thanksgiving meal, and probably would never have had the Indians not shown up by themselves. There were gunfire shots during the celebrations which the Indians thought was the beginning of a war. 90 men of the Wampanoag tribe arrived at the celebrations to check situations. There were no women and children which means the Indians were prepared to fight should the need arise.

7. The ‘first’ Thanksgiving meal did NOT include turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, bread, cranberries and bear. There was venison, wild fowl, fish, berries, fruits and other vegetables. Corn, probably the dried pounded variety, and mashed pumpkin, were also included.

8. The Colonists and Indians did NOT become great friends. The Colonists enslaved the Indian people, massacred women and children and by 1620, hundreds of Native Americans had already been to England and back serving as slaves. It is foolishness to assume the two would ever make peace.

For the Native American races, Thanksgiving Day is a day of mourning. The Indians had extended their friendship by teaching the ‘Pilgrims’ how to cultivate land. The Indian History of Thanksgiving Day is a reminder how this gift of generosity was rewarded by subjugation of the Indians and theft of their land.