The Michael Knowles Show - Leftist Thanksgiving Myths DEBUNKED ｜ A Michael Knowles Classic

00:00:00.000 Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you're all enjoying a wonderful day, sitting maybe in a nice comfy chair, relaxing.

00:00:07.100 One of the problems with Thanksgiving, though, and we've all experienced it in recent years, 0.97

00:00:11.640 is when your purple-haired liberal lesbian niece or nephew these days starts spouting off about how terrible America is 0.99

00:00:21.340 and how the people who helped to build this great nation were awful, evil, genocidal maniacs. 0.99

00:00:27.240 You know this is going to get a lot worse now that the orange man is back and is declaring he's running for president.

00:00:32.140 They're going to turn the vitriol up to 11.

00:00:34.820 So I want to arm you with some facts for this Thanksgiving season

00:00:40.120 because the story that we are told by the liberal establishment about Thanksgiving is just complete bunk.

00:00:46.340 The evil, terrible Englishmen who came and stole the land and were so terrible to the Indians and blah, blah, blah. 0.99

00:00:52.420 It's nonsense. 0.93

00:00:52.980 The real history is actually much, much more interesting and edifying than all of that.

00:00:58.740 So without further ado, enjoy the true story of Thanksgiving.

00:01:02.880 The land was ours before we were the lands.

00:01:05.840 Those are the words of Robert Frost, but they could have been uttered by the pilgrims,

00:01:09.800 who were convinced of a divine providence guiding their voyage on the Mayflower to found a new Canaan in the New World.

00:01:16.140 I'm convinced of it, too.

00:01:17.180 We will explain the true story of the Mayflower, the pilgrims' Thanksgiving, and our national destiny.

00:01:23.220 The left today mocks claims of a divine hand in our founding, in the founding of our country.

00:01:28.200 I think the reason they can so easily dismiss providence is because they're almost entirely ignorant of the history.

00:01:34.520 This is why they'll also claim that purely benevolent Indians selflessly saved the pilgrims from starvation, 0.75

00:01:41.040 only to be betrayed by the English ingrates and callously wiped out. 1.00

00:01:45.700 That didn't really happen.

00:01:47.980 Thanksgiving is the cause of much historical myth-making.

00:01:50.960 I don't mean the divine providence of the pilgrims' passage.

00:01:54.020 That part is undeniable.

00:01:55.440 I don't mean the myths of the patriotic variety, that the pilgrims and the natives sat down,

00:02:00.500 they shared food and goods together, they forged bonds of friendship and peace.

00:02:04.560 All of that happened, too.

00:02:05.820 I mean the myths of revisionism.

00:02:08.200 War came, no doubt, but the circumstances under which war came after 55 years of relatively unbroken peace

00:02:14.460 is far more complicated than the revisionists would claim.

00:02:18.280 The pilgrims were not greedy conquistadores, and the Indians weren't helpless innocents.

00:02:23.780 War might have come sooner, peace might have persisted for longer,

00:02:26.960 but for the actions and decisions of particular men reacting to complex circumstances.

00:02:32.520 I personally have a particular interest in the Mayflower Voyagers,

00:02:35.720 because despite my swarthy Sicilian skin tone, I descend from four of them.

00:02:40.240 Only one of them was a pilgrim, Dr. Samuel Fuller.

00:02:43.900 He was the only physician in the colony, although his medical training is somewhat doubtful.

00:02:48.340 My credentials are a little doubtful, too.

00:02:50.040 Three of them were so-called strangers.

00:02:52.280 These were the non-pilgrim passengers on the Mayflower.

00:02:55.120 They were not religious zealots. 0.78

00:02:56.820 Some of them were downright degenerate.

00:02:59.140 One great, great, great, great, great, great grandpappy Knowles is Stephen Hopkins,

00:03:02.480 who, 11 years prior to the Mayflower's voyage, had already traveled to the New World,

00:03:07.240 and he had shipwrecked in Bermuda, an incident on which Shakespeare's The Tempest is based.

00:03:12.920 Another is Francis Eaton, and the third is John Billington,

00:03:15.800 who Plymouth Governor William Bradford called a knave with a family that was, quote,

00:03:20.920 one of the profanest among them.

00:03:23.000 Great, great, great, great grandpappy Billington appears to have been the biggest degenerate of the Plymouth gang.

00:03:28.080 He was regularly punished for rabble-rousing, and eventually he was executed for murder.

00:03:32.820 His son John wandered off and almost caused a war,

00:03:35.520 and his wife Eleanor was sentenced to sit in the stocks and be whipped for slander.

00:03:40.260 Family memories, they come back to me.

00:03:42.300 Enough about my derelict ancestors.

00:03:44.220 Back to the Providence.

00:03:45.540 Did God ordain the Mayflower Passage and the founding of America?

00:03:50.080 Governor Bradford certainly thought so.

00:03:52.100 In his account of Plymouth Plantation, he wrote of the group,

00:03:55.740 they knew they were pilgrims.

00:03:57.240 That's why we call the voyagers pilgrims.

00:03:59.760 They wrote of themselves, quote,

00:04:01.520 We verily believe and trust the Lord is with us,

00:04:04.600 and that he will graciously prosper our endeavors according to the simplicity of our hearts therein.

00:04:09.840 It is not with us as with other men, 1.00

00:04:11.800 whom small things can discourage or small discontentments cause to wish themselves home again.

00:04:18.400 That was a good thing, because just about every obstacle imaginable

00:04:21.660 appeared to prevent the Mayflower's voyage.

00:04:24.180 The pilgrims, for those who don't know,

00:04:26.820 they came from a separatist church that thought the Church of England was so corrupt,

00:04:31.360 it could not possibly be reformed from within and must be opposed from without.

00:04:35.880 One can only imagine what they would think of my own potpourri,

00:04:38.780 of one of their descendants.

00:04:40.660 In the 16th century, several separatists had been jailed and killed,

00:04:44.280 and since the 1603 coronation of King James, pressure to conform began to mount,

00:04:49.500 so the pilgrims left England for Leiden, Holland.

00:04:52.560 After a decade there, the group feared their children were becoming too Dutch,

00:04:56.100 a fate worse than death,

00:04:57.600 and so they decided to found a new colony in the New World,

00:05:00.340 where they could worship God as they saw fit,

00:05:02.720 unmolested by overbearing governments, 1.00

00:05:04.800 and those decadent Dutch, those damn decadent Dutch. 1.00

00:05:07.420 But as they prepared to depart, 0.99

00:05:09.940 pilgrim William Brewster published a tract critical of King James and his bishops.

00:05:15.100 Now, as a young man, Brewster had served as an assistant to Queen Elizabeth's secretary of state,

00:05:19.620 a man named William Davison,

00:05:21.020 and now the king ordered his arrest, which forced Brewster into hiding.

00:05:25.060 Not a good time.

00:05:26.240 Nevertheless, they persisted.

00:05:28.140 The pilgrims contracted master Christopher Jones and his sweet ship, the Mayflower, 0.98

00:05:33.400 along with another vessel called the Speedwell. 0.71

00:05:35.760 The Mayflower was called a sweet ship because it had sailed the English Channel for over a decade,

00:05:40.060 carrying French wine,

00:05:41.300 and the spilt French wine tempered the stench of the bilge on the ship.

00:05:45.840 Some might see the pervading presence of the wine in this first act of departure,

00:05:50.620 the first miracle performed by Christ and a symbol of Christ himself,

00:05:54.340 as an early glimpse of God's plan for the pilgrims.

00:05:57.580 Regardless, more trouble lay ahead.

00:05:59.600 The second ship, the Speedwell, sprang a leak after reaching Southampton,

00:06:03.880 and another at Dartmouth.

00:06:05.520 Having decided that the ship was unable to sail,

00:06:08.240 all of the passengers loaded up on the Mayflower.

00:06:11.060 Only later was it learned that the Speedwell's master, Captain Reynolds,

00:06:14.360 had been conspiring against the pilgrims.

00:06:16.320 It was no mistake. 0.99

00:06:18.080 The Dutch, you remember those damn decadent Dutch, 1.00

00:06:20.500 they had sought to prevent the English from settling Manhattan, 0.98

00:06:23.140 and so they enlisted Reynolds in their efforts to thwart the transatlantic voyage.

00:06:27.520 Ironically, this act of sabotage may have saved the colony in its early years.

00:06:31.640 By forcing all of the passengers onto one ship,

00:06:34.060 the separatists and the strangers had to learn to cooperate with one another.

00:06:37.400 Had the Speedwell survived,

00:06:39.000 there likely would have been very little contact between the two groups.

00:06:42.060 One was drawn to one ship, one to the other.

00:06:43.800 Now the pilgrims saw evidence of God's work in just about everything.

00:06:48.520 It's an evil generation that looks for signs and wonders, 1.00

00:06:50.700 but it's a stupid generation that ignores signs and wonders. 1.00

00:06:53.480 Almost immediately, a sailor began to mock the pilgrim's seasickness. 1.00

00:06:57.300 You can imagine it, a sea-hardened sailor starts making fun of these Christian zealots.

00:07:02.780 As Bradford tells it,

00:07:04.700 A proud and profane young man would always be condemning our poor people in their sickness

00:07:09.200 and cursing them daily with grievous execrations.

00:07:12.660 The young man boasted of hoping,

00:07:14.800 to help to cast half of them overboard before they came to their journey's end.

00:07:19.220 Bradford goes on, though,

00:07:20.240 But it pleased God, before they came half-seas over,

00:07:23.940 to smite this young man with a grievous disease,

00:07:26.180 of which he died in a desperate manner,

00:07:28.700 and so was himself, the first that was thrown overboard.

00:07:31.960 Not to put too fine a point on the incident

00:07:34.040 and what it meant for the pilgrim's project,

00:07:36.420 Bradford wrote,

00:07:37.400 It was an astonishment to all his fellows,

00:07:40.220 for they noted it to be the just hand of God upon him.

00:07:43.540 The rest of the sailors kept their mouths shut.

00:07:45.780 Smart guys.

00:07:47.200 After 65 days, the Mayflower made landfall,

00:07:50.000 not at their intended and legally granted destination of New York,

00:07:53.380 but hundreds of miles northeast at Cape Cod,

00:07:55.680 where the settlers had no legal right to the land.

00:07:58.380 They'd been granted land by the Hudson River,

00:08:00.060 but not where they landed.

00:08:01.340 When the passengers learned of this,

00:08:02.640 a group of mutineers,

00:08:04.000 led by not one, but two of my ancestors,

00:08:06.480 rose up to make, quote,

00:08:07.800 discontented and mutinous speeches.

00:08:10.380 Fortunately, few on board listened to them,

00:08:12.560 and the Voyagers signed the Mayflower Compact,

00:08:15.280 a, quote,

00:08:15.800 covenant to combine ourselves together in a civil body politic,

00:08:19.320 for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid.

00:08:24.940 The land was not much to look at.

00:08:26.740 Bradford called it, quote,

00:08:27.840 a hideous and desolate wilderness.

00:08:29.960 Stranger than the environment, however, was its lack of people.

00:08:32.620 There just wasn't anybody around.

00:08:34.380 It was unpeopled because between 1616 and 1619,

00:08:38.280 bubonic plague, or some similar disease,

00:08:40.560 was introduced by European fishermen in modern Maine.

00:08:43.260 It killed an estimated 90% of the inhabitants of New England.

00:08:47.220 The disease prompted an outbreak of war among various tribes vying for power in the chaos.

00:08:52.020 People died so quickly.

00:08:53.580 No one remained to bury the dead,

00:08:55.280 which left the pilgrims to wonder at the whitened bones lying in cleared fields.

00:08:59.700 The Indians already had some familiarity with Europeans.

00:09:02.440 In 1614, Captain John Smith of Pocahontas fame,

00:09:05.820 that one, the cartoon guy,

00:09:06.960 he led a voyage around the region during which his commander, Thomas Hunt,

00:09:10.540 captured and enslaved a group of natives.

00:09:12.460 This led the Indians to slaughter all but three or four of a later group of

00:09:16.580 French travelers who shipwrecked on Cape Cod the next year in 1615.

00:09:21.240 The men who were spared ended up being tortured and enslaved.

00:09:24.600 But one of them promised an Indian in the Indians' own language

00:09:27.560 that God was angry with them for their wickedness 0.81

00:09:30.560 and would destroy them and give their country to another people. 0.94

00:09:34.220 This was a prophecy doubtless fulfilled

00:09:36.080 and another evidence of the Almighty's plan for the pilgrims.

00:09:39.340 By Provincetown Harbor, where the pilgrims first landed,

00:09:42.740 they found a gigantic bushel of corn.

00:09:44.840 They just found it sitting there.

00:09:46.420 It was huge.

00:09:47.060 They were starving.

00:09:47.880 They were worried about their ability to feed themselves.

00:09:50.240 And there was just a huge sack of corn,

00:09:52.160 so much that two men could not carry all of it.

00:09:55.020 And they debated whether or not to take it.

00:09:56.640 But they feared starvation,

00:09:57.680 so they decided to grab the corn and compensate the bushel's owner later on,

00:10:01.680 because, as you know,

00:10:02.920 it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission.

00:10:04.760 The pilgrims did, however,

00:10:06.740 refuse to loot what appeared to be Indian burial places,

00:10:09.600 despite finding bows and arrows there.

00:10:11.660 Certainly, they would have been useful to the pilgrims,

00:10:13.600 but they said,

00:10:14.540 quote,

00:10:15.120 it would be odious unto them to ransack their sepulchers.

00:10:19.040 Within a short spell,

00:10:20.120 at least 30 Indians descended on the pilgrims,

00:10:23.560 screaming war cries and flinging arrows.

00:10:25.860 Miraculously,

00:10:26.660 not a single Mayflower passenger left the encounter with a scratch.

00:10:30.840 They realized their new neighbors were not exactly well disposed toward them,

00:10:33.920 so Bradford set out to look for a better settlement option.

00:10:37.060 After a month,

00:10:37.680 he discovered Plymouth Bay,

00:10:39.240 where the situation was even stranger.

00:10:41.780 There were whole fields perfectly cleared for agriculture,

00:10:45.020 but there were no people to cultivate them.

00:10:47.660 Bradford saw in this a clear sign from the Lord,

00:10:50.080 a place that they randomly found,

00:10:52.500 apparently randomly found,

00:10:54.000 perfectly cleared and ready for them to plant.

00:10:56.380 He returned to the Mayflower to share his discovery.

00:10:58.740 He was so thankful to God,

00:10:59.860 but upon returning,

00:11:01.260 tragedy struck.

00:11:02.060 Bradford learned that Dorothy May,

00:11:04.600 his wife of seven years and mother of his three-year-old son,

00:11:07.760 had slipped over the side of the Mayflower and drowned.

00:11:10.560 You might be thinking,

00:11:11.500 hmm,

00:11:12.060 it's difficult to slip over the side of an anchored boat.

00:11:14.780 And you would be right.

00:11:16.020 While historian Cotton Mather called the death an accident,

00:11:18.640 many believe it to have been a suicide.

00:11:20.480 The temptation to despair was strong.

00:11:22.520 Dorothy May hadn't seen her son in four months,

00:11:25.020 a seven-year-old child on the ship had just died,

00:11:27.220 and two more children were ill to the point of death.

00:11:30.020 On top of all of that,

00:11:30.900 and on top of the typically cold New England weather,

00:11:33.240 a little ice age had descended on the region.

00:11:35.880 Until Bradford's return,

00:11:37.240 five days after his wife's death,

00:11:39.180 the Mayflower passengers had little reason

00:11:40.860 to expect their lot would improve.

00:11:43.160 Bradford himself then fell ill

00:11:44.600 as the Voyagers settled into Plymouth.

00:11:46.780 He requested some beer from the Mayflower

00:11:48.580 to aid in his recovery.

00:11:50.140 The sailors,

00:11:50.820 fearful that their booze supply would run out

00:11:52.480 before they made it back to England,

00:11:54.500 well,

00:11:54.680 the water at that time was virtually undrinkable,

00:11:56.480 so they needed to drink beer on the way,

00:11:58.060 they responded that if Bradford were their own father,

00:12:01.280 he should have none.

00:12:02.520 Quote,

00:12:03.040 Remember what happened to the last sailor

00:12:05.140 who gave Pilgrims lip? 0.99

00:12:06.180 You might remember.

00:12:07.020 In a replay of that incident,

00:12:08.360 they all started to get sick and die.

00:12:10.340 The coincidence even prompted

00:12:11.540 one young officer on the ship

00:12:12.980 to a deathbed conversion.

00:12:14.880 Master Jones, too,

00:12:16.000 had a change of heart,

00:12:17.180 and he gave the Pilgrims their beer.

00:12:19.220 Smart guy.

00:12:20.120 During February and March of that horrible winter,

00:12:22.440 two or three colonists died per day.

00:12:24.360 Two or three per day.

00:12:26.840 By spring,

00:12:27.540 a majority of the settlers

00:12:28.480 who had originally arrived at Provincetown,

00:12:30.660 52 out of 102,

00:12:32.760 were dead.

00:12:34.120 Here's where things start to get

00:12:35.360 really, really strange.

00:12:37.660 As if they weren't strange enough already,

00:12:39.520 here's where it gets to Occam's razor.

00:12:42.100 On March 16th,

00:12:43.120 just two or three months

00:12:44.060 after settling in at Plymouth,

00:12:45.660 a lone Indian walked boldly out of the woods

00:12:48.200 toward the Pilgrims.

00:12:49.460 They grabbed their muskets,

00:12:50.800 stood on guard.

00:12:52.080 None of that deterred the Indian.

00:12:53.280 He saluted his new neighbors

00:12:55.100 and said two words.

00:12:56.820 Welcome, Englishman.

00:12:59.060 He was tall.

00:12:59.760 He had long hair,

00:13:00.500 no beard.

00:13:01.040 He was naked as the day he was born.

00:13:02.960 Interestingly,

00:13:03.560 for the racial politics revisionists,

00:13:05.700 the Pilgrims made no mention

00:13:07.180 in their records of his race,

00:13:08.660 of the color of his skin.

00:13:10.020 The man's name was Samoset.

00:13:11.580 He was a sachem visiting from Maine

00:13:13.160 where he'd learned some English from fishermen,

00:13:15.280 and he just happened to be visiting

00:13:17.300 in precisely the area

00:13:18.880 at precisely the time

00:13:20.340 the English had accidentally landed

00:13:22.080 after they missed New York

00:13:23.560 but didn't know to sail up

00:13:24.700 to the next nicest harbor

00:13:25.820 in Massachusetts Bay.

00:13:27.580 Just right there,

00:13:28.720 right exactly where they were,

00:13:30.060 apparently by accident.

00:13:31.180 If that weren't coincidental enough,

00:13:33.000 in the following days,

00:13:33.920 Samoset returned with another Indian 1.00

00:13:35.480 who spoke virtually perfect English.

00:13:38.020 He chatted with the Pilgrims

00:13:39.160 about his favorite areas of Spain

00:13:40.860 and his favorite neighborhoods in London.

00:13:43.500 That man's name was Squanto.

00:13:45.080 Years earlier,

00:13:45.860 Squanto had been abducted by Thomas Hunt,

00:13:48.000 sold into slavery in Spain,

00:13:49.700 escaped,

00:13:50.120 or was possibly rescued by monks,

00:13:52.040 made his way to England somehow,

00:13:53.580 hopped a boat to Newfoundland,

00:13:54.800 and walked all the way down to Plymouth

00:13:56.160 where the Poconocan Indian chief,

00:13:57.900 Massasoit,

00:13:58.480 enslaved him.

00:13:59.760 The Poconocan Indian chief 0.96

00:14:01.100 right near where the Pilgrims landed,

00:14:03.220 right at the mark

00:14:04.040 that they happened to land.

00:14:05.600 The Pilgrims, 0.75

00:14:06.220 after landing 300 miles off their mark,

00:14:08.220 stumbled on perhaps

00:14:09.160 the only person

00:14:10.280 in the Western Hemisphere

00:14:11.280 with a command

00:14:12.160 of the English language.

00:14:13.860 This is the Occam's Razor part.

00:14:16.240 Occam's Razor says,

00:14:17.140 among competing hypotheses,

00:14:18.920 the one with the fewest assumptions

00:14:20.000 should be selected.

00:14:21.560 So either endless,

00:14:22.960 unique,

00:14:23.740 and impossibly improbable events

00:14:25.580 just happened to occur,

00:14:26.900 or God sent Squanto

00:14:27.980 to help the Pilgrims.

00:14:29.520 I know which one I think.

00:14:31.280 Squanto, unsurprisingly, 0.97

00:14:32.480 became the liaison

00:14:33.180 between the Pilgrims 1.00

00:14:34.100 and their new neighbors,

00:14:35.020 the Poconocats.

00:14:36.360 William Brewster,

00:14:37.280 ever the diplomat,

00:14:38.160 orchestrated a diplomatic reception

00:14:39.860 of the Poconocat,

00:14:41.640 Sachem,

00:14:42.100 Massasoit,

00:14:43.020 replete with pillows

00:14:43.780 and carpets

00:14:44.400 and trumpets

00:14:44.880 and drums.

00:14:45.720 Within only a few years,

00:14:47.100 Squanto had gone

00:14:47.740 from a slave

00:14:48.420 to the single

00:14:49.240 most powerful person

00:14:50.240 in the region,

00:14:51.240 as only he could communicate

00:14:52.660 between the English

00:14:53.320 and the Indians,

00:14:54.120 and he used his newfound power

00:14:56.080 to his advantage.

00:14:57.820 Squanto was a true friend

00:14:58.880 of the Indians.

00:14:59.440 He helped them plant corn.

00:15:00.840 He was indispensable.

00:15:02.420 Governor Bradford loved him

00:15:03.780 like a family member.

00:15:05.520 He also played the situation

00:15:06.840 to get an upper hand

00:15:07.680 on Massasoit

00:15:08.480 and the Poconocats.

00:15:10.100 There is a bit of strange symbolism

00:15:11.780 in the name Squanto itself.

00:15:14.160 Squanto was named

00:15:14.840 after the Indian spirit

00:15:15.820 of night and darkness

00:15:16.800 and cold wind,

00:15:18.380 the spirit the pilgrims

00:15:19.280 identified with the devil.

00:15:21.440 There was another one,

00:15:22.340 another indispensable Indian

00:15:23.640 to the pilgrims,

00:15:25.380 a man by the name

00:15:26.100 of Habamuk,

00:15:27.380 was also named

00:15:28.180 after this spirit.

00:15:29.520 Nathaniel Philbrick,

00:15:30.620 in his excellent story,

00:15:32.640 The Mayflower,

00:15:33.720 in his excellent book,

00:15:34.500 he puts it well.

00:15:35.780 A group of people

00:15:36.640 so singularly devoted

00:15:38.000 to serving God

00:15:38.900 that they sailed

00:15:39.720 halfway around the world

00:15:40.640 to do it

00:15:41.180 became entirely dependent

00:15:42.800 on two Indians 0.72

00:15:43.800 named Satan.

00:15:45.360 The surrounding Indian tribes

00:15:46.540 in turn became jealous

00:15:47.560 of the Poconocat Indian Alliance

00:15:49.260 as it greatly strengthened

00:15:50.780 Massasoit's position

00:15:51.960 in the region.

00:15:53.280 The Matapoiset chief,

00:15:54.600 Corbatant,

00:15:55.200 tried to break the alliance

00:15:56.200 by capturing

00:15:57.080 poor little Squanto.

00:15:58.540 He even held a knife

00:15:59.460 to the poor man's neck.

00:16:01.400 But while the pilgrims

00:16:02.180 were generally peaceful,

00:16:03.460 it is nevertheless

00:16:04.140 and always remains

00:16:05.160 a bad idea

00:16:05.980 to mess with fire

00:16:07.360 and brimstone zealots

00:16:08.380 who know they have God

00:16:09.100 on their side.

00:16:10.280 Governor Bradford

00:16:10.900 ordered Plymouth's

00:16:11.640 military commander

00:16:12.400 Miles Standish

00:16:13.260 to go after Corbatant

00:16:14.380 with guns blazing.

00:16:15.740 Standish was already

00:16:16.520 chomping at the bit

00:16:17.280 to do it

00:16:17.780 and wouldn't you know

00:16:18.940 all of this

00:16:19.520 had the effect

00:16:20.120 of making all the petty

00:16:21.080 sachems much friendlier

00:16:22.820 toward the English.

00:16:23.940 Funny how demonstrations

00:16:25.120 of strength work.

00:16:26.820 This brings us

00:16:27.580 to the first Thanksgiving.

00:16:28.900 We wouldn't forget

00:16:29.480 about Thanksgiving.

00:16:30.460 It occurred around

00:16:31.140 Michaelmas,

00:16:32.320 Michaelmas,

00:16:32.900 which is in late September,

00:16:34.020 early October.

00:16:35.060 Contrary to popular revisionism,

00:16:36.660 it actually did resemble

00:16:37.980 not only our 20th century

00:16:39.520 ideas of Thanksgiving,

00:16:40.680 but even the dinners

00:16:41.480 that we have today.

00:16:42.340 It actually was

00:16:43.000 fairly similar.

00:16:44.220 There was a lot of corn,

00:16:45.360 squash, beans,

00:16:46.460 barley, peas.

00:16:47.300 They did eat turkey.

00:16:48.620 They ate ducks and geese.

00:16:49.680 They possibly also ate

00:16:50.700 striped bass

00:16:51.740 and bluefish and cod.

00:16:53.480 NASA Soed

00:16:54.120 and his Indian pals

00:16:55.040 showed up with

00:16:55.580 around 100 people,

00:16:56.980 more than twice

00:16:57.580 the English population

00:16:58.540 of the colony,

00:16:59.700 but he knew his manners

00:17:00.900 and he didn't show up

00:17:01.660 empty-handed.

00:17:02.260 He brought five

00:17:02.900 freshly killed deer.

00:17:04.460 The entire meal

00:17:05.140 was cooked by the

00:17:05.860 four adult women

00:17:06.660 who survived

00:17:07.320 that awful first winter,

00:17:08.920 half of whom

00:17:09.460 lead the genetic line

00:17:10.440 all the way down

00:17:11.000 to little old me.

00:17:12.040 This festival,

00:17:12.800 however,

00:17:13.080 was not religious

00:17:13.980 in the way

00:17:14.540 that we would

00:17:15.220 consider Thanksgiving.

00:17:16.420 They didn't even

00:17:16.860 call it Thanksgiving.

00:17:18.060 The real Thanksgiving

00:17:18.840 didn't happen

00:17:19.500 until two years later

00:17:20.680 in 1623

00:17:22.000 when Governor Bradford

00:17:23.380 officially declared

00:17:24.280 a day of Thanksgiving.

00:17:26.360 This was a civil affair

00:17:27.760 recognized by

00:17:28.500 the civil authority

00:17:29.200 and it didn't celebrate

00:17:30.680 English-Indian cooperation

00:17:32.240 as they may have

00:17:33.260 celebrated two years earlier.

00:17:34.800 Rather,

00:17:35.120 the pilgrims

00:17:36.480 were thankful

00:17:37.000 that year

00:17:37.620 that they ditched

00:17:38.400 communism in favor

00:17:39.500 of private property,

00:17:40.960 which had in turn

00:17:41.880 given them abundance.

00:17:43.300 You see,

00:17:43.520 the pilgrims

00:17:44.020 had tried

00:17:44.420 what they called

00:17:44.960 the common course.

00:17:46.300 Not common core,

00:17:47.040 that's also bad,

00:17:47.660 but the common course,

00:17:48.840 communal ownership

00:17:49.540 of property,

00:17:50.260 land,

00:17:50.480 and wealth.

00:17:51.300 Turns out it made

00:17:51.960 everybody lazy,

00:17:52.900 dishonest, 1.00

00:17:53.360 and thieving. 0.99

00:17:53.940 Shocking, I know.

00:17:54.920 On the brink of starvation

00:17:56.060 in 1623,

00:17:57.680 Bradford instituted

00:17:58.640 private property.

00:17:59.940 In his words,

00:18:00.700 quote,

00:18:00.920 this had very good success

00:18:02.680 for it made all hands

00:18:03.980 very industrious.

00:18:05.340 So as much more corn

00:18:06.400 was planted

00:18:06.960 than otherwise

00:18:07.560 would have been

00:18:08.160 by any means

00:18:09.040 the governor

00:18:09.480 or any other

00:18:10.560 could use

00:18:11.120 and saved him

00:18:12.000 a great deal

00:18:12.480 of trouble

00:18:12.900 and gave far

00:18:13.880 better content.

00:18:15.160 The women now 1.00

00:18:15.820 willingly went

00:18:16.680 into the field

00:18:17.300 and took their

00:18:18.060 little ones

00:18:18.560 with them

00:18:18.840 to set corn,

00:18:19.820 which before

00:18:20.440 would allege

00:18:20.960 weakness and inability.

00:18:22.680 Whom to have

00:18:23.260 compelled

00:18:23.740 would have been

00:18:24.380 thought great

00:18:25.160 tyranny

00:18:25.920 and oppression.

00:18:27.320 It's amazing

00:18:27.900 when you give people

00:18:28.780 a stake

00:18:29.300 in their own

00:18:29.680 abundance

00:18:30.400 and their own work,

00:18:31.460 it turns out

00:18:31.800 they work more.

00:18:33.160 And by the way,

00:18:33.880 this was not just

00:18:34.600 a conclusion

00:18:35.100 about a particular

00:18:35.820 experience.

00:18:36.880 Bradford explicitly

00:18:38.000 condemned communism

00:18:39.040 in all its forms

00:18:40.280 and all its lies

00:18:41.260 and all its empty

00:18:41.940 promises

00:18:42.340 as absurd

00:18:43.460 and contrary

00:18:44.120 to God's will.

00:18:45.480 He explained,

00:18:46.360 quote,

00:18:46.960 the experience

00:18:47.800 that was had

00:18:48.480 in this common

00:18:49.080 course and condition

00:18:50.020 tried sundry years

00:18:51.580 and that amongst

00:18:52.160 godly and sober men

00:18:53.500 may well evince

00:18:55.000 the vanity

00:18:55.660 of that conceit

00:18:56.780 of Plato's

00:18:57.560 and other ancients

00:18:58.800 applauded by some

00:19:00.000 of later times.

00:19:01.600 Little did he know

00:19:02.120 of even later times

00:19:03.040 that the taking away

00:19:04.520 of property

00:19:05.180 and bringing in community

00:19:06.320 into a common wealth

00:19:07.380 would make them happy

00:19:08.400 and flourishing

00:19:09.000 as if they were

00:19:09.920 wiser than God.

00:19:12.120 Within two years

00:19:12.800 of landfall,

00:19:13.740 these earliest Americans

00:19:14.960 already realized

00:19:16.040 that communism

00:19:16.720 is the worst.

00:19:18.580 Anticommunism

00:19:19.100 is as American

00:19:19.940 as apple pie

00:19:21.200 and Thanksgiving.

00:19:23.060 While most local

00:19:24.180 Indian tribes

00:19:24.680 played nice,

00:19:25.640 the Narragansetts

00:19:26.340 refused to abide

00:19:27.220 the Poconoc

00:19:27.800 at English Alliance

00:19:28.620 and they threatened

00:19:29.480 war by sending 0.82

00:19:30.340 arrowheads

00:19:30.980 wrapped in snakeskin

00:19:32.120 to the pilgrims

00:19:33.060 in Squanto.

00:19:34.040 They're not going

00:19:34.480 to take that,

00:19:35.200 so the pilgrims

00:19:35.840 sent bullets

00:19:36.440 and gunpowder

00:19:37.240 wrapped in snakeskin

00:19:38.180 right back.

00:19:39.420 Another reminder,

00:19:40.680 it is not a good idea

00:19:41.520 to mess with

00:19:42.040 religious zealots

00:19:42.860 who travel around

00:19:43.760 the world

00:19:44.100 to live in freezing

00:19:44.880 desolate wilderness

00:19:45.680 because God

00:19:46.460 is on their side.

00:19:47.420 Do not mess

00:19:47.960 with those people ever.

00:19:49.400 Now,

00:19:49.760 like any sane society,

00:19:51.220 to protect against

00:19:51.940 threats from without,

00:19:53.080 the pilgrims

00:19:53.600 built a big,

00:19:54.400 beautiful wall

00:19:55.020 around their settlement.

00:19:56.360 Hundreds,

00:19:56.640 if not thousands

00:19:57.560 of trees were felled,

00:19:58.740 the pilgrims lugged

00:19:59.640 the mass of timber

00:20:00.400 by hand,

00:20:01.300 and it stood

00:20:01.800 more than half a mile

00:20:02.760 in length

00:20:03.160 and over eight feet tall.

00:20:05.060 The wall's construction

00:20:06.000 was met by shrieking protests 1.00

00:20:07.520 and stupid pink hats. 1.00

00:20:08.880 I'm just kidding, 1.00

00:20:09.600 that wouldn't happen

00:20:10.280 in America

00:20:10.700 for almost 400 more years.

00:20:13.300 Indian relations

00:20:14.040 continued relatively well,

00:20:15.960 very often with the pilgrims

00:20:17.420 playing peacemakers

00:20:18.480 and intervening

00:20:19.240 on behalf of their

00:20:19.980 Indian friends

00:20:20.700 with other tribes.

00:20:22.100 When Massasoit

00:20:22.800 demanded Squanto's head

00:20:24.100 after an attempted coup,

00:20:25.780 the pilgrims

00:20:26.360 begged for his life.

00:20:27.800 Massasoit agreed,

00:20:29.020 though likely

00:20:29.440 he later poisoned him anyway.

00:20:31.320 On his deathbed,

00:20:32.220 Squanto asked Bradford

00:20:33.520 to pray for him

00:20:34.320 that he might go

00:20:35.000 to the Englishman's god.

00:20:36.780 Bradford called Squanto,

00:20:38.020 quote,

00:20:38.640 a special instrument

00:20:39.660 sent of god

00:20:40.480 for their good

00:20:41.440 beyond their expectation.

00:20:43.260 It's impossible

00:20:43.980 to argue with that,

00:20:44.900 he clearly was.

00:20:46.040 The pilgrims

00:20:46.620 at Bradford's command

00:20:47.540 later saved Massasoit's life

00:20:49.100 by rushing to his deathbed,

00:20:51.140 cleaning his sores,

00:20:52.100 cooking him food,

00:20:52.740 administering

00:20:53.760 what little medicine

00:20:54.500 they had,

00:20:55.240 doing anything they could,

00:20:56.500 no matter how degrading,

00:20:57.680 no matter how ethereal

00:20:59.920 for Massasoit.

00:21:01.340 To thank them,

00:21:02.100 Massasoit told the English

00:21:03.160 of the Massachusetts,

00:21:04.760 unprovoked plan

00:21:05.820 to attack the colony.

00:21:07.360 The Massachusetts

00:21:07.940 were going to strike,

00:21:09.600 but this put Bradford

00:21:10.520 in a difficult position.

00:21:12.140 The pilgrims

00:21:12.640 didn't want to attack

00:21:13.440 the Massachusetts

00:21:14.060 without provocation,

00:21:15.420 but if they waited

00:21:16.300 for the Massachusetts

00:21:16.980 to strike,

00:21:17.780 they were doomed.

00:21:18.780 The Massachusetts

00:21:19.200 wanted to take care

00:21:20.200 of some Englishmen

00:21:20.860 on their property,

00:21:21.940 and they knew

00:21:22.200 they'd have to hit

00:21:22.780 Plymouth, too.

00:21:23.960 So what happened?

00:21:25.540 Bradford gave the order,

00:21:26.720 Standish set the trap, 0.99

00:21:27.720 and the English

00:21:28.100 averted war

00:21:28.840 by carrying the head

00:21:30.020 of Sachem Wituwamot

00:21:31.660 back to Plymouth.

00:21:33.380 Now, it's funny

00:21:33.920 to think of those

00:21:34.540 Bush-era activists

00:21:35.720 who screaked

00:21:36.780 about how awful

00:21:37.560 and unprecedented

00:21:38.480 preemptive war

00:21:39.520 was for America.

00:21:40.860 Literally,

00:21:41.300 the first major

00:21:42.160 military assault

00:21:42.920 waged by our country

00:21:44.340 was preemptive.

00:21:45.660 Not only that,

00:21:46.420 it worked.

00:21:47.360 War was averted,

00:21:48.420 and the Indians

00:21:48.940 who conspired

00:21:49.600 against the pilgrims

00:21:50.380 apologized profusely,

00:21:52.220 they made amends,

00:21:53.220 and Massasoit

00:21:54.040 consolidated his power

00:21:55.420 even further,

00:21:56.580 creating,

00:21:57.280 thanks to the pilgrims

00:21:58.200 for the first time,

00:21:59.340 the Wampanoag nation.

00:22:01.380 Peace persisted

00:22:02.140 for decades.

00:22:03.000 As the Massachusetts

00:22:03.880 Bay Colony

00:22:04.640 and other colonies

00:22:05.380 were formed,

00:22:06.300 Harvard College

00:22:07.060 was founded,

00:22:08.160 Indians converted

00:22:09.080 to Christianity

00:22:09.820 by the tribe full,

00:22:11.420 and as a result,

00:22:12.500 Indians ranked

00:22:13.220 among some of

00:22:13.900 the earliest alumni

00:22:14.820 of Harvard.

00:22:15.840 I'm certain they

00:22:16.640 were far better educated

00:22:17.980 than those shrieking 0.92

00:22:19.260 snowflakes today.

00:22:20.580 Missionary John Elliott

00:22:21.640 translated the entire Bible

00:22:23.180 into a phonetic version

00:22:24.360 of the Massachusetts language

00:22:26.100 since the Massachusetts

00:22:27.180 hadn't developed

00:22:27.980 their own written language,

00:22:29.320 both the Old

00:22:29.800 and the New Testament.

00:22:30.940 As happened

00:22:31.500 1600 years prior

00:22:32.860 in Europe,

00:22:33.720 the advent of Christianity

00:22:34.800 threatened the political

00:22:35.820 power of Sachems 0.95

00:22:36.840 because Christ's conquest

00:22:38.460 of death

00:22:39.500 on the cross

00:22:40.120 removed political leaders

00:22:41.700 only claimed to authority,

00:22:43.180 and this led to jealousy

00:22:44.440 now among other

00:22:45.580 Indian tribes.

00:22:46.320 Peace endured

00:22:48.320 virtually unbroken

00:22:49.280 for 55 years.

00:22:51.380 It only broke

00:22:52.120 when Massasoit's own son,

00:22:53.680 Philip,

00:22:54.320 wrongly blamed the English

00:22:55.640 for the death

00:22:56.180 of his brother,

00:22:56.940 who more likely died

00:22:57.940 of appendicitis

00:22:58.820 or some other

00:22:59.380 natural ailment.

00:23:01.040 Philip vowed revenge.

00:23:02.280 He began selling off land

00:23:03.420 to raise funds for war,

00:23:04.860 and he thereby exacerbated

00:23:06.400 the need for war.

00:23:07.660 Local Indians,

00:23:08.680 notably the Christian

00:23:09.520 and Harvard alum

00:23:10.440 John Sassaman,

00:23:11.760 warned Plymouth

00:23:12.480 of Philip's plans for war.

00:23:14.180 Many local tribes

00:23:15.160 rebuffed Philip's belligerence

00:23:16.840 and sided with the English.

00:23:18.440 Philip even made

00:23:19.120 an alliance with the French

00:23:20.380 against the English,

00:23:21.400 an offense unforgivable

00:23:22.680 not only to you and me

00:23:24.000 and all right-thinking people,

00:23:25.640 but also to the fierce

00:23:26.820 and not infrequently

00:23:27.880 cannibalistic Mohawk tribe 1.00

00:23:29.500 who promptly sided

00:23:30.960 with the English.

00:23:32.500 Looking back,

00:23:33.340 it seems miraculous

00:23:34.460 that peace endured so long

00:23:36.120 until tragically

00:23:37.380 the hot-headed child

00:23:38.640 of the pilgrim's

00:23:39.380 dear friend Massasoit

00:23:40.340 acted on a bad hunch

00:23:41.840 and destroyed

00:23:42.700 more than half a century

00:23:43.680 of mutual benefit

00:23:44.500 and cooperation,

00:23:45.680 setting the English

00:23:46.580 permanently on their course

00:23:48.040 to possess

00:23:48.900 the whole new world.

00:23:50.840 Reflecting on the abject misery

00:23:52.740 the pilgrims endured

00:23:53.820 at the Mayflower's landfall,

00:23:55.400 the miracle of their survival,

00:23:57.000 and their great thanks to God

00:23:58.320 for protecting his people,

00:24:00.040 William Bradford wrote,

00:24:01.060 What could now sustain them

00:24:04.320 but the spirit of God

00:24:05.440 and his grace?

00:24:07.040 May not and ought not

00:24:08.560 the children of these fathers

00:24:09.840 rightly say,

00:24:11.240 Our fathers were Englishmen

00:24:12.700 which came over this great ocean

00:24:14.620 and were ready to perish

00:24:16.060 in this wilderness,

00:24:17.220 but they cried unto the Lord

00:24:18.740 and he heard their voice

00:24:20.100 and looked on their adversity.

00:24:22.460 The quintessentially American poet

00:24:23.960 Robert Frost

00:24:24.740 looked on the country's destiny

00:24:26.640 with an additional

00:24:27.640 three centuries perspective.

00:24:28.900 He wrote,

00:24:29.820 The land was ours

00:24:31.520 before we were the lands.

00:24:33.360 She was our land

00:24:34.080 more than a hundred years

00:24:35.120 before we were her people.

00:24:36.980 She was ours in Massachusetts,

00:24:38.820 in Virginia,

00:24:39.760 but we were England's

00:24:40.840 still colonials,

00:24:42.400 possessing

00:24:42.980 what we still were

00:24:43.960 unpossessed by,

00:24:45.560 possessed by

00:24:46.280 what we now

00:24:47.020 no more possessed.

00:24:48.780 Something we were withholding

00:24:50.140 made us weak

00:24:50.820 until we found out

00:24:52.240 that it was ourselves

00:24:53.240 we were withholding

00:24:54.280 from our land of living

00:24:55.260 and forthwith found

00:24:56.860 salvation in surrender.

00:24:59.140 Such as we were

00:25:00.060 we gave ourselves outright.

00:25:02.160 The deed of gift

00:25:03.000 was many deeds of war.

00:25:05.120 To the land

00:25:05.760 vaguely realizing westward,

00:25:07.660 but still unstoried,

00:25:08.920 artless,

00:25:09.780 unenhanced.

00:25:11.240 Such as she was,

00:25:12.660 such as she would become.

00:25:15.020 I'm Michael Knowles.

00:25:15.900 This is The Michael Knowles Show.

00:25:17.400 Happy Thanksgiving.

00:25:18.040 Did you know that

00:25:26.820 over 85% of grass-fed beef

00:25:28.420 sold in U.S. grocery stores

00:25:29.800 is imported?

00:25:31.140 That's why I buy

00:25:31.920 all my meat

00:25:32.600 from GoodRanchers.com instead.

00:25:34.840 Good Ranchers products

00:25:35.620 are 100% born,

00:25:36.960 raised,

00:25:37.280 and harvested

00:25:37.740 right here in the USA

00:25:38.900 from local family farms.

00:25:40.520 Plus, there's no antibiotics

00:25:41.880 ever,

00:25:42.620 no added hormones,

00:25:43.520 and no seed oils.

00:25:44.760 Just one simple ingredient.

00:25:46.260 That's meat.

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The Michael Knowles Show - November 24, 2022

Leftist Thanksgiving Myths DEBUNKED ｜ A Michael Knowles Classic

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