This post originally appeared at https://wifamilycouncil.org/radio/thanksgiving-a-rich-heritage/

2024 | Week of November 25 | Radio Transcript #1594

As with much of history these days, revisionists seek to erase or rewrite even the true history of Thanksgiving, often portraying the first pilgrims as genocidal white supremacists with no concern for the native peoples of the land. That couldn’t be further from the truth!

The educational organization PragerU does a great job at dispelling many of the myths surrounding the first Thanksgiving in America and showcasing its rich and uniquely American history.^[i]

America’s first pilgrims on the Mayflower were headed toward Manhattan, but they were blown off course at sea, landing instead further north at a deserted Native American village, known as Plymouth, that still had reserves of corn, with no actual villagers in sight. Months after the pilgrims landed, one of the Native American survivors, a man named Squanto, returned to the village looking for his friends and family, who had sadly likely died due to smallpox before the newcomers ever arrived. Instead, he found the pilgrims.

Squanto, a former slave and an English-speaking Christian convert, willingly helped the pilgrims plant crops and work out an agreement with Massasoit, the area’s most important Native American chief. One of the pilgrim leaders, William Bradford, who eventually became their governor, referred to Squanto as “a special instrument sent of God for their good,” referencing Squanto’s enormous help.

The “First Thanksgiving” in the year 1621 was actually biblically inspired. It was a three-day harvest celebration in October which included 90 Native Americans and 53 pilgrims. The celebration was modeled after “The Feast of the Tabernacles” in the Old Testament. The hosts and guests shared vegetables, fish, deer, and possibly some wild turkeys while bonding over a shared interest in guns.

The pilgrims, a deeply religious group, truly felt that God had blessed them with this providential turn of events.  Over a century later, once again experiencing God’s providential hand in the forming of the United States of America, President George Washington declared Thursday, November 26, 1789, for “the People of the United States a day of public thanks-giving.”^[ii]

Some individual states carried on the tradition of a day of thanksgiving in the years that followed, but it was often celebrated on different dates.^[iii] Eventually, a nineteenth-century American poet, Sarah Josepha Hale, led a multi-decade campaign to make “Thanksgiving” a national holiday, petitioning many politicians and even a few presidents. Hale was often ignored, but her letter to President Lincoln is cited as one of the reasons he was convinced to issue the proclamation.^[iv]

On October 3, 1863, exactly 74 years after George Washington issued his declaration and in the midst of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln made a proclamation designating the last Thursday of November as a “day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”

During a time of intense national division, President Lincoln did not address his Thanksgiving Proclamation only to the Unionists while excluding the Rebels; he instead invited, “the whole American people…[his] fellow citizens in every part of the United States,” to participate in this national Thanksgiving.

The holiday of our American Thanksgiving has a beautiful history that should inspire every American, young and old alike. From the earliest celebration in Massachusetts, inspired by events in the Bible, we learn of the generosity and kinship between diverse groups of peoples, joyfully sharing in a bountiful harvest.

One hundred and sixty-eight years later, President George Washington, after more than a decade of tumultuous fighting against the Royal Crown and negotiating with factions domestically, made a point of noting, “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.”

President Lincoln, instead of using the violent, divisive climate to further tear the nation apart, called the whole country to be grateful for “fruitful fields and healthful skies,” while imploring “the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it.”

The history of Thanksgiving should remind us not only every year, but every day, of the sovereignty of God and the blessings which His hand has bestowed upon us, in times of peace and prosperity as well as in times of war and adversity. Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Wisconsin Family Council. May you and your family acknowledge, reflect on, and enjoy God’s blessings!

For Wisconsin Family Council, this is Julaine Appling, reminding you that God, through the Prophet Hosea, said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

[i] https://www.prageru.com/video/whats-the-truth-about-the-first-thanksgiving

[ii] https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-first-president/thanksgiving#:~:text=On%20October%203%2C%201789%2C%20George,become%20commonplace%20in%20today’s%20households.

[iii] https://www.prageru.com/video/lincoln-thanksgiving

[iv] https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sarah-hale

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