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Thanksgiving: Why It Is America’s Foundational Holiday
Thanksgiving is really the holiday that made the other American holidays possible. Were it not for the Pilgrims having courage, absolute faith in their cause and calling, and the willingness to sacrifice and risk everything, they never would have attempted to cross a vast ocean on the 94-foot Mayflower, a ship of questionable seaworthiness.
The Pilgrims’ fourth major achievement was the rejection of socialism and the adoption of private enterprise.
The Thanksgiving holiday, which commemorates one part of the Pilgrim story, remains the favorite holiday for many Americans. And for good reasons, beyond enjoying a feast. With our country passing through troubled times, it is worth revisiting the Pilgrim’s five significant achievements, which created the seminal story of America, and reveals remarkable insight into who we are and the qualities of character we need to overcome our present challenges.
First, of the many groups of settlers who came to America, only the Pilgrims were singularly motivated by a spiritual quest for religious freedom — one that had its origin with the Protestant Reformation a century before. William Bradford, the long-serving governor of Plymouth Colony and author of Of Plymouth Plantation (written between 1630–1651), repeatedly framed the Pilgrims’ voyage and settlement in explicitly biblical terms, drawing direct parallels to the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land.
Thus, both American Christians and Jews find profound meaning in the Pilgrim’s Thanksgiving story.
After a harrowing passage across the Atlantic — one that included wild pitching and broadside batterings by gale force winds and ferocious seas that caused the splitting of the ship’s main beam — the Mayflower was blown off course from arriving at the territory assigned by the London-based sponsoring Virginia Company — a territory that is now northern New Jersey. Making landfall on the barren sands of Cape Cod, the Pilgrims knew not where they were nor how to proceed. So, they beseeched the Almighty for help to find more suitable land with fresh water and fertile soil to establish a new and independent settlement.
Now, after a frightening voyage and facing hunger from spoiled and depleted provisions and anxious about settling outside the purview of Virginia Company charter territory, the secular Mayflower passengers were restless and insolent. And this is when the Pilgrims accomplished their second major achievement that would shape the future of America.
Pilgrim leaders John Carver, William Bradford, and William Brewster recognized that Mayflower passengers, diverse as they were, needed to maintain unity to survive in a potentially inhospitable environment. So, off the Cape Cod coast they drafted a governing agreement that would be acceptable to both their Christian brethren and the secular crew members and merchant adventurers — who made up about half the 102 people aboard the Mayflower. That governing document, known as the Mayflower Compact, provided for peace, security, equality, and democratic decision-making for everyone in their anticipated settlement.
With every man aboard signing the Mayflower Compact the Pilgrims established the foundation for democratic self-government based on the will of people for the first time. And so it was that the Mayflower Compact laid the cornerstone of the U.S. Constitution, which would be drafted and adopted some 170 years later.
Although the Pilgrims all survived the squalid and cramped ship quarters during the dangerous crossing of a vast ocean, their fate changed once they found suitable land for settlement, which they called “New Plymouth,” in December of 1620. The first winter was frigid and devastating, with illness afflicting most and over half the Pilgrims dying, including four entire families. But it could have been worse.
The fate of the Pilgrim colonists would surely have been more difficult had they not settled where they did, adjacent to friendly natives, the Pokanoket Indians, who were part of the Wampanoag tribe, led by chief Massasoit. And it seems providential that there were two Indians who could speak English from prior interaction with the British — Squanto and Samoset — without whom perhaps none would have survived. Squanto and his fellow native tribesmen would teach the Pilgrims survival skills, showing them how to hunt, fish and plant various crops, such as corn, squash, and varieties of beans — which were unknown to the Englishmen.
The Pilgrims’ third major achievement was the Pilgrim-Wampanoag Peace Treaty, made possible by Squanto who played a critical role as translator in what was the successful negotiation and maintenance of the peace. The treaty was signed on April 1, 1621, by Massasoit and leaders of the Plymouth colony. That treaty would last more than 50 years — longer than any other peace treaties between subsequent colonists and Indian tribes that inhabited other territories that would later become part of the United States.
Despite learning from the native Indians how to plant, cultivate, and harvest new crops in their first year, the Pilgrims complied with their sponsoring Virginia Company charter that called for settlement farmland to be owned and worked communally and for harvests to be equally shared. This socialist common property approach created disincentives to work. William Bradford recorded in his memoirs that while “slackers showed up late for work … everybody was happy to claim their equal share … and production only shrank.”
Although no one is certain of the exact date of the first Thanksgiving, we know it was a Pilgrim initiative, celebrated in November 1621 to give thanks to God for their survival — having lost so many during that first winter in Plymouth, and for the first harvest — meager though it was. When Massasoit was invited to join the Pilgrims, it was assumed he would not bring more guests than the 50-odd Mayflower survivor hosts. Massasoit arrived with twice that number, well-stocked with food, fowl, and game of all kinds — including five deer and of course, turkeys. There was more than enough for everyone, enabling the first Thanksgiving celebration to last three days, punctuated by Indian song, games and dance, Pilgrim prayers and even a military parade by Myles Standish.
The Pilgrims’ fourth major achievement was the rejection of socialism and the adoption of private enterprise. After the meager Thanksgiving harvest, the second season of collective farming and distribution proved equally disappointing. Governor Bradford had seen enough, recording that the system “was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.” So, before the 1623 season he scrapped socialist farming and replaced it with private ownership of land for each of the families. As a result of becoming responsible for their own welfare and gaining freedom to choose what to grow for consumption or trade, the Pilgrims’ productivity surged.
The fifth factor that distinguished the Pilgrims was their model relational behavior. While tolerance enabled them to keep relative harmony within their diverse community, they also looked outwardly to serve and help others. In March of 1623, it came to be known that Massasoit was on the brink of death from an unknown illness. Senior Pilgrim elder Edward Winslow immediately set out on foot for some forty miles to administer medicinal broth, natural herbs, and prayers to Massasoit. Astonishingly, upon making a full recovery within three days, Massasoit remarked, “Now I see the English are my friends and love me; and whilst I live, I will never forget this kindness they have showed me.”
In summary, the Pilgrims’ five achievements and the qualities of character that made them exemplary are needed more now than ever. In addition to gratitude, a contemporary Thanksgiving makeover might include: rekindling a quest for adventure; developing the faith to hold on to a vision of a “promised land” no matter what; mustering the courage to go against the crowd and defend the truth; being willing to endure hardship and defer immediate gratification; revitalizing respect for and tolerance of people of different beliefs; and renewing the predisposition to extend appreciation, love and assistance at every appropriate opportunity.
READ MORE from Scott S. Powell:
Martin Luther King Jr.: More Relevant Than Ever
Far More Than a Culture War Rages in America
How the U.S. Can Solve the Current Trade Tariff Impasse With China
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