LJ Idol - Thanksgiving
Nov. 26th, 2009 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aggienaut "The Pilgrims" arrived in North America in December of 1620. What they found in the area they landed was abandoned Indian villages, some with unburied skeletons of the dead lying among the weeds --due to diseases introduced by earlier settlers,-- and a very hostile reception from those Indians still alive. It would seem the last European to come by (one of John Smith's lieutenants, Thomas Hunt) had decided it would be a jolly undertaking to capture some Indians to sell into slavery in Europe, and had gratuitously killed a number of others.
Thomas Hunt had intended to sell the Indians for £20 a piece in Spain, but apparently some friars in Europe managed to interdict this plan, and one of the indians, known as Squanto, was able to make his way back to North America, and ended up at the Pilgrim's Plymouth Colony as a translater.
In 1621 the Pilgrims celebrated what is regarded as "the first thanksgiving" in North America (there had already been a long tradition both in the New World and Europe for thanks giving feasts though). They somehow convinced some local Indians to attend.
In 1622 Indians were again invited to a feast*. Their share of the liquor was poisoned and 200 Indians died. A further fifty were finished off by hand.
Then pumpkin pie was probably eaten, though I doubt they had whipped cream.**
* Admittedly this occurred in Jamestown, some 600 miles South.
** Yeah I looked up the history of whipped cream, sounds like it would need to be colder than they could probably make it in order to whip properly
I don't usually attend Thanksgiving wearing arms and armour, but then again, I didn't just barely decide not to kill the guests THIS year
Thankyou for tuning in to another Emo-Snal Classic Historical Downer! ;D
Notwithstanding, I am looking forward to devouring some turkey/stuffing/pumpkin pie until I go into a food coma.
And in other news, tomorrow I fly up to Portland for the weekend, check into the tallship Lady Washington on Sunday, and Monday set sail! Will be sailing for at least two weeks. Internet access may be spotty.
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Date: 2009-11-26 07:41 pm (UTC):(
Very sad.
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Date: 2009-11-26 07:45 pm (UTC)Where did their sugar come from? Sugar beets? Honey? Hmmmm ::tries hard to resist doing more research on this obscure topic::
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Date: 2009-11-26 07:54 pm (UTC)They were actually low on a lot of things that year, and there are a bunch of things they just plain didn't have. I'll have to check a few things to work out a list what they couldn't make.
Sweetness in the Colonies
Date: 2009-11-26 08:01 pm (UTC)I don't know if Plymouth Colony specifically had any, but early European colonists also brought over beehives (which the indians called "white man's flies") to produce honey. Honeybees weren't native to the area, but flourished and quickly spread out into the surrounding wilds. Within a short time it was highly profitable just to go out into the forest and harvest "bee trees" in which large hives had been established in hollow trees.
Re: Sweetness in the Colonies
Date: 2009-11-26 08:37 pm (UTC)The source I have (A Good Eats episode of all things) just makes an offhand comment about the pilgrims not having any sugar and not being able to have sweet sauces.
They were also out of butter and flower, so no crusts and no pies.
They did eat lots of eel, cod, lobster and venison though, so that probably made up for the lack of pie in their minds.
Re: Sweetness in the Colonies
Date: 2009-11-26 08:44 pm (UTC)Hmm lack of butter makes me think they had no cows? I'm sure they tried to bring some, must not have survived. Not terribly surprised about flour, it would have to be imported as they'd only had one harvest under their belt and making flour takes a mill I believe.
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Date: 2009-11-26 08:11 pm (UTC)The lack of sugar etc was Plymouth in 1621, not Jamestown in 1622 right?
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Date: 2009-11-27 12:26 am (UTC)I knew that the first Canadian Thanksgiving actually took place some twenty-odd years before the first official American Thanksgiving. Some fuckwitted explorer looking for a trade route got lost on Baffin Island and, faced with the bleak, unending, frozen, treeless landscape, and a crew subsequently on the verge of mutiny, decided that a celebration was just what people needed to chill out and not overthrow him. I'm still not entirely sure how successful he was.
One small pet peeve - Indigenous People aren't Indians. Indians are people from India. Indigenous Peoples and First/Original/Native Peoples are what the original residents of North America are usually called nowadays, unless you're referring to a specific nation, clan, or tribe, in which case you should refer to the name those specific people use(d) to describe themselves.
There are many groups of Indigenous People who are still fighting to regain their own autonomy as nations separate from those of their colonizers, and recognition of the legitimacy of their cultures today. Calling them Indians, though usually a totally well-intentioned (and one that I have admittedly made, bleh) undermines that.
You know, while we're getting all historical downer-y.
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Date: 2009-11-27 12:37 am (UTC)lol, no kidding. but this is no more different than the glamorization of columbus day.
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Date: 2009-11-27 07:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-29 01:38 am (UTC)e-mail me: atomiccakecassie@hotmail.com
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Date: 2009-11-27 05:15 am (UTC)Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!
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Date: 2009-11-27 07:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-27 04:59 pm (UTC)*Which went with my favorite U.S. History class - it was taught by a doctorate out of Holland, so nothing was candy-coated in the traditional Manifest Destiny/Master Narrative that usually colours such courses when taught by Americans. It was fantastic!
One of the most stunning things I learned in that course was that Puritans actually had back-alley abortions within two to three generations of the original landing in New England. There's a case in Massachusetts where the local quack out of Rhode Island performed an abortion on a wealthy girl who was knocked up by a wealthy boy, who talked her into the abortion so he could freely marry someone else. She did it, and died for it - the quack punctured her uterine wall and she bled to death before the night was out. There was a cover-up in the community, and the wealthy boy became a very prestigious man. Both families remained friends.
I would kill to find this article again. It's buried somewhere in my mass of stuff I kept after I graduated university, but it's like going through an Archive to find it. :(
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Date: 2009-11-27 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-27 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-27 10:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-28 10:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-27 10:40 pm (UTC)Btw, I always whip cream at room temps and I learned it from a confectioner. Egg whites - cold, cream - room temps :)
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Date: 2009-11-28 10:43 pm (UTC)Emo-Snal Classic
Date: 2009-11-28 04:06 pm (UTC)p.s. Kris, Nelly says oof oof.
Re: Emo-Snal Classic
Date: 2009-11-28 10:44 pm (UTC)Aw Nelly. Rub her tummy for me. (:
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Date: 2009-11-29 06:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-29 05:56 pm (UTC)P.
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Date: 2009-11-29 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-30 10:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-05 04:31 am (UTC)