Mayflower Myths and interesting facts about Thanksgiving Day

This blog is published not far from Plymouth, MA where the Pilgrims landed in November 1620. There are many items about the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving Day which are misunderstood or have been muddled through-out history. When the Pilgrims made their first landfall on outer Cape Cod, the first Indians they encountered were the Nausets. The Nausets were not peaceful Indians and were very unhappy to see the Pilgrims as the only other Europeans they had encountered had taken men as slaves. That first encounter pushed the Pilgrims to go on to Plymouth instead.

When they arrived at Plymouth, they found signs of settlements, but no Indians. The winter was upon them and they struggled to make shelter and survive. Many were sick from the voyage and many died that first cold winter. In the Spring, they were barely hanging on when they greeted by an Indian named Samoset. He spoke english and that shocked the Pilgrims. Samoset was friendly which delighted the Pilgrims as they thought they would have to fight all Indians.

Samoset had spent time on the Maine coast and had learned english from the European fishermen who he encountered there. Samoset was the last surviving member of his tribe who had lived in the area where the Pilgrims landed. There had been a plague that had come along in the years between 1616 -1619 that had killed all the other members of his tribe and he was tasked with mourning for them as he alone survived by being away at that time.

Samoset took pity on the Pilgrims as they were pathetically sick and malnourished. He helped them and showed them what to eat, how to grow crops and where they could find food. He also brought them to meet Massasoit, the Chief of all the tribes in the area that comprised present day SE Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Massasoit heard from Samoset that the Pilgrims were good people and Massasoit asked them their intentions. They asked to be able to stay in Plymouth and maintain a settlement.

Massasoit told them that as far as he was concerned, the land in Plymouth was cursed. Everyone there had died, and his people viewed the land as a bad place. If the Pilgrims wanted that land, they were welcome to it. This occurrence of events paved the way to the first permanent settlement of a colony in America.

Here are a few other items you might not know one of which is there is no record of the Pilgrims eating turkey. There were turkeys in the woods here but likely they enjoyed a meal of venison as there were many deer here too. The Pilgrims enjoyed a first harvest after help from Samoset and other Native Americans.

Enjoy this Thanksgiving Day with family & friends. I hope that all give thanks for what you have been given and that all enjoy a good meal today in remembrance of the Pilgrims and their Wampanoag friends.

Mayflower Myths - From History.com

The Mayflower brought the group of English settlers now known as the Pilgrims to North America. Leaving England in the fall of 1620, the Pilgrims were attempting to land near the mouth of the Hudson River, but instead ended up in Cape Cod Bay. Plymouth, the colony established there by the Pilgrims in 1621, became the first permanent European settlement in New England. The story of the Pilgrims and their harvest feast has since become one of best-known in American history, but you may not know it as well as you think. Discover the facts behind these well-known Thanksgiving myths!

Myth: The first Thanksgiving was in 1621 and the pilgrims celebrated it every year thereafter.
Fact: The first feast wasn't repeated, so it wasn't the beginning of a tradition. In fact, the colonists didn't even call the day Thanksgiving. To them, a thanksgiving was a religious holiday in which they would go to church and thank God for a specific event, such as the winning of a battle. On such a religious day, the types of recreational activities that the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians participated in during the 1621 harvest feast--dancing, singing secular songs, playing games--wouldn't have been allowed. The feast was a secular celebration, so it never would have been considered a thanksgiving in the pilgrims minds.

Myth: The original Thanksgiving feast took place on the fourth Thursday of November.
Fact: The original feast in 1621 occurred sometime between September 21 and November 11. Unlike our modern holiday, it was three days long. The event was based on English harvest festivals, which traditionally occurred around the 29th of September. After that first harvest was completed by the Plymouth colonists, Gov. William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving and prayer, shared by all the colonists and neighboring Indians. In 1623 a day of fasting and prayer during a period of drought was changed to one of thanksgiving because the rain came during the prayers. Gradually the custom prevailed in New England of annually celebrating thanksgiving after the harvest.

During the American Revolution a yearly day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress. In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom, and by the middle of the 19th century many other states had done the same. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a day of thanksgiving as the last Thursday in November, which he may have correlated it with the November 21, 1621, anchoring of the Mayflower at Cape Cod. Since then, each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set the date for Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941.)

Myth: The pilgrims wore only black and white clothing. They had buckles on their hats, garments, and shoes.
Fact: Buckles did not come into fashion until later in the seventeenth century and black and white were commonly worn only on Sunday and formal occasions. Women typically dressed in red, earthy green, brown, blue, violet, and gray, while men wore clothing in white, beige, black, earthy green, and brown.

Myth: The pilgrims brought furniture with them on the Mayflower.
Fact: The only furniture that the pilgrims brought on the Mayflower was chests and boxes. They constructed wooden furniture once they settled in Plymouth.

Myth: The Mayflower was headed for Virginia, but due to a navigational mistake it ended up in Cape Cod Massachusetts.
Fact: The Pilgrims were in fact planning to settle in Virginia, but not the modern-day state of Virginia. They were part of the Virginia Company, which had the rights to most of the eastern seaboard of the U.S. The pilgrims had intended to go to the Hudson River region in New York State, which would have been considered "Northern Virginia," but they landed in Cape Cod instead. Treacherous seas prevented them from venturing further south.

The Pilgrims would have put him to work...

A Desperate Crossing....The Untold Story of the Mayflower....an overview of how tough the Pilgrims had it when they arrived in the New World

Being from a family with longstanding lineage in Massachusetts, Thanksgiving Day has always been a special day as we live in the shadow of the Plymouth Colony in SE Massachusetts.

My family's first ancestor arrived in Weymouth, MA in 1635, 15 years after the Pilgrims. While we cannot claim Mayflower heritage, I have found the compelling story of how the Pilgrims actually came to be on the shores of Plymouth was given a true overview in the History Channel's three-hour docudrama, "Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower."

I watched this great show a few years ago, with historical detail taken from the actual Pilgrim's diaries. It was a good overview of how tough the pilgrims had it and how poorly they were prepared for what awaited them in the new world.

In addition to providing an enlightening picture of the Pilgrims who made their way to the Americas, this documentary begins to unveil the true documented history of the Wampanoag Confederation and provides the viewer with a glimpse of the character and spirit of its people. It is a respectable introduction to the world of the Wampanoag of the 1600s, the diplomacy of its leader, the Grand Sachem, Massasoit (first known as Ousamequin or "Yellow Feather"), and it awakens uninformed viewers to the existence of modern Wampanoag communities.

The lives of the Separatists, later known as the Pilgrims, are brought to life. A comprehensive picture of their history, and how they came to their decision to immigrate to the Americas, is clearly and thoughtfully presented. They face persecution in England, and later endure adversity in the Netherlands. They make the decision to leave the Netherlands, where they are allowed to freely practice their religion, to traverse to the New World with the naive belief that this move will make their lives easier and eliminate unwanted outside influences on their children. As already known, the crossing was arduous, the Pilgrims were ill prepared for what they were to endure and by the time the Mayflower arrived in the New World, the Pilgrims were in bad shape.

Their first landing is on outer Cape Cod, near modern day Provincetown. They send a landing party ashore and find store of food left there by the Nausets, a war-like group of Indian who lived on Cape Cod. The Nausets have had men taken from their tribe by fishermen from Iceland and Greenland who made their way down the coast, and want no contact with the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims get into a skirmish with them and decide not to stay there. They make their way across Cape Cod Bay and arrive at present day Plymouth, known to the Indians as Patuxet.

They believe that the will of God will protect them because their motive for going to the world is noble and they have a plan to propagate the gospel to the American Natives, who they consider to be 'savages'.

It is winter and the Pilgrims try to make rudimentary structures but too many are sick and are unable to assist with the work of building structures. They manage to build some houses but have little food and many die that first terrible winter. When the Spring arrives, they are down to a little over 50 men and just 7 women.

The Pilgrims' relationship with Tisquantum, more commonly known as Squanto, is shown. Squanto was one of the last citizens of Patuxet, the place the Pilgrims inhabit and call Plymouth. The Indians who lived in Patuxet died due to a plague that swept through the area from 1616-1619. This plague happened long before the Pilgrims arrive but was instrumental in allowing the Pilgrims to establish their colony. Squanto and another brave named Samoset help the Pilgrims, who the Indians regard as sickly and in terrible shape.

There are overviews of actual meetings that the Pilgrims had with the Wampanoag Indians such as the meeting with Massasoit and the encounter with Samoset, a Wabanaki Sachem who spoke English. Samoset is thought to have been called upon by Massasoit to serve as a diplomat to pave the way for a relationship between the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims.

Squanto is accurately portrayed as interpreter for Massasoit during the scene when the Wampanoag leaders are discussing how they should proceed with the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims are in terrible shape and need the assistance of the native citizens in what is now Massachusetts. Squanto advocates for the Pilgrims, telling Massasoit that they are sick and have little knowledge of how to grow food or what will grow well in their new homeland. Massasoit makes a great offer to the Pilgrims, allowing them to have the land where the Plymouth Colony is located. He
tells them of the sickness that swept the Indians from Patuxet and that they consider that area to be bad. He further tells them that all who live there die and if they want the land in Patuxet, they are welcome to it as his people see that place as cursed.

This terrible plague provides an opportunity for the Pilgrims, making it possible for them to settle as if the Patuxet Community had not perished due to disease, the Pilgrims would have found a thriving native community and likely have been told to go elsewhere.

The focus of the documentary is the Pilgrims and their plight but the viewer is left with a romanticized view of the 'harvest feast', the legendary event. It is something that we have come to accept and like many American legends, it has changed over the years. The details of how and what occurred have varied over the years, and the version most commonly accepted is what we prefer to think about at this time of year. The Pilgrims and Indians celebrating a large harvest feast after a long growing season in 1621, which allows the Pilgrims to become settlers of the new world....It is slightly romanticized and made tidy but essentially, it was that same story, just not as neatly told through the years. If any of us was able to go back in time, we would likely find history slightly different than we have been told.

The Thanksgiving Holiday that we celebrate to day also owes it's prominence on the American landscape to Abraham Lincoln, FDR and others who instituted it as a truly American Holiday and one that marks the end of Fall and the start of the Christmas season.

Now if we can just get the retailers to stop running it down with early sales, and get the radio stations to stop playing " All Christmas Music" format starting in early November, we would all be able to enjoy Thanksgiving for the wonderfully American Holiday it is....Happy Thanksgiving!