PICKENS COUNTY — Ah, Thanksgiving. It’s the time of year where people set aside their differences, come to the table for a great feast and express gratitude for all of life’s blessings — just like when the pilgrims sat down together with Native Americans for that first Thanksgiving held so many years ago …
Right?
Eh, not so much …
Now, we all know kids are traditionally taught the event dates back to the pilgrims. You know, all the English religious dissenters who helped to establish the Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts in 1620.
As the story goes, friendly local Native Americans swooped in to teach the struggling colonists how to survive in the New World. Then everyone got together to celebrate with a feast in 1621.
Attendees included at least 90 men from the Wampanoag tribe and the 50 or so surviving Mayflower passengers and the celebration lasted three days, featuring a menu of deer, fowl and corn. (What? No turkey?!?)
Well, In reality, Thanksgiving feasts happened way before Plymouth.
Settlers in Berkeley Hundred, Va., decided to celebrate their arrival with an annual Thanksgiving back in 1619, according to The Virginian-Pilot. And even before that, Spanish settlers and members of the Seloy tribe broke bread and held one in 1565 in Florida, according to the National Parks Service.
Although our modern definition of Thanksgiving revolves around eating turkey — as well it should — that wasn’t always the case. In days past, it was more of an occasion for religious observance.
The storied 1621 Plymouth festivities live on in popular memory, but the pilgrims themselves would have likely considered their sober 1623 day of prayer the first true “Thanksgiving,” according to the blog The History of Massachusetts.
Others pinpoint 1637 as the “true origin” of Thanksgiving, owing to the fact Massachusetts colony governor John Winthrop declared a day of thanks-giving to celebrate colonial soldiers who had just slaughtered 700 Pequot men, women and children in what is now Mystic, Conn.
Awkward …
Either way, the popular telling of the initial harvest festival is what lived on, thanks to Abraham Lincoln. But the holiday has also nearly erased from our collective memory what happened between the Wampanoag and the English a generation later …
(Spoiler alert, it’s not a happy ending.)
Massosoit — the sachem or paramount chief of the Wampanoag — proved to be a serious ally to the English settlers in the years following the establishment of Plymouth. He set up an exclusive trade pact with the newcomers and allied with them against the French and other local tribes.
On paper, it was a good deal, but the alliance became strained overtime — due largely to the continued arrival of English colonists.
As thousands of “pale faces” poured into the region throughout the 17th century, authorities in Plymouth began asserting more and more control over traditional Wampanoag life.
It is estimated disease had already reduced the Native American population in New England by as much as 90 percent from 1616 to 1619, and indigenous people continued to die from what the colonists called “Indian fever.”
By the time Massasoit’s son Metacomet — known to the English as “King Philip” — inherited leadership, relations were at a breaking point. “King Phillip’s War” started when Metacomet’s men were executed for the murder of Punkapoag interpreter and Christian convert, John Sassamon.
Wampanoag warriors responded by embarking on a series of raids and the New England Confederation of Colonies declared war in 1675. The initially neutral Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was ultimately dragged into the fighting, as were other nearby tribes like the Narragansetts.
The war was bloody and devastating.
Springfield, Mass., was burned to the ground and the Wampanoag abducted colonists for ransom. English forces attacked the Narragansetts for harboring fleeing Wampanoag. Nearly 600 Narragansetts were killed and the tribe’s winter stores were ruined.
Colonists in far-flung settlements relocated to more fortified areas while the Wampanoag and allied tribes were forced to flee their villages.
The colonists ultimately allied with several tribes like the Mohigans and Pequots, despite initial reluctance from the Plymouth leadership.
Meanwhile, Metacomet was dealt a staggering blow when he crossed over into New York to recruit allies. Instead of finding aid, he was attacked by Mohawks. He was killed shortly after he returned home, shot in battle.
So, let’s be clear here: The son of the man who had sustained and celebrated with the Plymouth Colony was then beheaded and dismembered. To make matters worse (if that’s possible) his remaining allies were killed or sold into slavery in the West Indies.
As a final “ha ha, we won,” the colonists impaled King Phillip’s head on a spike — and kept it on display in Plymouth for 25 years.
Gross.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Reach Kasie Strickland at 864-855-0355.