ipl-logo

Free Argumentative Essays: The First Thanksgiving

808 Words4 Pages

The First Thanksgiving Everyone knows about Thanksgiving and eating turkey and pie, with a little cranberry sauce. Even though that is not what the pilgrims and Indians really did on the first Thanksgiving. Most elementary schools teach about how the pilgrims and Indians were friends. That they wore nice clothing, and ate at a giant table all together with a cornucopia in front of them. That is not really what happened; they probably did not have a table or pretty clothes. They ate what they had, not anything that they wanted. The schools don’t really portray what actually happened on the first thanksgiving. The trip on the Mayflower wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, it was harsh. The ship took off from Plymouth with 102 pilgrims in the year of 1620. This wasn’t any short trip; it took 66 long days to reach Cape Cod. When they arrived it was winter, so most people stayed on the ship. Only about half of the original passengers survived until spring. In March they moved on to the land and received a greeting from an Abenaki Indian. Later in the month he brought Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe. Squanto ended up teaching the pilgrims how to do many things such as cultivate the corn, gather sap from trees, catch fish, and be aware of poisonous plants. The Pilgrims had a rough start to their amazing …show more content…

In 1621 the Indians taught the pilgrims how to plant and grow crops so they wouldn’t starve. After the growing came the harvesting, it was a success. They had finally done it and would not starve through the winter. The feast or thanksgiving is all about how the pilgrims had their first successful corn harvest and had plenty of food to gather and share. They shared this feast with the Indians and their leader Massasoit. The first thanksgiving lasted three whole days. It wasn’t until 1863 that Abraham Lincoln made it a national holiday know as Thanksgiving. (History.com Staff,

Show More
Related
780 Words | 4 Pages

Philbrick’s main purpose in writing the Mayflower was to illustrate to the readers, that the story of the Pilgrims does not end with the First Thanksgiving, nor was it simple as the modern generation perceived it to be. Instead, it is a fifty-five year journey, which is filled with both disastrous and courageous times and whose customs and beliefs are still carried on to us today. The preface of the Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War contains few lines that state the thesis of the book. One of line by Philbrick states that, “I grew up thinking the story of the Pilgrims ended with the First Thanksgiving… however when you look at how the Pilgrims and their children maintained fifty year of peace with the Wampanoag…or how peace suddenly erupted into a war… the story of the Pilgrims did not end with the First Thanksgiving.” (Philbrick 1)

Read More
912 Words | 4 Pages

Part one consists of chapters one through seven describing the Pilgrim’s voyage to America and the building of their community as well as the formation of a long relationship with the local Pokanokets and their leader, Massasoit. Part two details of new faces coming to the colony from England meaning more mouths to feed, adding to their problems was the threat of the Narragansetts, enemies of the Pokanokets. As a result the men of Plymouth colony constructed an eight foot wall around the settlement. Following the death of Squanto, Standish killed two sachems, Wituwamat and Pecksuot, disrupting the balance of power in the area in favor of the Pokanokets, and after Massasoit recovered from his sickness with the help of Winslow. The Plymouth-Pokanoket alliance was stronger than ever.

Read More
555 Words | 3 Pages

Historians believe as a young boy Squanto was kidnapped while along the coast of Maine and brought to England in 1605. While in England he was taught English and hired as an interpreter (a skill that was later used to help the Pilgrims understand his tribal language). In 1614, Squanto was brought back to his homeland by John Smith. It is unknown if Squanto

Read More
663 Words | 3 Pages

Squanto taught them how to plant corn, catch fish, and hunt beaver. '' ...... Squanto continued with them and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent from god...for their good beyond their expectation....''. The pilgrims were very pleased to have Squanto guide them and have his help.

Read More
174 Words | 1 Pages

“Thanksgiving Myths” Two myths are “The Pilgrims celebrated Thanksgiving every year”, “The Wampanoag brought popcorn to the first Thanksgiving feast”. The truth in these myths are that the Pilgrims did celebrate thanksgiving. That the Pilgrims came to America to for land and for the thanksgiving part. I think people believe this.

Read More
970 Words | 4 Pages

The Native Americans that inhabited the Americas, particularly in the Puritan colony of Plymouth in Massachusetts and the area that encompasses the English colony of Virginia in the eastern coast of North America, had their lives drastically changed upon contact with Europeans and served different roles for both different colonies. Native Americans living near the Plymouth were crucial to the survival of the Puritans in the Plymouth colony while the Native Americans in the Virginia colonies were in constant warfare with the English colonists in Jamestown. The Puritan colonists of England that founded and settled the Plymouth colony were not well equipped to live in the area surrounding the colony while the Native Americans who had lived there

Read More
251 Words | 2 Pages

As a child growing up, our parents taught us many fictional characters and myths. For example, Santa Calsus, the Easter Bunny, and the myth behind the tooth fairy. Theses thoughts or “tales” are placed in our head so as children, we have the idea of a perfect happy world. In elementary school, I was taught that thanksgiving was simply a time to stuff your face with turkey. As a grew a bit older thanksgiving was expounded and I learned that the first Thanksgiving Day was celebrated in Plymouth by Pilgrims and Native Americans, and this information was still incorrect.

Read More
313 Words | 2 Pages

• Thanksgiving themes (similarities and differences between life then and now) • The Story of Pilgrims by Katharine Ross and The Very First Thanksgiving Day by Rhonda Gowler Green • Students will develop an understanding about how the lives of pilgrims are similar and how they are different from the lives we lead today. 3. Content Objectives • Students will list two differences and two similarities between themselves and the Pilgrims. 4. Language Objectives • Students will tell what is the same between themselves and the Pilgrims using the words “like” and “similar”.

Read More
901 Words | 4 Pages

Thanksgiving a time where people sit around the table and be thankful for the things they have. However, many people know of how it became a holiday, but people don’t know is who started this holiday. The man who had started Thanksgiving was named William Bradford; It started from his marriage ceremony in the New World where the (Johnson) Wampanoags Native Americans (Whitehurst and Ruffin 18) brought over turkeys and deer to feast on (Johnson). William Bradford was the second governor of Plymouth for his wisdom and leadership; he ran for governor for thirty years with a five year break.

Read More
1139 Words | 5 Pages

During the time of Thanksgiving, many families join together in one place and prepare a huge meal. In a way similar to the cultures in the Odyssey, the host family prepares this big meal, comfort, and relaxation for all of the other members and travelers who have decided to join them. Although Thanksgiving is a tradition that started in 1621 and the Odyssey was first written in the eighth century BC, they still have a lot of the same attributes in common. Characters throughout the story such as the people of Pylos cease their celebration to show hospitality to strangers whom they have never met before. Other characters offer hospitality to strangers, who, in the end, appear as gods or well-known people such as Menelaus.

Read More
641 Words | 3 Pages

Living in Colonial America is very different than any other part in the world, especially when they didn’t know what’s around them. Colonial America was very hard for the new pilgrims. Not only is it hard when they didn’t have houses set up, but also life was made harder during the winter when it was freezing outside. After they set up different town's life began to become a little easier. In the town of Salem, the Witch trials popped up around 1692 and made life hard again.

Read More
448 Words | 2 Pages

The pilgrims were also good friends with the indians the. The indians showed the pilgrims how to plant food. The indians told the pilgrims if you put fish in with the seed it will grow faster. When they settled the temperatures were very cold every winter many men and women died during winter. What they died of were

Read More
883 Words | 4 Pages

Howard Zinn famously once said: “The First Amendment is whatever the cop on the beat says it is.” Zinn’s words may have best been exemplified in Ferguson, Missouri, in the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting. The First Amendment states that no law shall be made “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble” (U.S. Constitution). Yet in Ferguson, protesters were confronted by police officers carrying military-grade equipment, and reporters were arrested while simply doing their job. Zinn appears to have been right; at least temporarily, the rights an American has under the First Amendment are whatever the cop on the beat says they are.

Read More
550 Words | 3 Pages

As studied by Janet Siskind, the American Thanksgiving celebration is actually a very detailed ritual that contains many symbols. Similar to other rituals, the holiday reinforces certain social structures and “…reaffirms values and assumptions about cultural and social unity, about identity and history, about inclusion and exclusion” (168). The Thanksgiving ritual is centered around a return home, as people traveled from their urban homes back to their rural home to meet with their larger family. As a result, “the household became the site of ritual performance…” (175). The goal of the Thanksgiving ritual was to reaffirm the family and renew traditional ties, especially as more people had started moving into the cities around the time that the holiday became popular in the United States (176).

Read More
1817 Words | 8 Pages

When thinking about the harmonious and blessing Thanksgiving, one connects the setting and atmosphere to the painting of Freedom From Want by Norman Rockwell. Norman Rockwell, an American painter and illustrator, was best known for his depiction of everyday American life. In Rockwell’s early years, he putted the emphases of his paintings on the warm and idealistic aspect of world, treating with simplistic charm and certain degree of humor. In January 1943, during World War II, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave an emotionally moving speech, addressing his vision to the American freedom and the desperate need of concern for the real threat of war, Rockwell was greatly inspired. Thence, he painted the Four Freedoms including Freedom

Read More

More about Free Argumentative Essays: The First Thanksgiving

Related Topics

Open Document