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Short essays about history of thanksgiving
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Short essays about history of thanksgiving
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Thanksgiving is one of the most cherished holidays in America. It is a time for family and a time for appreciation. From the time we start school we are taught about the story of the first Thanksgiving. In short we are taught that English men and women came from their homeland to America in hopes of a better life. We now call these men and women pilgrims. While in America the pilgrims meet what are now called Native Americans and they exchange food ideas and create a feast together. In "Deconstructing the Myths of the "First Thanksgiving" by Judy Dow (Abenaki) and Beverly Slapin the story that were all taught since grade school is challenged.
The article debunks 10 different common “myths” about Thanksgiving. These myths include: when the
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first Thanksgiving occurred, who invited who to the first Thanksgiving, and what they eat during the feast. Before reading this article I had no idea there were so many misleading myths surrounding this cherished holiday. There were three myths that I believed in, before reading this article, that stood out to me. The first myth: Colonists came seeking freedom of religion in a new land. The colonist did come seeking religious freedom from their homeland, however, that was not the only was not their only reason. “By 1620, hundreds of Native people had already been to England and back, most as captives; so the Plimoth colonists knew full well that they land they were settling on was inhabited” (Deconstructing Myths of the First Thanksgiving). Every history given to any grade school student paints the picture that the colonist just happen to stumble across the New World with the no knowledge of anyone else living there but that is false. The second myth: The Pilgrims in the Indians to the first Thanksgiving. According to the article and other sources we still do not know when the actual first Thanksgiving was, seeing as how indigenous people have been celebrating and been thankful for good harvest for centuries. Also this myth cannot be true due to the oral accounts from the Wamponoag people. When the Native people nearby first heard the gunshots of the hunting colonists, they thought that the colonists were preparing for war and that Massasoit needed to be informed. When Massasoit showed up with 90 men and no women or children, it can be assumed that he was being cautious. When he saw there was a party going on, his men then went out and brought back five deer and lots of turkeys (Deconstructing Myths of the First Thanksgiving). This account implies that the Native people believed the colonist were there to take their land and when they saw that at the moment they were not and they were having a celebration they just joined in. The third myth: At the “First Thanksgiving” the pilgrims and Native Americans ate the so called “American” foods that we eat today such as pie and popcorn, as well as the Thanksgiving food that we eat every year like turkey and cranberry sauce.
The foods that we think were served at the feast were barely available/ accessible during the time of the “First Thanksgiving” (Deconstructing Myths of the First Thanksgiving). In addition to learning the truth about these myths, I was also shocked at the big role plants played in the “First Thanksgiving”. There were no convenient grocery stores during that time. All food had to be either grown or hunted. The amazing harvest (the growing plants) was the whole reason the pilgrims even thought about having a celebration that would later be called thanksgiving. They grew plants such as pumpkin and corn. Similar to now plants were thought of as a necessary source of nutrients. During that time, without plants or nay type of good harvest, it would have been very possible to starve to death. I am so shocked that almost everything that I thought about Thanksgiving was a lie and the wort part is that the truth is out there however America will continue to write their version of the “First Thanksgiving” in the history books to try to preserve some sort of integrity that is already
lost.
Nathaniel Philbrick opens his book by drawing a direct line from the early Pilgrim’s arrival on Plymouth rock to the building of America. He goes on to say, “Instead of the story we already know, it becomes the story we need to know.” Many of us growing up, myself included romanticize about the pilgrims in the light of the first Thanksgiving and we think about the Indians sitting down with the Pilgrims to take part of the Thanksgiving meal. Next, we believe the myth that everyone lived happily ever after.
When spring came Squanto helped the pilgrims by teaching them how to plant corn, how to find berries and nuts and how to catch fish. In 1921 the pilgrims and Wampanoag celebrated the first thanksgiving as part of their religion, and to celebrate their first successful harvest. George Washington once said, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty god, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits and humbly to implore his protection and favor…” This relates to Squanto helping the Pilgrims with the phrase, “To be grateful for his benefits,” all the benefits Squanto brought changed the fate of the
With the early settlers food was largely the food that they could cultivate and grow for themselves in this new environment. Due to many of the Pilgrims not being trained in the ways of hunting and fishing, this caused their food supply primarily consisted of vegetables. A funny fact was that the english settlers not only had little knowledge on how to fish but didn 't have the correct sized fish hooks, and with larger hooks the fish could see them and not “fall for the bait”. Due to harsh winters, they needed to stockpile as much as they could, since settlers couldn 't rely on consistent imports from England. Once they began to form actual settlements, the colonist began to adopt English traditions, where they imported many foods, spirits, wine and tea. As the
Nathaniel Philbrick tells the story of the Pilgrims, beginning with them breaking away from the Church of England, emigrating to Holland, and eventually to America on the Mayflower. He talks about the relationship they had with the "Strangers" or nonbelievers that accompanied them on their adventure. He tells stories about disease, death, deception, and depression. I had never thought about it, but you know some of those people had to be suffering from depression. He tells of joys but mostly of hardships and as he describes some of the first meetings with the Native Americans. His description of the first Thanksgiving is not the same as the pictures I have seen all of my life.
As children growing up, they are taught that Thanksgiving is this wonderful celebration of how the Indians and the colonists came together in peace and harmony to share a meal. This gives the impression that everything was all ease and simple. Educators teach that Columbus and those in the beginning were great people just seeking an adventure and new land. There is some truth to these stories, however they fail to teach young ones about the horrible ways that the Indians were treated. “The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation of the Indies” by Bartolome De Las Casas and “The Relation of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca” by Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca shine a whole new light on this subject. Las Casas and de Vaca used their writings
The first Thanksgiving was a celebration of coming together between Native Americans and the English settlers in the fall of 1621 in Plymouth Colony. Before this first Thanksgiving, the settlers were preparing for the harsh coming winter by gathering food and supplies. With the help of Squanto, a Wampanoag Indian who knew English, the settlers to grow corn and use fish to fertilize the soil for better harvest. Squanto helped the Colonists learn how to fish. This brought the Wampanoag Indians closer to the English settlers. They began to work together, soon the Native Americans offered to help hunt for and with the English settlers. The leader of the Wampanoag, Massasoit and 90 of his mencame for the first Thanksgiving. For three days, the English and the native men, women and children celebrated together playing games, singing songs, dancing and feasting on their harvest. Their meal consisted of corn, shellfish and other roasted meat like duck, goose and venison. This marked the historic and first Thanksgiving holiday of the history of our nation.
When the great holiday of Thanksgiving comes to mind, most people think of becoming total gluttons and gorging themselves with a seemingly unending amount of food. Others might think of the time spent with family and friends. The whole basis of the holiday is family togetherness, fellowship, and thankfulness for blessings received during the previous year.
This is a disgrace! To all the turkey’s at Thanksgiving! forty-five million turkey’s are cooked a year. Not only are those awful humans eating us, now they are entrapping us in disgusting cages and making us eat only corn and soybeans. That’s not even the worst part, they put something in our food called vitamins and minerals. I heard yesterday from keith, my turkey friend, that they talk about how they feed turkeys healthy things so that the people who buy the turkeys won’t get sick or something like that. They also say we taste different at different ages.
Food is an important part of Thanksgiving. One similarity I have with people is that we eat green beans and mashed potatoes. Next, I share having corn and stuffing with a little bit of peers. Lastly, I share having cranberry sauce and mac and cheese with a couple of my classmates.
Settling into the “New World” was a burden on not only the Pilgrims, but on the adapting Natives as well. In “The Mayflower and the Pilgrims’ New World,” Nathaniel Philbrick writes about much of the Pilgrims history arguing that the basic story does not illustrate the complexity of the relationship between the Native Americans and the Pilgrims. Although, the Pilgrims struggled in the beginning, much of the burden was lifted by the help of the Natives. However, the breaking of the alliance, that aided the Pilgrims in their first years, causes me to point fingers towards the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims’ disrespectful, threatening, and harsh manner puts them to blame for the break down on the good relations between the Natives and the Pilgrims.
The table can be filled with many different types of foods, and it differs from family to family. However, there are some foods that are seen at almost every Thanksgiving table. First off, the turkey, it is the most important part of the celebration for most families in the United States. There are multiple reasons to why the turkey has become such a big part of Thanksgiving. For example, a colonist named William Bradford wrote in his journals that colonists hunted wild turkeys during autumn of 1621, which is named as the first Thanksgiving. Another reason to why the turkey is an important part of the holiday is because the birds are big and can feed a lot of people compared to other birds such as chickens (Trex, 2008). Although the turkey is the most important food on the table for most families, it is common for most families to also serve some sort of sweet potatoes, for example, a sweet potato casserole with marshmallows. As Thanksgiving is a feast holiday a dessert is usually also served, one of the most common desserts on Thanksgiving is a pumpkin pie. The pumpkin has been around for hundreds of years, and always been a part of thanksgiving, however, it is more likely that the pumpkin was served after being baked or stewed rather than a pie on the first years when Thanksgiving were celebrated (Trex, 2008). As it is a feast holiday the table has many more types of foods, but it varies from family to family what is put onto the table, however, the turkey, sweet potatoes, and the pumpkin pie is almost always found at every Thanksgiving
On September 6, 1620, 102 men, women and children from England boarded a small cargo boat called the Mayflower and set sail for the New World. The passengers left their homes in England in search of religious freedom from the King of England. Today they are known as "pilgrims."
It all started when a crew of one hundred two people abandoned their homeland in search for freedom. After a long and hazardous journey, the pilgrims finally made it to land. Before landing the heads of the families made a compact to secure the peace between them. Today, the compact is known as “The Mayflower Compact.” They took their first step on a vast unknown land hoping to build a greater future. Not everything went as the pilgrims thought it would go, more than half the settlers died from a contagious disease that swept through the new colony. They were unfamiliar with the agriculture; so they could not harvest healthy vegetation. Their food supply ran low. Now, all they had left was hope, hope to survive, to live a free life, and spread the gospel of kingdom of Christ. To survive, they had to make a peace treaty with local Native Americans. The Native Americans showed the pilgrims how to plant vegetation and survive in the wilderness, but in return the Native Americans wanted their weapons. The pilgrims were not soldiers, but to survive they had to fight. After few years later more houses were built and many Europeans followed in the pilgrims’ footsteps to New England. As the New World s...
Many school children celebrate a cliché Thanksgiving tradition in class where they play Indians and Pilgrims, and some children engage in the play of Cowboys vs. Indians. It is known that some died when colonization occurred, that some fought the United States government, and that they can be boiled down to just another school mascot. This is what many people understand of the original inhabitants of America. Historical knowledge of these people has been shallow and stereotyped. The past 150 years has given birth to a literate people now able to record their past, present, and future. Native American literature, as it evolves, defines the Native American culture and its status in the world, as an evolving people, more so than any historical account can.
Thanksgiving is a time when people can create their own customs and traditions because everyone is thankful for different things. The cornucopia has become a traditional symbol of this holiday because it is commonly shown filled with grain, vegetables and fruit, the staple food that settlers would give thanks for.