Thanksgiving Thanks and Thoughts

Nov 22

***The First Thanksgiving*** by JLG Ferris, 1932 CE, Library of Congress
The term “First Thanksgiving” refers to the account of the 1621 CE event as given by the Plymouth Colony’s chroniclers William Bradford (l. 1590-1657 CE) and Edward Winslow (l. 1595-1655 CE) in Mourt’s Relation.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Not necessarily in that order, but that’s how they’re listed on the calendar, so that’s how I’m going to write them. Today’s note is about Thanksgiving; A future note will be about Indigenous People’s Month.

Thanksgiving is a collection of myths

Thanksgiving, to me, has always been about people traveling long distances to be with their family and friends, enjoying a large meal together, and reflecting on what has gone right in our worlds. I never bought into the “pilgrims-and-Native-American-bounty-supper” myth. It just never seemed realistic. I’m sure there were some intercultural supper parties, but it just seemed like they had an awful lot going on to throw a big party every year—in early winter!

As it turns out, there are many other myths about Thanksgiving, too.

“The reason that we have so many myths associated with Thanksgiving is that it is an invented tradition. It doesn’t originate in any one event. It is based on the New England puritan Thanksgiving, which is a religious Thanksgiving, and the traditional harvest celebrations of England and New England and maybe other ideas like commemorating the pilgrims. All of these have been gathered together and transformed into something different from the original parts.”
–James W. Baker, Senior Historian at Plimoth Plantation.

My suspicions seem to check out. Thanksgiving is largely a feel-good story that hasn’t aged well. Mostly, I am thankful that the Wampanoag didn’t massacre all of the Mayflower pilgrims. I am sure there were Wampanoag people saying “I told you we should have stopped it at that stupid rock,” but it probably wouldn’t have mattered. A lot of boats came across the Atlantic and they carried a lot of people. Some came on their own accord.

Thanksgiving as an Abolitionist holiday?

Looking at Thanksgiving through the places I live is an interesting lens. Torrington, CT, is the birthplace of John Brown, the abolitionist, egalitarian, and loyal American. Brown’s grandfather fought in the American Revolution, like my ancestors, and his earlier relatives arrived in America aboard the Mayflower, as did a couple of mine.

Fun Fact: I’ve recently met two African American people whose ancestors were free Black men who fought in the Revolution; one was also an ancestor of Lewis Sheridan Leary, a Harper’s Ferry Raider. I like to pretend that all our guys shared a campfire, some hard tack, and harder cider together, maybe with a fiddle involved, but I know it is almost impossible.

John Brown historian Dr. Louis A DeCaro Jr. traces the Thanksgiving path through American history in one of his podcast episodes, pointing out that Thanksgiving probably began as a Protestant ritual born from English tradition. He also points out that it was rarely even celebrated in the antebellum period because many Southerners considered it a Yankee abolitionist holiday. They also considered it to be a Yankee excuse for heavy drinking, but speaking as someone from New England, I can assure you that Yankees do not need excuses for heavy drinking. Colonists pretty much started and ended every day with hard cider.

It was declared an actual National holiday by President Lincoln in 1863 and moved to the third Thursday of November by President Roosevelt in 1939 at the request of the National Retail Dry Goods Association.

Perhaps it was because Lincoln made it a holiday, perhaps because it was a New England fairy tale, or perhaps because it seemed to promote cultural tolerance and equality; for whatever reason, Southerners did not like, trust, or embrace Thanksgiving. DeCaro notes that AFTER the Civil War, AFTER Reconstruction, and AFTER the Tilden Hayes Compromise—in other words, once America was united in white supremacy again—the South began celebrating Thanksgiving.

As an ancestor of a couple of Mayflower passengers, I am pleased that the holiday most associated with We Pilgrims was considered by White supremacists to be an abolitionist holiday. It is a conspiracy theory I can get behind.

History is full of difficult truths

In reading about the indigenous people who lived in the town where my family lives (Northport, Maine), I learned that the Penobscot Nation, part of the Wabanaki Confederacy—the People of the Dawn—fought alongside the colonists in the Revolutionary War because they were still pissed at the British over the French and Indian War. The British and French brought their violent disputes from Europe to America and enlisted local warriors to join them. The British partnered with the Mohawk Nation to eradicate French colonizers and the Wabanaki Confederacy, who supported them. I get the sense that there may have been previous friction between the Iroquois Confederacy and the Wabanaki Confederacy, as the Mowhawk Nation are often referred to as (paraphrasing) ‘protectors on the edge of the Iroquois against attack from the east.’ Maybe this is where the Boston/New York rivalry began.

While my people on the Mayflower were indentured servants, they were white and able to buy their freedom. They were also colonizing someone else’s land and assuming they had every right in the world to do so because—wait for it—many colonizers were white supremacists.

A heartbreak and hope timeline

I am disgusted and ashamed that white people worked so hard for centuries to murder indigenous people systematically, but I am proud that my ancestors fought in the American Revolution alongside Penobscot Americans, African Americans, and John Brown’s grandfather, Cap. John Brown. While we were (probably) not all in the same units, we were brothers in arms, fighting for our best chance at autonomy, so it is shameful that “All men are created equal” excluded Indigenous people and discounted Black people and women by 40 and 100 percent, respectively.

I’m deeply disappointed and frustrated in America’s incessant willingness to appease white supremacy—in the aforementioned 3/5 compromise to the constitution, in the aftermath of the Civil War, in the Tilden Hayes “Compromise of 1877,” and pretty much at every step along the way where compassionate people advocated for equality, and “pragmatic” (white) politicians forged a “compromise,” instead of telling racists to pound sand.

I am proud of America’s steady progress and steady resistance to white supremacy, and disgusted with the Nazi marches and blatant white supremacy of the last seven years. We should have evolved intellectually by now away from that stupidity.

I am proud of The Penobscot Nation for persevering against all odds and Torrington’s Brown Family, who walked the talk of abolition and equality early, often, and without hesitation.

In complicated histories such as—well, pretty much everyone’s, we can take solace in our shared experiences and shared eye-poking of White supremacists. The intention of the Great American Experiment was to strive toward a MORE PERFECT Union; it was not to establish perfection right out of the gate. In order to grow as a people, we need to embrace a wider and deeper understanding of our neighbors.

At the John Brown Project, we strive to promote equality, fairness, and facts using art, culture, journalism, storytelling, comedy, and truth. We are a loose affiliation of artists, journalists, historians, and policy wonks who partner with various nonprofits to produce culturally significant artistic and informational content. We believe that diversity is critical to prosperity.

We are stronger, smarter, more interesting, better-looking, and funnier together.

#Hokahey
#happyindigenouspeoplesday
#happythanksgiving
#abolition
#Columbuswaswrong
#peoplearepeople