Understanding our Christian traditions allows us to appreciate their significance and the values they represent–values that we strive to keep in the America Foundation workforce.
Thanksgiving | The True Thanksgiving Story
The Waterfield America Foundation
Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cornbread, pumpkin pie, and most of all family, together and focused on being thankful for what we have. A cheery “Happy Thanksgiving!” is always a warm sight and sound. Americans have been pausing their busy lives to celebrate and be thankful for America, and all of God’s blessings, with their families & friends since President George Washington proclaimed Thanksgiving a National Holiday in 1789.
Thanksgiving is full of historic symbolism. It is a day to be thankful for the sacrifices Christian Pilgrims made when they departed their English homes in 1620 on The Mayflower to brave the dangerous Atlantic crossing so that they might create the New World, America, under God, with freedom and justice for all. After a troublesome, two-month venture on turbulent seas, the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Harbor in Massachusetts. There they founded Plymouth Colony, which became “New England” (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut). Due to the harsh winter, only half of the Mayflower’s 122 men, women, and children survived.
These Pilgrim families paved the way for what became the greatest nation on earth, and the light of modern-day freedom. In order to establish themselves as a legitimate colony in the “New World,” passengers on the Mayflower drafted and signed a document promising to create a democracy when they landed, governed by elected officials. They named it “The Mayflower Compact.” This was the genesis of what later became The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States of America, and the light of freedom in the world. We owe those early Christians a truly monumental debt of gratitude. Without them, we would not have the freedoms we have today. They thanked God when they prayed for basics like life, health, food, and family, much as we do today. We should always remember to add those Christian Pilgrims to our Thanksgiving prayers, as their sacrifices led the way to the freedoms we have today.
Our forefathers were good Christians. They believed in the power of family, friendship, hard work, and freedom. When they landed in 1621, they befriended the local Indians. The Pilgrims taught the Indians Christian kindness, and the two disparate cultures became friends. The Indians, in turn, helped the Pilgrims with their plantings and their first harvest. In March, a few of the more daring Pilgrim leaders befriended an Abenaki Indian named Samoset, and a Paxtuxet Indian named Squanto. Squanto thought The Christian Pilgrims how to cultivate corn, catch fish, and survive in the wild New World forests, which were large, full of poisonous plants, and dangerous beasts. The Christian Pilgrims came to love Squanto, and eventually formed a friendly alliance with his tribe, the Wampanoag Tribe. Eventually they broke bread together, and had the first
Thanksgiving Dinner on the edge of the forest of the new world, within sight of the sea the Pilgrims had just dared adventure.
Christian Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford, a Pilgrim, was the man who initiated the first Thanksgiving celebratory feast. Being a strong, honorable, and good-natured Christian, he invited their Indian friends, including the Wampanoag Chief. This First Thanksgiving Feast lasted for three whole days. As testimony to the joint goodwill present there during those days, during the course of the event, close to a hundred uninvited Wampanoag Indians appeared at the settlement’s gate, and even though the Pilgrims did not have much in the way of food, they shared it with an open heart, included the Indians in their games, made them feel welcome, honoring the long Christian tradition of caring for guests as their own. In turn, the Indians went out and killed venison to add to the feast. These incredible acts of Christian generosity, and the returned generosity of the Indians created a friendship that lasted until King Philip’s War.
King Philip, Chief of the Wampanoag Indian Tribe, did not, in the end, want to share his lands. He attacked the English Settlers, who had shown his people nothing but friendship. This started what became known as the The Great Narragansett War, one of the bloodiest wars in American history (1675-1676). Warring Indians killed 2,500 Pilgrim men, women & children, and destroyed 12 Pilgrim towns before they were stopped. The American Pilgrims, a strong lot, as fierce in war, when provoked, as they were in peace, responded by killing 5,000 Indians, including King Philip, and ended the hostilities.
In spite of the indigenous people’s betrayal, forgiveness, American Excellence, and a focus on the future eventually found light with America’s brilliant and humble First President, George Washington, a devout Christian, who focused on the future and the best parts of the past by declaring Thanksgiving a National Holiday via his Thanksgiving Proclamation, which is still today the law of the land:
By the President of the United States of America [George Washington]
A Proclamation
October 3, 1789
“Whereas it is 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: and whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to recommend to the people of the United States, a day of public Thanksgiving and Prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts, the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them peacably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.
Now therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday the twenty-fifth day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these states, to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be: that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for his kind care and protection for the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpolations of his Providence on the course and conclusion of the late war – for the great degree of tranquility l, union and plenty, which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general, for all great and various favors which He hath been pleased to offer us.
And also, that we may the unite in mass humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions – to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties.
Happy Thanksgiving America! We thank God for America’s Christian founders, and The Land of The Free.
The Waterfield America Foundation