"The story of the Pilgrims begins in the early part of the seventeenth century...
The Church of England under King James I was persecuting anyone and everyone who did not recognize its absolute civil and spiritual authority. Those who challenged ecclesiastical authority and those who believed strongly in freedom of worship were hunted down, imprisoned, and sometimes executed for their beliefs.
A group of separatists first fled to Holland and established a community.
After eleven years, about forty of them agreed to make a perilous journey to the New World, where they would certainly face hardships, but could live and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences.
On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail.
It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford.
On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs.
Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from?
From the Bible.
...During the first winter, half the Pilgrims – including Bradford's own wife – died of either starvation, sickness or exposure.
When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats.
Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper!
This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end.
Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than as a devout expression of gratitude grounded in the tradition of both the Old and New Testaments.
Here is the part that has been omitted:
The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share.
All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well.
They were going to distribute it equally.
All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well.
Nobody owned anything.
They just had a share in it.
It was a commune, folks.
It was the forerunner to the communes we saw in the '60s and '70s out in California – and it was complete with organic vegetables, by the way.
Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken so many lives. He decided to take bold action.
Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace.
...But while most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for well over a hundred years – trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it – the Pilgrims decided early on to scrap it permanently.
..."The experience that we had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years...that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God," Bradford wrote.
"For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.
For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense...that was thought injustice."
Why should you work for other people when you can't work for yourself?
What's the point?
Do you hear what he was saying, ladies and gentlemen?
The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive.
So what did Bradford's community try next?
They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the undergirding capitalistic principle of private property.
Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products.
And what was the result?
"This had very good success," wrote Bradford, "for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been."
...So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians.
The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London.
And the success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans and began what came to be known as the "Great Puritan Migration."
Now, you probably haven't read this.
...Thanksgiving, in other words, is not thanks to the Indians, and it's not thanks to William Bradford. It's not thanks to the merchants of London.
Thanksgiving is thanks to God, pure and simple.
Go read the first Thanksgiving proclamation from George Washington and you'll get the point.
The word "God" is mentioned in that first Thanksgiving proclamation more times..."
The Church of England under King James I was persecuting anyone and everyone who did not recognize its absolute civil and spiritual authority. Those who challenged ecclesiastical authority and those who believed strongly in freedom of worship were hunted down, imprisoned, and sometimes executed for their beliefs.
A group of separatists first fled to Holland and established a community.
After eleven years, about forty of them agreed to make a perilous journey to the New World, where they would certainly face hardships, but could live and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences.
On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail.
It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford.
On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs.
Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from?
From the Bible.
...During the first winter, half the Pilgrims – including Bradford's own wife – died of either starvation, sickness or exposure.
When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats.
Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper!
This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end.
Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than as a devout expression of gratitude grounded in the tradition of both the Old and New Testaments.
Here is the part that has been omitted:
The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share.
All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well.
They were going to distribute it equally.
All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well.
Nobody owned anything.
They just had a share in it.
It was a commune, folks.
It was the forerunner to the communes we saw in the '60s and '70s out in California – and it was complete with organic vegetables, by the way.
Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken so many lives. He decided to take bold action.
Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace.
...But while most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for well over a hundred years – trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it – the Pilgrims decided early on to scrap it permanently.
..."The experience that we had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years...that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God," Bradford wrote.
"For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.
For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives and children without any recompense...that was thought injustice."
Why should you work for other people when you can't work for yourself?
What's the point?
Do you hear what he was saying, ladies and gentlemen?
The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive.
So what did Bradford's community try next?
They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the undergirding capitalistic principle of private property.
Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products.
And what was the result?
"This had very good success," wrote Bradford, "for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been."
...So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians.
The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London.
And the success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans and began what came to be known as the "Great Puritan Migration."
Now, you probably haven't read this.
...Thanksgiving, in other words, is not thanks to the Indians, and it's not thanks to William Bradford. It's not thanks to the merchants of London.
Thanksgiving is thanks to God, pure and simple.
Go read the first Thanksgiving proclamation from George Washington and you'll get the point.
The word "God" is mentioned in that first Thanksgiving proclamation more times..."
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