The
True Story of Thanksgiving (A special thanks to
Politics Alabama)
Thanksgiving is here once again, and with it come visions of children's plays
with Indians and Pilgrims, complete with little Pilgrim hats made of
construction paper. The story told in these plays and learned by public school
students at every grade level is a simple one.
The Pilgrims arrived at
Plymouth Rock late in 1620. The first winter was harsh, but the colonists worked
hard and applied themselves industriously to their own survival. They had help
from the local Indian tribes, who helped them learn how to survive. The result
was a plentiful harvest in fall 1621, not to mention the first celebration of
Thanksgiving.
It's a wonderful story. There's only one problem with it:
It isn't true. Oh, it does contain elements of truth. For example, the first
winter was harsh, and the local Indian tribes did help the colonists learn how
to survive, what to plant and how to prepare the food. But the 1621 harvest was
not bountiful. In fact, famine haunted the fledgling colony.
When the colonists first landed, they signed something called
the Mayflower Compact. Most of us have heard this document praised as an early
social contract helping different people to live together. What most of us never
learned was that it was also an experiment in socialism.
The Mayflower
Compact required that "all profits and benefits that are got by trade,
working, fishing or any other means" were placed in the common stock of the
colony. Further, it required that "all such persons as are of this colony are
to have their meat, drink, apparel and all provisions out of this common
stock." People were required to put into the common stock everything they
could, and take out only what they needed.
William Bradford, governor of
the colony at the time, wrote the "History of Plymouth Plantation." In
it, he wrote 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." Since "the strong, or man of
parts, had no more division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak,"
the strong men simply refused to work, and the amount of food produced was never
adequate.
In fact, the colony went hungry for years as strong men refused
to work hard, and theft of crops still in the ground ran rampant. Bradford wrote
that the colony was riddled with "corruption and discontent." The crops
were small because "much was stolen both by night and day, before it became
scarce eatable."
The harvests of 1621 and 1622 were adequate enough
so that "all had their hungry bellies filled," but that did not last.
Deaths from malnutrition continued into the next year.
But in 1623,
something changed. Bradford reported, "Instead of famine now God gave them
plenty, and the face of things was changed to the rejoicing of the hearts of
many, for which they blessed God." By 1624, the colony was producing so much
food that it began exporting corn.
What caused this change?
After
the poor harvest of 1622, the colony brainstormed for a way to raise more corn
and obtain a better crop. The solution, like the Thanksgiving story told today,
was simple. In 1623, Bradford "gave each household a parcel of land and told
them they could keep what they produced, or trade it away as they saw
fit."
The socialistic experiment that had failed them was abandoned
and replaced with capitalism. That turned the colonists away from failure and
forward into success and growth. And this move away from socialism, along with
the resulting prosperity, is what we truly celebrate today. It is easy to see
why I call Thanksgiving the first Libertarian holiday.
Thanksgiving, far
from being the simple and uninspiring story of a group of people learning how to
farm, is actually a celebration of what has made America itself great. It is the
story of people working together by working for themselves first, and in so
doing, improving the standard of living for everyone. These are the American
ideas we hold dear.
As you sit down to your table laden with turkey,
dressing and pumpkin pie, remember the true story of Thanksgiving, and what it
means to all.
