Thanksgiving is such a lovely holiday that I like to make it last as long as possible. The Pilgrims started the American tradition of Thanksgiving, and since they did not have to contend with Black Friday, they celebrated Thanksgiving for three whole days.
Here in the Chesapeake, John Smith has come to symbolize the founding of America, but around Thanksgiving, I think it is worthwhile to take a few moments to read Governor William Bradford’s account of the Pilgrims’ arrival at Cape Cod in November 1620:
“But here I cannot but stay and make a pause, and stand half amazed at this poor people’s present condition; and so I think will the reader, too, when he well considers the same. Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before in their preparation (as may be remembered by that which went before), they had now no friends to welcome them nor inns to entertain or refresh their weatherbeaten bodies; no houses or much less town to repair to, to seek for succour. It is recorded in Scripture 12 as a mercy to the Apostle and his shipwrecked company, that the barbarians showed them no small kindness in refreshing them, but these savage barbarians, when they met with them (as after will appear) were readier to fill their sides full of arrows than otherwise. And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject-to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search an unknown coast. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, fall of wild beasts and wild men—and what multitudes there might be of them they knew not. Neither could they, as it were, go up to the top of Pisgah to view from this wilderness a more goodly country to feed their hopes; for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to the heavens) they could have little solace or content in respect of any outward objects. For summer being done, all things stand upon them with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hue. If they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean which they had passed and was now as a main bar and gulf to separate them from all the civil parts of the world….
What could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and His grace? May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: “Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity.” “Let them therefore praise the Lord, because He is good: and His mercies endure forever.” “Yea, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, shew how He hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord His loving kindness and His wonderful works before the sons of men.”
Less than a year later, about half of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower, as well as half of the 30-member crew, were dead, but with considerable help from Squanto and other Patuxet Indians, the surviving Pilgrims reaped a successful harvest. Fifty-three Pilgrims and ninety Indians celebrated with a Thanksgiving feast.
We are almost four hundred years removed from that first Thanksgiving. Pilgrims and other Puritans are often regarded as Dead White Men or as religious fanatics who have little place in our multicultural nation’s history. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The men, women, and children who celebrated their harvest after such a terrible year had undaunted courage, belief in the future, and an almost limitless capacity for hard work. We should be amazed, as William Bradford was, and thankful that of all people, these Pilgrims crossed the vast and furious ocean and built a civilization in the wilderness.
Barbara Snyder says
Thank you!
Fletcher R. Hall says
Spot on!
Well said.
Ashton says
Soo true. Don’t we all soon forget!!