6 thoughts on “The First Thanksgiving”

  1. Always start with the assumption that history lies and multiply by ten if it’s told to children. I’ve heard similar accounts with other details.

    1. It’s not that History lies, it’s just that the full details are always more complex than can reasonably be explained to a seven year old.

  2. Thanksgiving, as we now celebrate it, was first proclaimed a national holiday by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. This was on the heels of a decades long crusade by Sarah Josepha Hale, the first woman editor of a magazine for women, to institutionalize the holiday. Christmas, likewiUnitse, was a cultural latecomer to the United States.

  3. The history of the English colonies and New England tribes prior to 1700 is quite rich and unfortunately not as popularized as other facets of our history. More’s the pity. It is still possible to find farm homes and grange halls in New England fortified against attack, including the slotted shutters for musketry. Typically the long smooth bore intended for hunting, not the anti-personnel (aka assault weapon) blunderbuss/shotgun….

    Also re: Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs & Steel.

  4. There seems very little there that I did not already know. Most people learn additional history after the second grade.

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