Today in History - Nov 23 - Thanksgiving

November 23 is the anniversary of the day that Franklin Roosevelt changed the date of Thanksgiving to be the fourth Thursday in November instead of the last Thursday in 1939. The motivation was that if Thanksgiving were to be held on the 30th, then that wouldn't give businesses enough time to advertise. The decision caused general confusion and mayhem, but it made the businessmen happy.

However, what I actually want to talk about today is the holiday itself. What American children are taught is that it celebrates the day that the pilgrims arrived peacefully in North America, and were attended to and cared for by the native Wampanoag tribe, culminating in a grand feast. Of course, this is a massive perversion of history designed to make the colonisers appear grandiose, and the natives to be subservient.

The true story is that the Wampanoags had just recently lost 75% of their population to European diseases, and their traditional enemies, the Narragansett, were doing much better comparatively. In the past decade, over 90% of the population had already been killed by disease. A Wampanoag man by the name of Tisquantum had been caught by slave traders a few years prior, and had learned English while in captivity. When the pilgrims arrived, he was able to speak with them to gain an alliance with them in order to guard against the Narragansett. After a successful harvest, the pilgrims celebrated by firing their guns in the air. The Wampanoags thought that fighting was breaking out, and showed up for battle. They ended up having a feast instead.

The pilgrims believed that the widespread death and devastation brought by the European diseases was a sign from their god that it was their destiny to take the land. Their desire for more and more native land eventually led to war. The Wampanoag and the Narragansett actually ended up fighting together against the pilgrim threat after the pilgrims burned a Narragansett village, killing hundreds of women, children, and elders. But by then it was too late. The pilgrims were too numerous, and the natives had never recovered from the plague. 40% of the remaining tribe would be killed, and many of the survivors sold into slavery. Today the Wampanoag number less than 4000. After a member was uninvited to speak at a Thanksgiving address after he announced his intentions to tell the truth, The National Day of Mourning was established.

Thanksgiving first became a national holiday in 1863. Thanksgiving was entirely a propaganda move to encourage "unity" after a messy civil war. The year prior, he had ordered the largest mass execution in US history. 38 Dakota men were hung for stealing food from white people after not being given the food promised in their treaty. The holiday seems more like twisting the knife to me.