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 of
1620-21. This first winter is hard, and half the colonists die. But
the survivors are hard working and tenacious, and they learn new
farming techniques from the Indians. The harvest of 1621 is
bountiful. The Pilgrims hold a celebration, and give thanks to God.
They are grateful for the wonderful new abundant land He has given
them.
The official story then has the Pilgrims living more or less happily
ever after, each year repeating the first Thanksgiving. Other early
colonies also have hard times at first, but they soon prosper and
adopt the annual tradition of giving thanks for this prosperous new
land called America.
The problem with this official story is that the harvest of 1621 was
not bountiful, nor were the colonists hardworking or tenacious. 1621
was a famine year and many of the colonists were lazy thieves.
In his 'History of Plymouth Plantation,' the governor of the colony,
William Bradford, reported that the colonists went hungry for years,
because they refused to work in the fields. They preferred instead to
steal food.
He says the colony was riddled with "corruption," and with "confusion
and discontent." The crops were small because "much was stolen both
by night and day, before it became scarce eatable."
In the harvest feasts of 1621 and 1622, "all had their hungry bellies
filled," but only briefly. The prevailing condition during those
years was not the abundance the official story claims, it was famine
and death.
The first "Thanksgiving" was not so much a celebration as it was the
last meal of condemned men.
But in subsequent years something changed. The harvest of 1623 was
different. Suddenly, "instead of famine now God gave them plenty,"
Bradford wrote, "and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing
of the hearts of many, for which they blessed God." Thereafter, he
wrote, "any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since
to this day." In fact, in 1624, so much food was produced that the
colonists were able to begin exporting corn.
What happened?
After the poor harvest of 1622, writes Bradford, "they began to think
how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better
crop." They began to question their form of economic organization.
This had required that "all profits & benefits that are got by trade,
working, fishing, or any other means" were to be placed in the common
stock of the colony, and that, "all such persons as are of this
colony, are to have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provisions
out of the common stock." A person was to put into the common stock
all he could, and take out only what he needed.
This "from each according to his ability, to each according to his
need" was an early form of socialism, and it is why the Pilgrims were
starving.
Bradford writes that "young men that are most able and fit for labor
and service" complained about being forced to "spend their time and
strength to work for other men's wives and children." Also, "the
strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and
clothes, than he that was weak." So the young and strong refused to
work and the total amount of food produced was never adequate.
To rectify this situation, in 1623 Bradford abolished socialism. He
gave each household a parcel of land and told them they could keep
what they produced, or trade it away as they saw fit. In other words,
he replaced socialism with a free market, and that was the end of
famines.
Many early groups of colonists set up socialist states, all with the
same terrible results. At Jamestown, established in 1607, out of
every shipload of settlers that arrived, less than half would survive
their first twelve months in America. Most of the work was being done
by only one-fifth of the men, the other four-fifths choosing to be
parasites. In the winter of 1609-10, called "The Starving Time," the
population fell from five hundred to sixty.
Then the Jamestown colony was converted to a free market, and the
results were every bit as dramatic as those at Plymouth. In 1614,
Colony Secretary Ralph Hamor wrote that after the switch there was
"plenty of food, which every man by his own industry may easily and
doth procure." He said that when the socialist system had prevailed,
"we reaped not so much corn from the labors of thirty men as three
men have done for themselves now."
Before these free markets were established, the colonists had nothing
for which to be thankful. They were in the same situation as
Ethiopians are today, and for the same reasons. But after free
markets were established, the resulting abundance was so dramatic
that the annual Thanksgiving celebrations became common throughout
the colonies, and in 1863, Thanksgiving became a national holiday.
Thus the real reason for Thanksgiving, deleted from the official
story, is:
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 of
1620-21. This first winter is hard, and half the colonists die. But
the survivors are hard working and tenacious, and they learn new
farming techniques from the Indians. The harvest of 1621 is
bountiful. The Pilgrims hold a celebration, and give thanks to God.
They are grateful for the wonderful new abundant land He has given
them.
The official story then has the Pilgrims living more or less happily
ever after, each year repeating the first Thanksgiving. Other early
colonies also have hard times at first, but they soon prosper and
adopt the annual tradition of giving thanks for this prosperous new
land called America.
The problem with this official story is that the harvest of 1621 was
not bountiful, nor were the colonists hardworking or tenacious. 1621
was a famine year and many of the colonists were lazy thieves.
In his 'History of Plymouth Plantation,' the governor of the colony,
William Bradford, reported that the colonists went hungry for years,
because they refused to work in the fields. They preferred instead to
steal food.
He says the colony was riddled with "corruption," and with "confusion
and discontent." The crops were small because "much was stolen both
by night and day, before it became scarce eatable."
In the harvest feasts of 1621 and 1622, "all had their hungry bellies
filled," but only briefly. The prevailing condition during those
years was not the abundance the official story claims, it was famine
and death.
The first "Thanksgiving" was not so much a celebration as it was the
last meal of condemned men.
But in subsequent years something changed. The harvest of 1623 was
different. Suddenly, "instead of famine now God gave them plenty,"
Bradford wrote, "and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing
of the hearts of many, for which they blessed God." Thereafter, he
wrote, "any general want or famine hath not been amongst them since
to this day." In fact, in 1624, so much food was produced that the
colonists were able to begin exporting corn.
What happened?
After the poor harvest of 1622, writes Bradford, "they began to think
how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better
crop." They began to question their form of economic organization.
This had required that "all profits & benefits that are got by trade,
working, fishing, or any other means" were to be placed in the common
stock of the colony, and that, "all such persons as are of this
colony, are to have their meat, drink, apparel, and all provisions
out of the common stock." A person was to put into the common stock
all he could, and take out only what he needed.
This "from each according to his ability, to each according to his
need" was an early form of socialism, and it is why the Pilgrims were
starving.
Bradford writes that "young men that are most able and fit for labor
and service" complained about being forced to "spend their time and
strength to work for other men's wives and children." Also, "the
strong, or man of parts, had no more in division of victuals and
clothes, than he that was weak." So the young and strong refused to
work and the total amount of food produced was never adequate.
To rectify this situation, in 1623 Bradford abolished socialism. He
gave each household a parcel of land and told them they could keep
what they produced, or trade it away as they saw fit. In other words,
he replaced socialism with a free market, and that was the end of
famines.
Many early groups of colonists set up socialist states, all with the
same terrible results. At Jamestown, established in 1607, out of
every shipload of settlers that arrived, less than half would survive
their first twelve months in America. Most of the work was being done
by only one-fifth of the men, the other four-fifths choosing to be
parasites. In the winter of 1609-10, called "The Starving Time," the
population fell from five hundred to sixty.
Then the Jamestown colony was converted to a free market, and the
results were every bit as dramatic as those at Plymouth. In 1614,
Colony Secretary Ralph Hamor wrote that after the switch there was
"plenty of food, which every man by his own industry may easily and
doth procure." He said that when the socialist system had prevailed,
"we reaped not so much corn from the labors of thirty men as three
men have done for themselves now."
Before these free markets were established, the colonists had nothing
for which to be thankful. They were in the same situation as
Ethiopians are today, and for the same reasons. But after free
markets were established, the resulting abundance was so dramatic
that the annual Thanksgiving celebrations became common throughout
the colonies, and in 1863, Thanksgiving became a national holiday.
Thus the real reason for Thanksgiving, deleted from the official
story, is:
