Posted on 11/24/2011 7:33:07 AM PST by Evil Slayer
There are many myths and misconceptions surrounding the people responsible for the American Thanksgiving tradition. Contrary to popular opinion, the Pilgrims didn't wear buckles on their shoes or hats. They weren't teetotalers, either. They smoked tobacco and drank beer. And, most importantly, their first harvest festival and subsequent "thanksgivings" weren't held to thank the local natives for saving their lives.
Do you know there are public schools in America today actually teaching that? Some textbooks, in their discomfort with open discussions of Christianity, say as much. I dare suggest most parents today know little more about this history than their children.
Yet, there is no way to divorce the spiritual from the celebration of Thanksgiving at least not the way the Pilgrims envisioned it, a tradition dating back to the ancient Hebrews and their feasts of Succoth and Passover.
The Pilgrims came to America for one reason to form a separate community in which they could worship God as they saw fit. They had fled England because King James I was persecuting those who did not recognize the Church of England's absolute civil and spiritual authority.
On the two-month journey of 1620, William Bradford and the other elders wrote an extraordinary charter the Mayflower Compact. Why was it extraordinary? Because it established just and equal laws for all members of their new community believers and non-believers alike. Where did they get such revolutionary ideas? From the Bible, of course.
When the Pilgrims landed in the New World, they found a cold, rocky, barren, desolate wilderness. There were no friends to greet them, Bradford wrote. No houses to shelter them. No inns where they could refresh themselves. During the first winter, half the Pilgrims died of sickness or exposure including Bradford's wife. Though life improved for
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
you should see the whiny leftist comments at the link..priceless...
American students all know some whites killed some INDIANS whats missing is sometimes it was good reason..
And ALL american students are ignorant of a couple hundred million murdered by Communists in the last century.. and a couple BILLION made miserable..
They also are not thinking of the BILLIONS the Communists and other kinds of Socialists plan on eliminating THIS century.. Liberals just love murder.. in all its forms.. even abortion..
Yes... at the birth of America there were some LIBERALS...
Some colonists were liberal therefore murderous..
We are the inheritors of that Constitution, for which we are thankful.
The Miracle of America
from
axes and hoes to high technology;
log cabins to air-conditioned condos;
horsedrawn wagons to autos, planes, and rockets;
scarcity to abundance; &
from tyrannical government rule to individual liberty
HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN?
Most of our history books dont tell us that, in the beginning, the pilgrims established a communal economic system. Each was to produce according to his ability and contribute his production to a common storehouse from which each was to draw according to his need.
The assurance that they would be fed from the common store, regardless of their contribution to it, had a peculiarly disabling effect on the colonists. Taking property away from some and giving it to others bred discontent and retarded employment. Human nature was the same then as now, and before long, there were more consumers than there were producers, and the pilgrims were near starvation. Governor Bradford, his advisors, and the colonists agreed that in order to increase their crops, each family would be allowed to do as it pleased with whatever it produced. In other words, a free market system was established. In Governor Bradfords own words:
This had very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corne was planted than other waise would have bene by any means ye Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deall of trouble, and gave farr better contente. The women now wente willingly into ye field, and tooke their little-ons with them to set corne, which before would aledg weaknes, and inabilitie; whom to have compelled would have bene though great tiranie and oppression. . . . By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them plenty, and the face of things was changed. . . . and some of ye abler sort and more industrious had to spare, and sell to others, so as any generall wante or famine hath not been amongst them since this day . . . . (Wm. Bradford, Of Plimoth Plantation, original manuscript, Wright & Potter, Boston, 1901)
Those who, today, favor central government planning, common ownership and redistribution of the earnings of others are advocating a system that Americans tried and rejected over 350 years ago. Their wisdom gave birth to the great American miracle!
Are we as wise today?
You Can Do Something About This
(This message originally published in the mid-1980s by Stedman Corporations Government Affairs & Free Enterprise Education Program a former NC textile firm. For more essays in this series, visit www.ouragelessconstitution.com )
But of course LIEberals have twisted and revised history to suit their agenda of propaganda. Thanks for taking us back to the source with the writings of Wm. Bradford. I give thanks for Free Republic where factual truths are readily obtainable and shared.
The key thing that gets lost in discussions of origins is what has become created from it. Thanksgiving is a joyous celebration of family, and thanks. it is a time to reflect on the gift of our survival and the gift of our loved ones. Everyday should be a day of Thanksgiving for a spiritual person but this holiday we share our joy. The relationship between the Native Americans and the colonists is interesting history and one of my favorite subjects but has little to do with what Thanksgiving is today.
Note: this topic is from 11/24/2011. Thanks Evil Slayer.
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