America’s First Thanksgiving almost didn’t happen – “thanks” to “spreading the wealth”

by The Peripatetic Pundit | 9:12 am, November 26, 2009 | Comments Off

As we gather together with our families and friends on this long holiday weekend, it’s worth remembering not only that we, as Americans, have much for which to be thankful – but also why.

It is no accident that prosperity and freedom blossomed in this country like no other – before or since.

Even before the founding of the United States itself – a remarkable experiment in individual liberty, replacing the divine right of kings with the rule of law – the seeds for our liberty and prosperity were sown for later harvest by the colonies struggling for survival along the eastern seaboard.  Most of those colonies were faced with failure and extinction (some DID succumb).  Why did some survive, even prosper, where others failed?

The answer may be found in the story of that first Thanksgiving… brilliantly summarized in a pair of articles by John Stossel (“The Tragedy of the Commons”, Part 1 and Part 2) two years ago:

“Every year around this time, schoolchildren are taught about that wonderful day when Pilgrims and Native Americans shared the fruits of the harvest. “Isn’t sharing wonderful?” say the teachers.

They miss the point.

Because of sharing, the first Thanksgiving in 1623 almost didn’t happen.

The failure of Soviet communism is only the latest demonstration that freedom and property rights, not sharing, are essential to prosperity. The earliest European settlers in America had a dramatic demonstration of that lesson, but few people today know it.

When the Pilgrims first settled the Plymouth Colony, they organized their farm economy along communal lines. The goal was to share everything equally, work and produce.

They nearly all starved.

Why? When people can get the same return with a small amount of effort as with a large amount, most people will make little effort. Plymouth settlers faked illness rather than working the common property. Some even stole, despite their Puritan convictions [http://tinyurl.com/yr9d8b]. Total production was too meager to support the population, and famine resulted. Some ate rats, dogs, horses and cats. This went on for two years.

“So as it well appeared that famine must still ensue the next year also, if not some way prevented,” wrote Gov. William Bradford in his diary. The colonists, he said, “began to think how they might raise as much corn as they could, and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might not still thus languish in misery. At length after much debate of things, [I] (with the advice of the chiefest among them) gave way that they should set corn every man for his own particular, and in that regard trust to themselves.  And so assigned to every family a parcel of land.”

The people of Plymouth moved from socialism to private farming. The results were dramatic.

“This had very good success,” Bradford wrote, “for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.  By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now G-d gave them plenty, and the face of things was changed, to the rejoicing of the hearts of many. “

Because of the change, the first Thanksgiving could be held in November 1623.

As we celebrate Thanksgiving this year – almost 300 years later – let us reflect back on the lessons of that First Thanksgiving, and remind ourselves that it is our free market economic system, individual rights & responsibilities, and limited government that allowed us to enjoy the fruits of freedom and prosperity throughout our history up ’til today.

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