The First
Thanksgiving
Table Contents:
Introduction
#1 History of settlement
#2 Squanto
#3 Challenges and Successes
#4 Importance of Geography
Conclusion
Introduction
Many people believe that Thanksgiving is one of the biggest holidays celebrated in the United States. It has been celebrated for a very long time. One of the first thirteen colonies established in America was the Massachusetts colony. In that colony pilgrims learned how to coexist with local Native American tribe.
Chapter 1 History of settlement:
The Pilgrims traveled to America in search of a new way of life. They also wanted to escape England to practice their own Religion. Massachusetts was part of the first thirteen colonies established in America. There Pilgrims learned new way of life and how to survive. They also learned how to live with the native Americans.
In 1621 after collecting the first harvest they celebrated a feast. They had enough food to survive the whole winter. They also invited the Native American to join them to say thank you for teaching them new way of life. It is known to be the first Thanksgiving feast. By July they thought they should have gone to visit their new friend Massasoit.
On July 2, Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins left Plymouth at around 9 am with Squanto as their guide. Everywhere they went they were stunned by the emptiness of where thousands of men lived. The Sachem gathered his people around him and gave a speech to everyone in his stride. The next day,minor sachems made their way to Sowams to see the two Englishmen. Their second night at Sowams proved to be as sleepless as the first night. Two days later, on the night of saturday July 7 after a solid day of rain, Winslow and Hopkins arrived back at Plymouth. People though that Billington was dead. Eventually word came back from Massasoit that Billington was alive and well living with the Nausets.
Chapter 2 Squanto:
There was a Native American named Squanto who was born in 1585. Squanto and his friends raced,swam and played games.His father and his uncles taught him how to fish and hunt. In 1614 Squanto was kidnapped by a group of Englishman. Weeks later the ship dropped the anchors. Squanto was 30-40 years old at that time when the pilgrims arrived in 1620. Squanto taught the pilgrims how to fish,hunt,and gather shellfish and other seafood from the ocean.
One year after one of the English ships visited the area Squanto was kidnapped and taken back to Europe. He was going to be sold as a slave at auction. After he was saved from slavery he found his way to England where he learned English and other trades. In 1619, he found his way back to his native land. After that, Squanto lived with the colonists and taught them ways to survive the wilderness.
Wampanoags visited New Plymouth regularly, and the colonists always shared food with the Native Americans. Two colonists were appointed to visit Massasoit with Squanto as their guide. Squanto lead them to Massasoit’s home. When they were on the way Squanto suggested that they should push on another few miles before nightfall. That night, neither Winslow nor Hopkins slept a wink. When Squanto was helping the pilgrims and he saw something and he took it and the pilgrims noticed and they stole something of the Native Americans at night when they were all sleeping. Squanto and the person that stole something that night they went to jail in the freezing cold water.
Chapter 3 Challenges and Success:
Pilgrims faced several challenges after arriving to
America. They learned that winter time was very harsh and it was difficult to build shelters to stay warm. Finding food and learning how to grow it was another challenge that they had to face with. By becoming friends with the Native Americans, Pilgrims learned new way of life. They were taught how to build shelters, hunt,and fish. In result they were able to have a successful harvest. They also had to plant there food in sand and some of the sand had dirt under it and that helped some plants grow.
There were some droughts in sometime around so it was hard to water the plants. They also had to stay hydrated. In order to do that they had to grab water light fire get a bowl put the water in the bowl put the bowl over the fire and what for the heat to get all the bad bacteria. In the summer,spring,and the fall all had lots of rain most of the time in a year. In the winter time it snowed and it was cold.
The pilgrims had lots of food in 1621. They had cow meat, pork chop/turkey and lots more for meat. They had cabbage, spinach, lettuces, carrots and lot of other things. They had a lot of down pours and there was water flooding the place and they had to keep the water from getting into there house. The plants would die because there was a lot of water on them. They rain would help them survive by them cleaning the water and drinking it. A thing they have to worry about is them staying outside too long so they don't get wet and very cold.
Chapter 4 Importance of Geography:
Since Massachusetts is located in north eastern part of America, Pilgrims were able to build successful colony. They had access to the ocean with fish and other kind of seafood. They also had access to farmland where they were able to grow enough crops to survive the winter.
Massachusetts also has a lot of forest that which helped Pilgrims with wood to build shelters and hunt for wildlife including turkeys. They had to stay warm by starting a fire to stay warm in the house and most important to make food that has to be cooked and to clear the water from all the bacteria. They had to deal with a lot of different weather. They had to watch out for diseases or viruses so they would not die and fall back a couple of days or even months.
When they got food they had to watch out for what was poisonous and what was eatable. Since they lived very close to open fields they had plenty of room to plant crops and a lot of other things. When they wanted to go hunt they had to go to places where a lot of animals have been and still would be. They had plenty of wood to build farms. Pilgrims had to be very caution about the way they lived. They had to learn how to survive, especially if they had kids.
CONCLUSION
Pilgrims traveled to America in a search for a new way of life and to practice Religion. They faced many challenges. They became friends with the Native Americans and they learned how to live together. Thanks to Native Americans the Pilgrims learn how to survive. They thanked their new friends by having a feast with them. I wonder what America would be like if the Pilgrims did not cross the ocean.
