Giving Thanks; Because It Could Be Worse, After All

As we all gather around tables with friends and family and give thanks for the bounty of life that we share together, we do so in the face of turmoil. We live, after all, in a fractious and dangerous world. We give thanks both in spite of this and because of it.

To give thanks for what we have, it is helpful to consider what we have lost and to give thanks for all that is good and wonderful that we do have–in the face of the darkness that lies in juxtaposition with the light.

For our family, it is a Thanksgiving tradition for us to tell the story of Squanto and the Pilgrims–and to consider it.

You see, in schools and books, the accepted tradition of the Pilgrims is that they came to Plymouth–and Divine Providence shined upon them. They landed to discover fertile fields and natives who helped show them the ways of planting and gathering in these new and bountiful lands.

But this isn’t really so–at least, it’s really far more complicated than that (as are most things). It’s really a far darker story.

The Pilgrims did indeed arrive to find lands fertile, plowed and ready for settlement. But it was not mere Divine Providence, but disease that granted them such a bounty. Smallpox had largely wiped out the Patuxet tribe who had lived in those lands only a few years before the arrival of the Pilgrims. Most of the remaining Patuxet were absorbed into neighboring tribes, and the lands were vacant upon the Pilgrims’ arrival in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Living amongst the Wampanoag was a tribally orphaned and then captured Patuxet indian named Tisquantum, who we call Squanto.

When Squanto learned of the presence of English-speaking people in his native lands, he sought them out, and he helped them. For Squanto was a fluent English-speaking man–and had learned English while he lived in London.

Yes, that’s right, he lived in London. Squanto was once, in fact, a slave–and his story is complicated and incredible.

The details are a bit muddy–and beset by disagreement by historians, but a summary of what is generally known follows.

Squanto was first captured and brought to England by Captain George Weymouth in 1605, taken to England and finally managed to return home on an expedition as an interpreter in 1614. Less than a year after his return, he was captured again along with almost two dozen other Patuxet indians by an English explorer who sought to sell them to slavers in Spain.

After being sold in Spain, Squanto was rescued by a group of monks who purchased slaves in order to educate and release them from captivity–and he lived with the monks for at least a couple of years. After eventually making his way to London, he found employment and passage back to America–and discovered that his entire tribe had either died from smallpox or been absorbed into neighboring tribes.

To make matters worse, the group of Englishmen Squanto was acting as an interpreter for were attacked, and Squanto was taken prisoner by the attacking tribe, the Wampanoag.

After the Pilgrims arrived in 1621, due to Squanto’s command of English, he acted as an interpreter and helped broker a mutual defense treaty deal between the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims, and Squanto was allowed to live with the Pilgrims.

Sadly, Squanto was reviled by the Wampanoag and only a short time later he died in agony after having been thought to have been poisoned.

So, in giving Thanks, we should remember that even in the face of tremendous hardship, and despite apparent mixed motives on the part of Squanto himself, Divine Providence may have indeed shined upon the Pilgrims–in an odd and roundabout way, admittedly.

This–and every–Thanksgiving, we like to remember not only this story of adversity–but to give Thanks for all that we may have, no matter how little and no matter how tenuous–because the goodness of life and family should be cherished and treasured.

After all, it could be worse.

Happy Thanksgiving.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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