What Role Does Thanksgiving Play In American Culture

Due to the fact that I was not born in the United States, I didn’t learn American history; therefore, my knowledge about pilgrims is very limited. I know the basics about how Thanksgiving came to be. There was a Native American who helped teach the pilgrims to plant corn by using dead fish as fertilizer. His name was Squanto. The pilgrims and the natives came together and feasted on turkey. Thanksgiving became a holiday and turkey became the main dish.
I didn’t know that there was another Native American who approached the pilgrims before Squanto. He was called Samoset and their partnership with the Natives was partially credited to him, for he introduced the Englishmen to Squanto. Their relationship with the natives was very complicated; some tribes got along with the Englishmen, while others despised them.
The reason that the pilgrims left England was new to me. I had no idea that they had fled because of religious persecution. To pursue their religion, they had to become separatists; this meant that they broke from the English church. In those
This intrigued me because at first, they were depicted to have an unshakable faith in God. This reminds me of the story of the Ten Commandments. When strife struck, the people bemoaned their lack of faith and trust in God. When the odds swayed in their favor, they said that God had chosen to help them. A quote that proves this is “Thus it pleased God to vanquish their enemies, and give them deliverance…” (Bradford, 137). Another piece of evidence from the text is “…yet by God’s mercy they recovered themselves, and having the flood with them, struck into the harbor.” (Bradford, 137). More proof of this is “…it pleased God that he caught hold of the top sail halyards, which hang overboard and ran out at length… he lived many years after, and became a profitable member both in church and commonwealth” (Bradford,