The first Thanksgiving wasn't celebrated with turkey (there weren't any in
Massachusetts) and didn't take place in 1621. Indeed the settlers, who probably didn't think of themselves as
Pilgrims and were most certainly not revolutionaries against their king, were lucky not to be wiped out during their first winter. They probably would have been had the local Indian population not been affected even worse by disease and starvation. In this fascinating history of America's favorite creation myth, peppered with delightful and unexpected insights, Godfrey Hodgson throws new light on the radicalism of the so-called Pilgrims, the financing of their trip, the state of the Indian tribes that they encountered when they landed and the reasons why
Plymouth probably didn't have a
rock.
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Background Information
Massachusetts had some of the earliest English colonies in America and was central to the American Revolution. The Pilgrims were those members of the Puritan community who voyaged across the Atlantic in the Mayflower to find a new life of religious freedom. Plymouth was the first Puritan colony in Massachusetts, founded by the Pilgrims who crossed the Atlantic in 1620 in the Mayflower. Plymouth Rock is known as the place upon which the Pilgrims first set foot, although the historical accuracy of the tradition is suspect.
