The Truth About The First Thanksgiving Essay
The Truth about the first Thanksgiving
Notes
America’s origin myth about the first Thanksgiving tells us the Pilgrims were the first settlers. Landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620 “they went about the work of civilizing a hostile wilderness.”
Hundreds of college students didn’t know the myth from the truth.
The Spanish abandoned a settlement in 1526, leaving African slaves in South Carolina.
Few Americans know that one third of the United States as we know it had been Spanish longer than it had been American.
Students new the pilgrims had been persecuted in England for their religious beliefs, that they came over on the Mayflower and wrote the Mayflower Compact. When asked about the plague they knew nothing.
British and French fisherman, landing in …show more content…
Textbooks say they were headed for Virginia, where there was a British settlement.
Some books say the ship was blown off course, others blame an “error in navigation.”
Pilgrim leaders may have had prior knowledge about the region and never intended to go to Virginia.
To promote American exceptionalism textbooks say the goodness of our nation started at Plymouth Rock, which viewed the pilgrims as Christian, sober, democratic, generous to the Indians, God thanking.
Historians couldn’t use Virginia as the archetypal birthplace of the United States.
The Virginian’s took Indian prisoners and forced them to teach colonists how to farm.
They spent their time looking for gold, not planting crops, digging up Indian corpses to eat. Hardly the heroic founders that a great nation requires.
The Pilgrims didn’t “start from scratch” going about the work of civilizing a hostile wilderness.
They chose Plymouth because the fields were cleared, recently planted in corn by Native Americans and had a useful harbor and brook of fresh
Notes
America’s origin myth about the first Thanksgiving tells us the Pilgrims were the first settlers. Landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620 “they went about the work of civilizing a hostile wilderness.”
Hundreds of college students didn’t know the myth from the truth.
The Spanish abandoned a settlement in 1526, leaving African slaves in South Carolina.
Few Americans know that one third of the United States as we know it had been Spanish longer than it had been American.
Students new the pilgrims had been persecuted in England for their religious beliefs, that they came over on the Mayflower and wrote the Mayflower Compact. When asked about the plague they knew nothing.
British and French fisherman, landing in …show more content…
Textbooks say they were headed for Virginia, where there was a British settlement.
Some books say the ship was blown off course, others blame an “error in navigation.”
Pilgrim leaders may have had prior knowledge about the region and never intended to go to Virginia.
To promote American exceptionalism textbooks say the goodness of our nation started at Plymouth Rock, which viewed the pilgrims as Christian, sober, democratic, generous to the Indians, God thanking.
Historians couldn’t use Virginia as the archetypal birthplace of the United States.
The Virginian’s took Indian prisoners and forced them to teach colonists how to farm.
They spent their time looking for gold, not planting crops, digging up Indian corpses to eat. Hardly the heroic founders that a great nation requires.
The Pilgrims didn’t “start from scratch” going about the work of civilizing a hostile wilderness.
They chose Plymouth because the fields were cleared, recently planted in corn by Native Americans and had a useful harbor and brook of fresh