Three Thanksgivings?
In my article last year, I wrote "10 Interesting Facts about Plymouth." In that article, I mentioned how some historians consider Pedro Menéndez de Avilé, a Spanish explorer, to have had the first “Thanksgiving” by inviting the Timucua tribe for a feast in St. Augustine, Florida.
In that previous article, I expressed the thought that those who chose to undermine the Pilgrim's Thanksgiving were most likely just trying to ignore the religious significance of this holiday. As our culture becomes more secular, it will continue to do this. But actually when I did research on this story, I realized that this was worthy to write a whole post over. You'll see why.
First, I researched Pedro Menéndez de Avilé and the Timucua tribe individually. I did find that as all other conquistadors, Pedro Menéndez de Avilé came to the New World to colonize the land and find wealth. He landed in Florida to raid the French settlement of Fort Caroline. The Timucuas were affected by the regime change.
Then I researched the history about the feast which had a lot of articles written about it. Apparently, the argument is the Spaniards had a mass to thank God for their safe voyage, they had a feast with the Timucua tribe, and at this feast there was turkey, corn, squash, and beans. The story about this particular feast was published in a book in 1965 which caused the New England population to become angry at the author.
But that's not the only one. Historians have pinpointed another "Thanksgiving" a year prior to the Spanish one. When the French established a colony in Florida in 1564, Rene Goulaine de Laudonnière proclaimed a feast with the Timucua Indians and sang songs of Thanksgiving to God. This feast had much of the same foods including pumpkin, alligator, and berries. And once again, most historians agree that there were probably other feasts of thanksgiving with Indians prior to this one.
The question is why did the Pilgrims' thanksgiving come out on top as the American thanksgiving if we know of three major "thanksgiving" feasts? The article I read includes an interesting hypothesis that I will share later. First of all, I will explain why the "thanksgiving" of Pedro Menéndez de Avilé does not share the significance of the other two feasts:
1. The Spanish are Catholics.
Besides the fact that the theology and doctrines of the Catholic church are way off of what the Word of God says, Catholicism at this time was very forceful and violent. By that, I mean, that the Catholic church was one of the world's leading persecution societies, not only toward Protestants, but also toward other religions.
Around that time, Spain tried to conquer England with its "Invincible Armada" because it was Protestant. There was also many Spanish attempts to convert Protestants in England by force including burning martyrs at the stake, a Catholic monarch attempted to marry Queen Elizabeth I, and then he attempted to assassinate her when the marriage didn't work out. What a nice guy! Bloody Mary was working with the Spanish Catholics. During that time, the Catholic church was nothing but a huge mess.
The point that I am making is not to make fun of Catholics, but to prove that Catholicism is not even close to what the Bible says because the Bible obviously does not condone killing people if they don't believe what you do. This means that the Spanish "thanksgiving" is missing the greatest aspect of "Thanksgiving": the one true God and His Word.
2. The Spanish were known for their terrible treatment of the Indians.
Because they were so violent in their conversions, the Spanish treated the Indians very badly. They used the Indians as slaves, and they looted their homes and possessions. More times than not, they were responsible for the massacre of Indian tribes. For example, Hernando de Cortes conquered the Aztecs of Mexico in the name of religion, but he was really only their to take all of their gold and make them slaves.
3. The Spanish's goal in the New World was conquering the land.
To couple with the last point, the Spanish conquistadors wanted to conquer the Indians and the New World. Some of them were explorers, but the main goal was conquering and colonization to spread Catholicism.
From those points, it's obvious that the Spanish feast would not hold any significance to the United States or to Christians in general. The French had their thanksgiving feast, but it was not held by the Catholics. It was held by the Huguenots who were Protestants, and they immigrated to the New World because of the religious persecution from the Catholics there.
You might be wondering why they colonized Florida instead of Canada which was a predominantly French area. The Catholic French government did not allow the Huguenots to immigrate to Canada. Actually, many Huguenots later immigrated to the United States. Since Huguenots are Christians who moved to the New World to find religious freedom, why is the Pilgrim's thanksgiving more important still? Here are the reasons why the Pilgrim's thanksgiving is more significant to America today.
1. The English were the major colonizers of America.
In the end, the English defeated the French and eventually the Spanish in the New World. The English possessed the Plymouth colony from the start and they probably wouldn't have paid any attention to what their favorite enemy, the French, did in the past. This story was publicized for nationalist matters as well.
2. The Pilgrims have a longer Thanksgiving story.
The Huguenots and the Spanish had a feast upon landing on the shore. The Pilgrims gave thanks to God after their safe voyage, but they landed in the wrong area, they survived very difficult winters, they struggled to live in New England, the Indians came to them and helped them, and they threw this feast to thank God, and I would think to show their appreciation for the Indians as well.
The Pilgrims' story is nothing short from the providence of God. Also, Governor William Bradford of Plymouth wrote about the first thanksgiving in his history book, Of Plymouth Plantation, America's first history book. This thanksgiving is a pivotal part of American history for several reasons.
3. Plymouth is important to the colonization of the America.
Plymouth is the second most important lasting English colony in America; Jamestown is the first. The history of this colony was definitely important to future English colonies. Plymouth is still important today as a historical site.
4. Plymouth set other important precedents for America.
Besides starting this first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims brought important Christian and political principles to America. The Mayflower Compact inspired the Christian principle of obeying the government that would be set up in the colony, and eventually America as well. They treated the Indians fairly and kindly which was not a common principle among the European settlers.
The General Court was a legislature that drafted the first written law code in America as well as a bill of rights for the colony. This law code protected basic human rights that originated in England such as trial by jury. Although Plymouth was absorbed into the Massachusetts Bay Colony, these principles stayed with America even until today.
5. The Huguenots were conquered by Spain.
Sadly for the Huguenots, they were conquered and slaughtered by Pedro Menéndez de Avilé and the Spanish Catholics. Because their colony did not survive, their history is not as important to America as Plymouth's history.
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That was a lot of article to write. I hope you learned something new from that; I know I did when I was doing research. It gave me the responsibility to explain why America is so special all over again. A quote to close the article:
"I think that is a better thing than thanksgiving: thanks-living. How is this to be done? By a general cheerfulness of manner, by an obedience to the command of Him by whose mercy we live, by a perpetual, constant delighting of ourselves in the Lord, and by a submission of our desires to His will." ~ Charles Spurgeon
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