Thanksgiving Is More Than Turkey
It’s that time.
Which is to say it’s Turkey Time in America again.
Once again, families are getting together for that beloved American icon — turkey!
Aside from the turkey, I have another Thanksgiving tradition — this one literary.
Yes, every Thanksgiving holiday — which usually extends into a long weekend — I open the pages written by that Pilgrim-era governor of the then-newly declared New World countryside called Massachusetts- William Bradford. (RELATED: Giving Thanks for Pilgrim William Bradford)
Having been born and raised in Massachusetts until I was not quite 15, this is a habit I picked up early in life, as the story of the Pilgrims and their adventures on their decidedly lonely ship, the Mayflower, which took them from England to America, was always getting told and retold in our Bay State classes around Thanksgiving time.
The introduction to Governor Bradford’s writings was, in the book I have, put together in a collection of Colonial-era writings by the late Roy Harvey Pearce, a professor emeritus at the University of San Diego.
Governor Bradford, famously an English Separatist, left England to escape the wrath of King James I, fleeing first to Leiden in Holland, home of the Dutch Republic. In 1620, he joined some fellow Separatists and boarded their ship, the Mayflower, braving the elements to sail across the Atlantic, landing in what would become Plymouth, named, of course, for their home in Plymouth, England. Along the way, Bradford joined the others in signing what became known as the Mayflower Compact and was eventually elected as governor, a position he held on and off for almost 30 years.
As America gathers together around the annual turkey, it is important that Governor Bradford and his band of Pilgrims be remembered for their contributions that, over a century later, were providing the principles of freedom that underlay the creation of the United States of America.
Writing in what he called The History of Plymouth Plantation, written over the course of the thirty years from 1621to 1651, it is noted how Bradford divided his writing on Plymouth’s history. Bradford divided his writings into the following sections:
1. Reasons and Causes of Their Removal: 1609-1617
2. The Voyage: 1620
3. The Mayflower Compact, Early Hardships, and Indian Affairs: 1620-1621
4. Social and Economic Problems: 1623
5. The Weakening of the Pilgrim Way: 1644
The Mayflower Compact was notable as the first document to organize the new arrivals with a lawful form of government. It was short and succinct, so in that spirit, I’ll include it here. It reads:
IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.
And with that, the early settlement of what had become known as “The New World” was up and running.
Thanksgiving is exactly the moment in the annual calendar that reminds us that it is a stand-alone in a world that, in fact, shares other holidays with America. With the exception of the obvious — like the Fourth of July — the world does indeed share other holidays with America. Christmas and Easter, religious holidays both, are noted for the global nature of their celebrations. Columbus Day, as with Thanksgiving and July 4th, is a distinctly American holiday, celebrating the arrival of the man many see as America’s first explorer in 1492 as he arrived 128 years before the Pilgrims.
So.
As the Thanksgiving holiday unwinds, replete with turkey, pumpkin pie, and, of course, the televised Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which always ends with the arrival of Santa Claus as the alert that the Christmas season has officially begun, Americans will have much to be thankful for.
(And as a political aside, this will be the first Thanksgiving Parade in a New York City that will soon be presided over by a flat-out Socialist, who, of course, has been labeled as a Communist by President Trump and others. Stay tuned!)
But without question, as the turkey roasts, Americans would be well to focus on where their country is going and what they expect to see next Thanksgiving when the turkey will be served to a nation that will have mere weeks earlier voted in a national election that will set the direction for another post-election Thanksgiving in 2028.
So! Have a Happy Thanksgiving — and don’t eat too much!
READ MORE from Jeffrey Lord:
Nick Fuentes: American Leftist
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