So I told Laura that I would write this up. Unfortunetly, I got busy so its a bit late. Hopefully you will read this in time to think about it tomorrow. There's a bit more to the Story of Thanksgiving than you probably heard growing up. I didn't know much of it until I went to a Peter Marshall seminar.
Why did the Pilgrims come to America? For religious freedom? The latter ones certainly did, but not the ones we see in all those pictures of the first Thanksgiving.
Who were the Pilgrims? What about the Puritans? They were two group of English protestants who believed the same thing except for what to do about the corrupt Anglican church. The Pilgrims (who were also called Sepratists) believed that the state church was too corrupt to be saved, so in 1608 they abandoned it and moved to Holland where they had complete religious freedom. The Puritans believed that the church could be purified and so stayed in England longer.
So the Pilgrims stayed in Holland for 12 long years until they felt God's call to move on. They had been working 12-18 hour days and their children were being drawn away from them, which further compelled them to leave. They decided to send around 100 of their members to the New World for a better life and "for the propagating and advancing the gospell of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world." That's read "to be missionaries." Well they went back to England to get a charter and book two ships for the trip. They booked the Mayflower and the Speedwell. That's when their problems began. The Speedwell didn't. It started taking on water, but they couldn't find the leakds so they had to turn back twice, leave some people behind, and move everyone else over to the Mayflower. All the delays put them out into the North Atlantic just in time for the Fall storm season. Now the trip across could only be accurately be described as ghastly. The storms were so bad that all the crew lashed themselves to the deck so they wouldn't get blown off the ship, and all the passengers were ordered below decks. Now they didn't go to nice little cabins. They went to the nice little 'tween deck. The 'tween deck was was 90 feet long by 26 feet wide by 5.5 feet high. Imagine 66 days in a space about the size of a volleyball court with 102 other people! Whatever you did, eating, going to the bathroom, getting sea sick, giving birth, was done in that space. And most of us couldn't even stand up straight that whole time. Now imagine doing that with your family. Anything they had ever done to upset you would come to the surface. It was enough to drive someone crazy. In fact one guy, John Howland, just had too much and opened the hatch to get a breath of fresh air. He got a bit more than he intended. He was almost immediately swept off the boat. The US Navy estimates that if you go for a swim in the North Atlantic in the Fall, you got exactly four minutes to live. This guy was a goner until a loose rope just happened to snake across his hand and they pulled him aboard. Hmmm, miracle? You can tell he never disobeyed again. In an average trip across the Atlantic, the mortality rate was 50%. You go across and half your people are going to die. Of the 102 passengers and 26 sailors only two people died on the whole trip! One was a sailor who called the Pilgrims the biggest bunch "hymn-singing puke-stockings" he had ever seen. Then he got a mysterious disease and was dead in a day or two. Isn't it odd that in those close quarters no one else caught his disease? The other guy who died was an indentured servant who thought he was strong enough and didn't need to drink lime juice. God humbles the proud and soon this guy died of scurvey. Through all of these trials, God was uniting the Pilgrims into one body.
Well eventually they arrived and decided they needed a document to determine how they were going to govern themselves. They wrote the Mayflower Compact and all the male Pilgrims and 'Strangers' signed it. It reads:
IN The Name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. In WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth and of Scotland, the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620
Notice how many times it talk about God. Well they arrived at Cape Cod and intended to go south to Jamestown, but felt God calling them to stay away from Jamestown (and they almost got into a shipwreck) so they landed on Plymouth Rock. Well God continued to provide for them because when they arrived they found an abandoned village waiting for them! Yes, some of our earliest American forefathers lived in pre-fabricated housing. They landed at the site of a Patuxet village that had been completely wiped out by disease. Europeans did not introduce disease into the Americas. It was there before they got there. They just exchanged diseases. Anyways, they settled there and tried to find people to buy the land from, but the only people they found were the Wampanoags. That first winter was extremely hard. Over half of the settlers died. One person from every family died and many children lost both parents. However later when another boat arrived no one wanted to return, that's how strong God's call was in their life. Some of the non-Pilgrims came to Christ on their deathbeds because of the way they saw the Christians dying. The Pilgrims knew they couldn't survive another winter like that and on March 22, 1621 God provided them with a savior. Into their village walks a native named Tisquantum (or Squanto) and starts talking to them in perfect English. He was literally a second Joseph. In 1605, Captain George Weymouth led an expedition into Canada and New England and captured three natives to take back to England. Their idea was to take these men, teach then the English language and English customs then learn where the friendly tribes and best fishing were. It worked like a charm and Tisquantum stayed with them for nine years. So 1614 rolls around and they head back for New England. But while he was interpretting for some English traders and 27 natives, the traders decided they would get more money for slaves than beaver pelts, so they took the lot of them to the slave trade in Malaga, Spain. Most were bought by Arab slave traders and never heard from again, but Tisquantum was bought by a friar and later became a Christian. He stays with the friars until 1618 when he leaves for home. When he arrived in 1619 he found his village decimated by a plague and he is now the last remaining Patuxet. He goes to live with chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag and a year later learns that there are a group of Brits trying to live on his old village. So he goes to them and offers his services. So here is a man who knows all the English and native customs, is fluent in both languages, and is a Christian. Litterally a God-send. The pilgrims learned how to plant corn, use fish for fertilizer, live in wigwams, tap maple trees, and where to hunt for eel. Note that all of this was done according to native customs. They were not as culturally insensitive as many would like you to believe. That fall they had a great harvest and decided to have a feast to thank God. They were not primarily thanking Tisquantum or the Wampanoag. Yes, they had been a huge help, but they were primarily thanking God. Well chief Massasoit shows up with 90 braves and the Pilgrims get a bit nervous because they were imagining their winter provisions quickly disappearing. But Massasoit had planned ahead and brough five prepared venison plus a ton of other good food. They even had eel pie. Aren't you glad we just have turkey now? The party lasted for three days and included games, sports, and lots and lots of food. This all led to a 50 year unbroken peace treaty. And that is why we take a day each year to thank God for his continued provision.
The next year Massasoit showed up with 120 smiling braves.
BTW, Jamestown was a horrible place. It was founded in the middle of a malaria swamp, the first few boatloads were English 'gentlemen' who wouldn't do any work. The first thing they did after getting off their boats was to open oysters to look for pearls. Those who weren't killed by natives got sick or starved during the winter. The first few seasons their mortality rate was 100%! They would sent a boatload of men and there would be no one left to greet the next boatload!
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