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The Real Story Of Thanksgiving

    The Mayflower set sail from England on August 1, 1620. 102 passengers were on board, including 40 pilgrims led by William Bradford. The journey to the new world was long and arduous. When they landed in November, they found a cold and barren wilderness. There was no one there to greet them, no shelter of any kind and the sacrifices they made for freedom were just beginning. During that first winter, half the Pilgrims died, including Bradford’s own wife. They died of starvation, sickness or exposure.

    When spring arrived, the Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats. Their lives improved but they didn’t enjoy prosperity.

    In the original contract that the Pilgrims had entered into, it called for everything that they produced should go into a common store and each one in the community would own one share. All the land that was cleared and all the homes they built were part of the community. They were “collectivist”. Bradford, who was now the Governor, realized that this form of “collectivism” was both costly and destructive to the Pilgrims. No one had any incentive to work any harder than anyone else.

    Bradford took bold action and then assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage so that they could sell and market their own crops and products.

    Bradford’s plan worked. He wrote, “This had very good success, for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.” The Pilgrims found that they had more food than they could eat, set up trading post and started exchanging goods with the Indians. With the Pilgrims enjoying their large harvest, success and prosperity, they held their first true Thanksgiving celebration in the year of 1623.