The following is from an article called “The Truth About the First Thanksgiving” by James M. Lowen. Mr. Lowen has written Lies My Teacher Told Me and Lies Across America— (Above–One idea of the first Thanksgiving as painted by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. Mr. Ferris lived 1863-1930.)
“The summer after the Pilgrims landed, they sent two envoys on a diplomatic mission to treat with Massasoit, a famous chief encamped some 40 miles away at what is now Warren, Rhode Island. The envoys discovered and described a scene of absolute havoc. Villages lay in ruins because there was no one to tend them. The ground was strewn with the skulls and the bones of thousands of Indians who had died and none was left to bury them.
During the next fifteen years, additional epidemics, most of which we know to have been smallpox, struck repeatedly. Europeans caught smallpox and the other maladies, to be sure, but most recovered, including, in a later century, the “heavily pockmarked George Washington.” Indians usually died. Therefore, almost as profound as their effect on Indian demographics was the impact of the epidemics on the two cultures, European and Indian. The English Separatists, already seeing their lives as part of a divinely inspired morality play, inferred that they had God on their side. John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, called the plague “miraculous.” To a friend in England in 1634, he wrote:
“But for the natives in these parts, God hath so pursued them, as for 300 miles space the greatest part of them are swept away by the small pox which still continues among them. So as God hath thereby cleared our title to this place, those who remain in these parts, being in all not fifty, have put themselves under our protect”
Here is a timeline of European disease epidemics among Native Americans.
Here is information about smallpox.
Most of us have much to be thankful for on Thanksgiving and on all days. Yet this does not mean we should forget how we got what we have, and what costs were inflicted on people we felt were in the way.
(Below —A scene from King Philip’s War. This 1675 conflict is a more accurate reflection of relations between white settlers and Native Americans in colonial New England than the painting at the top of this post.)
This was very interesting thank you. Especially for the link up to the timeline. I had no idea that the Native Americans lost sooo many lives. I had read about small pox and the measles. But I had no idea how many people it killed. And the white settlers called them “savages” when they were just trying to survive.
Thanks Again, I always enjoy reading your historical articles.
The epidemics brought by the Europeans were, for the most part, entirely unintentional. Read Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel for a good explanation. My own family background has about as much to do with the pilgrims as the former slaves from Africa. We were still paupers living in Europe until we were basically thrown out like the trash in the early part of the last century. I can’t say that I’m a big fan of Thanksgiving. I live in Spain now so it is a mute point. Instead of the excess that now marks this holiday, I feel we should move more towards sharing what we have with those with less. I realize this concept scares the living shit out of Republicans for some reason, but they are finally out of style. Thank you for that.
Everyone (yes,everyone) should read Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel (as well as the sequel Collapse). Most people will be surprised to learn that 90% or more of the entire Native American population had been wiped out by diseases spread by early explorers from Europe long before the pilgrims landed. The West was won by disease; the despicable doctrine of Manifest Destiny merely finished the job.
To Margaret: Since you enjoy history, PLEASE take the time to read the excellent “One Nation Under Gods, a History of the Mormon Church” by Richard Abanes. You’ll really be amazed (shocked?)at what you learn. Your surprise at the LDS churchs’ involvement in the California election will fade. While an interesting variation of the ” big three desert dogmas”, Mormonism is just another reminder that there are always people willing to advertise a willingness to believe in practically anything. I mean no offense to you, I only hope you will consider freeing your mind from the bondage of this modern mythology.