Heather's Journal

Thursday, November 25, 2004

The Pilgrims Made Thanksgiving and That's All

Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that help people to think something that are not true. It does not mean to, of course, like Santa Claus means no harm, but it can be harmful for the intelligence of people. This misconception I am speaking of is the Pilgrims being the first to come to America. That may seem weird to someone that knows better, but I know that when I was younger I thought the pilgrims were the first ones for a very long time. There are also people who get to college who still see this as the truth. Thanksgiving allows this myth to get larger, because the mind set of people is that since Thanksgiving is such an important holiday there must be great importance attached to it and, therefore; think up the fake fact that the Pilgrims were the first ones here, as well as the ones who had a thanksgiving feast with the Indians.

So the Pilgrims weren't the first ones here and if you believed that then I am sure you are wondering who was. The truth of the matter is it was the First Colony. This was a group of settlers who came from Europe and founded the Roanoke colony. John White was in charge of Raleigh’s expedition to Roanoke Island. He reestablished the place and later discovered he needed more supplies so he goes back to Europe, but leaves about 15 men behind, including his son in law. These relatives were Elite White and his wife, Anne Dare, who had the first child in the USA, Virginia Dare. After traveling all the way back, John white found out he couldn’t go back until 3 yrs later, because the Spanish Armada had taken all of Spain’s funds. So in 3 years he returned to Roanoke Island and no one was there. They found this carved in a tree: CRO. This may be of an Indian tribe or something, but no one is sure and that is why it is called the Lost Colony. That is the story of the first European people in America and they were not the pilgrims.

Since the Lost Colony was apparently lost they never did establish a complete settlement, so more known is history is Jamestown. This was a colony ran by John Smith and was the first permanent English Colony in America. This is also another ground, besides the pilgrims, that people think were the first people, instead of the Lost Colony, from Europe. Thing is it wasn’t the pilgrim, it was the Jamestown colonists, but it was a group given only a paragraph or two in history books and don’t really have movies made about them, and oh yea they didn’t eat a feast and establish a holiday either. These people were the lost colony and they shouldn’t be given credit for thanksgiving or anything, but they should be known for what they did.

I hope I cleared up anyone who had this misconception of the pilgrims. The pilgrims were great people traveling for a great distance to be able to practice what they believe, but they were not the first English settlement in America. Instead they were the first recorded to sit down and eat a peaceful dinner with the Native Americans in their region. A holiday developed from this and we all eat great amounts of food in memory of this temporary peace of different cultures from long ago. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and don’t get your history mixed up.