Editor:
In a few days, millions of American families will gather to enjoy the traditional Thanksgiving feast and remember what they perceive as the first Thanksgiving. Our youngsters are taught the Pilgrims invited the Indians, whose agricultural ingenuity saved the tiny colony at Plymouth from starvation, to dine with them in a spirit of worship and brotherhood. Of course, this was before the “saintly” Pilgrims became greedy and seized Indian lands, burned their villages and slaughtered the inhabitants.
In reality, Thanksgiving is a Southern observance having its origin in Jamestown, Va., 13 years prior to the now-accepted teachings that it was the Pilgrims who began the tradition we observe each November. The charter granted by the British Crown to the Berkley Plantation at Jamestown required that the anniversary of the colonists’ safe arrival in the New World “shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving.” The true first Thanksgiving observed by the English-speaking colonies was in December 1607 — not in 1620. .
A Thanksgiving observance was celebrated even earlier in St. Augustine in 1565 at the Spanish settlement in what is now Florida.
In more recent history, Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation Oct. 31, 1861 declaring November 15 “a day of national humiliation and prayer.” This pre-dates the proclamation issued by Abe Lincoln on Oct. 3, 1863 declaring a day of thanksgiving.
Lincoln did issue other proclamations of a day of prayer and thanksgiving in April 1862 and July 1863. Regardless, the earliest Lincoln proclamation was more than six months after the proclamation from the office of the Confederate president. Historians generally regard Lincoln’s October 3, 1863 proclamation of a day of thanksgiving to be the first since it began a series of yearly proclamations issued by the occupant of the White House.
Why were we not taught the true origins of Thanksgiving? One only has to remember which side won the conflict that raged between 1861 and 1865.
Michael A. Mull
Statesboro
In a few days, millions of American families will gather to enjoy the traditional Thanksgiving feast and remember what they perceive as the first Thanksgiving. Our youngsters are taught the Pilgrims invited the Indians, whose agricultural ingenuity saved the tiny colony at Plymouth from starvation, to dine with them in a spirit of worship and brotherhood. Of course, this was before the “saintly” Pilgrims became greedy and seized Indian lands, burned their villages and slaughtered the inhabitants.
In reality, Thanksgiving is a Southern observance having its origin in Jamestown, Va., 13 years prior to the now-accepted teachings that it was the Pilgrims who began the tradition we observe each November. The charter granted by the British Crown to the Berkley Plantation at Jamestown required that the anniversary of the colonists’ safe arrival in the New World “shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving.” The true first Thanksgiving observed by the English-speaking colonies was in December 1607 — not in 1620. .
A Thanksgiving observance was celebrated even earlier in St. Augustine in 1565 at the Spanish settlement in what is now Florida.
In more recent history, Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis issued a proclamation Oct. 31, 1861 declaring November 15 “a day of national humiliation and prayer.” This pre-dates the proclamation issued by Abe Lincoln on Oct. 3, 1863 declaring a day of thanksgiving.
Lincoln did issue other proclamations of a day of prayer and thanksgiving in April 1862 and July 1863. Regardless, the earliest Lincoln proclamation was more than six months after the proclamation from the office of the Confederate president. Historians generally regard Lincoln’s October 3, 1863 proclamation of a day of thanksgiving to be the first since it began a series of yearly proclamations issued by the occupant of the White House.
Why were we not taught the true origins of Thanksgiving? One only has to remember which side won the conflict that raged between 1861 and 1865.
Michael A. Mull
Statesboro