CARVED INTO LEGEND

Thanksgiving 400 years ago wasn’t exactly like the stories you’ve been told

Most Americans know this story of the first Thanksgiving: Brave pilgrims leave England in search of religious freedom in the New World, endure a horrendous winter in New England but survive with the help of friendly Native Americans who teach them to plant corn and squash. In return, the pilgrims invite members of the tribe to a feast to give thanks for a successful harvest. ● And an American holiday was born. ● The real story was more complicated. On the 400th anniversary of that famous feast, here’s a look at the 1621 celebration that was enshrined in legend and became a national holiday in 1863.

Native American tribes were familiar with Europeans

The Wampanoag, the Native American tribe who lived in what would become Plymouth, were no strangers to white people. They had been trading with Europeans since at least 1524 but the relationship was tenuous. In 1614, a British captain, Thomas Hunt, landed at the Patuxet village. He invited tribe members to tour his ship and then trapped 20 men in the hold and sold them into slavery in Spain. Among them was Tisquantum, later known as Squanto, who eventually met a British merchant who took him to London, where he learned English. Tisquantum returned to his homeland five years later as an interpreter for an English explorer and discovered that his tribe had been wiped out by a pandemic in 1616.

Saints and Strangers

Despite popular belief, religious freedom was not a motive for most of the 102 Mayflower passengers. Less than half were members of a Puritan faction that wanted to separate from the Church of England. In 1607, these Separatists, who called themselves Saints, had left England for Holland, settling in Leiden, where they were free to celebrate their religion. But they feared their children were growing up too heavily influenced by the Dutch, they elected to move to the New World, aiming for land at the mouth of the Hudson River. The rest of the passengers, called “Strangers” by the Saints, were tradesmen, craftsmen, skilled workers, indentured servants and orphans. Among the passengers were the four More siblings, between the ages of 8 and 4, sent on the ship as indentured servants after their paternity was called into question. Of the four, only one survived the first year.

The difficult crossing

The settlers planned to sail in two ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell, but the Speedwell leaked, causing both ships to return to port twice. By the time the Mayflower set sail in September 1620, some passengers had been on board for six weeks. The 66-day voyage was wracked by storms. Blown off course, the ship landed Nov. 11 at Cape Cod near Provincetown. The pilgrims settled in the empty Patuxet village. It was December, too late to plant any crops. Because they had landed in the wrong place, some Strangers argued that they weren’t bound by their contract with the Virginia Company, which included financing for the voyage and where they would settle, leading 41 men to draw up what became known as the Mayflower Compact, which established rules for the colony.

The terrible winter

Of the 102 passengers, 51 died before Thanksgiving, most during the brutal winter of 1620-21. Although many men had left their wives behind, 18 married women boarded the ship. While men went ashore to build houses, the women stayed on the crowded, damp Mayflower for four months, caring for the children and increasing numbers of people suffering illnesses, likely scurvy and pneumonia. Only four adult women were alive for the Thanksgiving feast.

A new alliance

The Wampanoag, weakened by the 1616 pandemic, were being threatened by the rival Narragansett tribe to the west. Their leader, Massasoit, sought a military alliance with the new settlers. In return, Massasoit’s tribe supplemented the pilgrims’ food for the first few years. At least two members of the tribe spoke some English, including

Squanto, who taught the pilgrims how to fish and grow corn and squash.

The Thanksgiving feast

The only accounts of pilgrim life were written by colonial governors William Bradford and Edward Winslow. They mention a celebration marking the settlement’s first successful harvest in the fall of 1621. The feast lasted three days, although the exact date wasn’t recorded. According to Winslow’s account, upon hearing the gunfire from the pilgrims hunting in preparation, Massasoit, who was not invited to the celebration, arrived with about 90 warriors expecting to provide aid in battle. After learning the truth, the men stayed for the feast, contributing five deer.

The menu

Bradford and Winslow described a feast of deer, wildfowl, cod, bass, local vegetables and corn, which was eaten as cornbread and porridge. Turkey, although common in Massachusetts, probably wasn’t on the menu. Definitely not on the menu were

cranberry sauce, potatoes, pie or sweets of any kind due to the shortage of sugar.

Mayflower descendants

Between 30 and 35 million people alive today have ancestors who were on the Mayflower, according to the General Society of Mayflower Descendants. Among the pilgrims’ famous descendants are Marilyn Monroe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Julia Child, Bing Crosby, Katharine Hepburn,

Humphrey Bogart, Clint Eastwood, Pete Seeger, Amelia Earhart, Alec Baldwin and Taylor Swift. And nine U.S presidents: George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt, James Garfield, Ulysses S. Grant, Zachary Taylor, John Adams and John

Quincy Adams.

A day of mourning

The uneasy truce between the Native Americans and the English settlers lasted for decades but ended with King Philip’s War in 1675-76. Named after Massasoit’s son, it was an attempt by tribes to avoid recognizing English authority and stop English settlement on their lands. The 14-month war was the bloodiest conflict, per capita, in U.S. history. It left about 5,000 people dead, three quarters of those Native Americans. The war essentially marked the end of Native American resistance to European settlement in southern New England.

In light of such loss of life, some Native Americans view Thanksgiving as a National Day of Mourning. Every year, a few hundred people gather on Cole’s Hill, overlooking Plymouth Rock. A plaque at the site notes: “Thanksgiving Day is a reminder of the genocide of millions of their people, the theft of their lands, and the relentless assault on their cultures. Participants in National Day of Mourning honor Native ancestors and the struggles of Native peoples to survive today.”

Sources: Mayflower400.org; history.com; Smithsonian.com; Inside.com; Atlantic.com; AARP.com; CapeCodTimes.com; Mayflowerhistory.com; NewEngland.com; food52.com; Wikipedia.com; histarch.illinois.edu; indiancountrytoday.com