Many of us remember the Thanksgiving plays we participated in as
children in elementary school
where we made the construction paper
hats with the big buckles and buckles for our shoes, or the
construction paper feather head- dresses
or how we would trace the
outline of our hand onto our drawing paper with our crayons and
magically it would morph itself into a turkey
we spend much, much
time and energy on this creation story
.
Shouldnt we include some smallpox ravaged natives, complete with
blistering pustules, to represent the 90% of the entire Native American
population (in the North and South American continents) wiped out by
disease? After all, this is part of the Pilgrims story isnt it? Shouldnt we include the story of Metacoms War (named after the
son of the original Native American leader who helped the Pilgrims)
and all of the g
hastly things done to Metacom? His being drawn and
quartered by the Pilgrims, them cutting off his hands and putting them
on display in Boston, and removing his head and taking it back to
Plymouth to mount it atop a big, long stick in the middle of town square
where it would remain on display for 25 years? I kid you not
.
Should we not include slavery? As the Puritans were one of the main
North American contributors to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade-an
institution responsible for the loss of 50 million people from Africa
through enslavement and death?
Why do we spend so much time on this group of people in school?
Perhaps even more importantly, why do we spend so much time on
this Disney-esque version of the Pilgrims? What purpose, what lesson,
do you believe studying the Pilgrims in this way serves? watch the video and answer questions in 150-200 words