The Great Thanksgiving Hoax : The Truth About Pilgrims, Socialism and Individualism

Increasingly, the Pilgrims' lessons of hard-scrabble survival and adaptation to new conditions have given way to a New Age diversity-driven communal living fantasy. The Pilgrims were able to give thanks because they abandoned Utopian visions for reality driven toil. If you have never read Richard J. Maybury's "The Great Thanksgiving Hoax" , this is the perfect time to learn what is left out of the typical history curriculum.

The official story has the pilgrims boarding the Mayflower, coming to America and establishing the Plymouth colony in the winter of 1620-21. This first winter is hard, and half the colonists die. But the survivors are hard working and tenacious, and they learn new farming techniques from the Indians. The harvest of 1621 is bountiful. The Pilgrims hold a celebration, and give thanks to God. They are grateful for the wonderful new abundant land He has given them.

The official story then has the Pilgrims living more or less happily ever after, each year repeating the first Thanksgiving. Other early colonies also have hard times at first, but they soon prosper and adopt the annual tradition of giving thanks for this prosperous new land called America.

The problem with this official story is that the harvest of 1621 was not bountiful, nor were the colonists hardworking or tenacious. 1621 was a famine year and many of the colonists were lazy thieves.

In his 'History of Plymouth Plantation,' the governor of the colony, William Bradford, reported that the colonists went hungry for years, because they refused to work in the fields. They preferred instead to steal food. He says the colony was riddled with
"corruption," and with "confusion and discontent." The crops were small because "much was stolen both by night and day, before it became scarce eatable."

How did Bradford and the Pilgrims save their community? Read Richard J. Maybury's "The Great Thanksviging Hoax" at The Ludwig von Mises Institute.

http://mises.org/story/336