Since the politically correct and historically unintelligent textbooks recommended by the National Education Association for our public schools have rewritten our history to say the Pilgrims declared the first Thanksgiving Day to thank the Indians for their help, a review of what actually happened nearly four hundred years ago to set the record straight is in order.
In 1609 a group of religious dissenters led by John Robinson, left England for Holland looking for religious freedom. There in the town of Leyden they established what would become the first modern Baptist church. After a decade away from home, however, they saw their children speaking Dutch over English and beginning to follow some of the more promiscuous practices of their hosts. The congregation removed back to England with a plan to continue their search for religious freedom in the New World.
Their venture was financed by a group calling themselves the Merchant Adventurers. They agreed to provide supplies and passage in exchange for seven years of labor. On September 6, 1620, the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England, with 110 people on board, 102 passengers and eight crew, which included 44 Pilgrims, who called themselves the "Saints," and 66 others whom the Pilgrims called the "Strangers." The voyage lasted 65 days across the cold and damp North Atlantic. One of the ships crew, a particularly vulgar man who taunted the Saints for their faith, was taken ill suddenly and died, the only casualty of the trip.
Originally bound for the Hudson River, they sighted Cape Cod on November 10, and it being late in the year they decided to take safe harbor in Massachusetts Bay at a location they called Plymouth. The following day they composed and signed the Mayflower Compact, the first governing document of the Plymouth Colony. Both the Saints and the Strangers agreed to the document and 41 men signed it.
The Compact read in part: Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid. . . .
Their first winter in the New World was very harsh and over half of their number died. Then, on March 16, 1621, an Abnaki Indian named Samoset walked into the settlement and greeted them in English, "Welcome." Samoset introduced them to another Indian named Squanto, who had been to England and Spain as a captive of earlier explorers and spoke clear English. Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to tap maple trees for sap, plant Indian corn and other crops, and which plants were poisonous or medicinal. Of Squanto, Governor William Bradford said that he was "a special instrument sent of God for good."
In the autumn of 1621 the Pilgrims had a successful harvest. They had forged their home in the wilderness, were prepared for the winter, and they were at peace with the Indians. A treaty had been signed with Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag tribe, a treaty which was never broken. Edward Winslow, who would later become the governor, declared, "by the goodness of God, we are far from want."In December 1621, Governor Bradford proclaimed a three-day thanksgiving celebration to thank God, and invited Massasoit and his tribe to join in. Massasoit and 90 "relatives" came to the feast.
In 1623 a lengthy drought threatened the entire harvest. Bradford called for a day of prayer and fasting on June 29. They had hardly finished praying when, to the amazement of all, Indians included, clouds began to form and a gentle rain fell and revived the crops. The colony was saved, but it also brought "no small comfort and rejoicing" to the Indians according to Bradford.
Another Thanksgiving feast was declared to which Bradford made an official proclamation: Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord {1623] and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.
Godly people are gracious people and no doubt the Pilgrims were beholding to Squanto for all he taught them, but since their purpose in coming to the New World was to advance the Christian faith, it is not hard to figure out Who they meant to thank when they went to church on Thanksgiving Day. It is also easy to see that God had used the circumstances to introduce the Christian faith to the Indians.
After his election as the first president of the United States, George Washington, in response to a request by both Houses of Congress, declared November 26, 1789, to be a day of thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.
Other national Thanksgiving proclamations were made occasionally (Washington again in 1795, Adams in 1799, Madison in 1814 and 1815), but most observances were at the State level. It wasn't until 1863, that Abraham Lincoln, after the Battle of Gettysburg, issued a proclamation establishing a national Thanksgiving Day to be observed on the last Thursday of November.
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.... No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, Who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.... I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
Thanksgiving has been celebrated every year since as a day to thank God for His bountiful blessings upon our great land. At a time when we have a thankless president who only dwells on what he considers the faults of America, let us remember that no nation at any time in history has been so blessed, or done so much good for the world in general as the United States of America has done. And let us never forget that it is the Christian God of the Pilgrims and our Founding Fathers, and no other god, that has made us who we are. It seems particularly poignant this year as Thanksgiving approaches again, that we remember not only the God that made us a great nation, but the simple fact that America is the greatest nation on earth.
