The True Story of Thanksgiving

The True Story of Thanksgiving - The Rush Limbaugh Show
"...What the History Books Never Told You: The True Story of Thanksgiving.”
...“On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims,” now known as Pilgrims, “led by William Bradford.
...During the first winter, half the Pilgrims — including Bradford’s own wife — died of either starvation, sickness or exposure.”
They endured that first winter.
“When spring finally came,” they had, by that time, met the indigenous people, the Indians, and indeed the “Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers” and other animals “for coats.”
But there wasn’t any prosperity.
...“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 what it really was.
...That all happened, but that’s not — according to William Bradford’s journal — what they ultimately gave thanks for.
...“All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well.”
Everything belonged to everybody and everybody had one share in it.
They were going to distribute it equally.”
That was considered to be the epitome of fairness, sharing the hardship burdens and everything like that.
...“Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that” it wasn’t working.
It “was as costly and destructive…”
His own journals chronicle the reasons it didn’t work.
...“What Bradford and his community found,” and I’m going to use basically his own words, “was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else…
“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,'” without any payment, “‘that was thought injustice.’ 
...“So what did Bradford’s community try next? 
...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 [everybody] industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.’ …
...The first Thanksgiving was William Bradford and Plymouth Colony thanking God for their blessings. 
That’s the first Thanksgiving.
Nothing wrong with being grateful to the Indians; don’t misunderstand.
But the true meaning of Thanksgiving — and this is what George Washington recognized in his first Thanksgiving proclamation."