The truth about Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving -- the first American victory of freedom over Communism!

The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock late in 1620. The first winter was harsh, but
the colonists worked hard and applied themselves industriously to their own
survival. They had help from the local Indian tribes, who helped them learn how to
survive. The result was a plentiful harvest in fall 1621, not to mention the first
celebration of Thanksgiving.

It's a wonderful story. There's only one problem with it: It isn't true.

It contains elements of truth. For example, the first winter was harsh, and the
local Indian tribes did help the colonists learn how to survive, what to plant and
how to prepare the food. But the 1621 harvest was not bountiful. In fact, famine
haunted the fledgling colony.

When the colonists first landed, they signed something called the Mayflower Compact.
Most of us have heard this document praised as an early social contract helping
different people to live together. What most of us never learned was that it was
also an experiment in socialism.

The Mayflower Compact required that "all profits and benefits that are got by trade,
working, fishing or any other means" were placed in the common stock of the colony.
Further, it required that "all such persons as are of this colony are to have their
meat, drink, apparel and all provisions out of this common stock." People were
required to put into the common stock everything they could, and take out only what
they needed.

William Bradford, governor of the colony at the time, wrote History of Plymouth
Plantation. In it, he wrote that "young men that are most able and fit for labor and
service" complained about being forced to "spend their time and strength to work for
other men's wives and children." Since "the strong, or man of parts, had no more
division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak," the strong men simply
refused to work, and the amount of food produced was never adequate.

In fact, the colony went hungry for years as strong men refused to work hard, and
theft of crops still in the ground ran rampant. Bradford wrote that the colony was
riddled with "corruption and discontent." The crops were small because "much was
stolen both by night and day, before it became scarce eatable."

The harvests of 1621 and 1622 were adequate enough so that "all had their hungry
bellies filled," but that did not last. Deaths from malnutrition continued into the
next year.

But in 1623, something changed. Bradford reported, "Instead of famine now God gave
them plenty, and the face of things was changed to the rejoicing of the hearts of
many, for which they blessed God." By 1624, the colony was producing so much food
that it began exporting corn.

What caused this change?

After the poor harvest of 1622, the colony brainstormed for a way to raise more corn
and obtain a better crop. The solution, unlike the Thanksgiving story told today, was
simple. In 1623, Bradford "gave each household a parcel of land and told them they
could keep what they produced, or trade it away as they saw fit."

The socialistic experiment that had failed them was abandoned and replaced with
capitalism. That turned the colonists away from failure and forward into success and
growth. And this move away from socialism, along with the resulting prosperity, is
what we truly celebrate today.

Thanksgiving, far from being the simple and uninspiring story of a group of people
learning how to farm, is actually a celebration of what has made America itself
great. It is the story of people working together by working for themselves first,
and in so doing, improving the standard of living for everyone. These are the
American ideas we hold dear.

As you sit down to your table laden with turkey, dressing and pumpkin pie, remember
the true story of Thanksgiving, and what it means to all.

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