Farmer in Chehalis, Washington wrote:
102 people arrived on the Mayflower arrived in November 1620, fleeing religious persecution. The ground was already frozen and was too late to plant crops, and leaving in haste they could not bring fishing poles. 49 of them died of starvation the first winter. They allied with the local natives and had a plentiful harvest by the next fall. The dyestat author and anyone offended by the Thanksgiving story can go to hell. Imagine being offended by a holiday about gratitude.
Yeah, I remember learning that in grade school. The thing is, it never happened, and doesn’t make sense when you think about it at all. They couldn’t feed a small group in a land of plenty, where wild game, fish, clams, eels, etc were plentiful? The Atlantic salmon runs alone could have sustained them. (And you don’t need “fishing poles,” haha. Come on, now, use your head).
The first Thanksgiving was a celebration of a returning band of colonial hunters who killed 700 Pequot indians; men, women, and children. It’s a little harder to sell that to the masses as a reason to eat dry turkey and gelatinous cranberry sauce, however. We also like to leave out they were fleeing persecution because they wanted to pursue their own extreme religion which allowed them to persecute those that didn’t share their beliefs.
It’s a great day to think about gratefulness for friends, family, and blessings, however.