Thanksgiving Was Never What You Think: What Really Happened in 1621 | A Dark History for Sleep

On the eleventh of December 1621, Edward Winslow dated a letter at Plymouth to a friend in England. A few of its lines describe a harvest gathering: four men sent out fowling, Ousamequin arriving with some ninety men, three days of feasting, and five deer brought in by the guests. Those lines are the only eyewitness record behind the first Thanksgiving, and Winslow never called it one. This long, dark history for sleep follows what really surrounded those three days, and how they became a national holiday more than two centuries later. Along the way: Champlain's map of Patuxet in 1605; Tisquantum, taken by Thomas Hunt and carried to Malaga; the Great Dying that emptied the coast; the Mayflower's first winter; the treaty of 1621; the drought, fast and thanksgiving of 1623; the Pequot War and King Philip's War; Plymouth Rock and Forefathers' Day; Alexander Young's footnote of 1841; Sarah Josepha Hale and Lincoln's proclamation of 1863; the paintings, the pageant and Dallin's statue on Cole's Hill; the rival firsts in Virginia, Florida and Texas; Wamsutta Frank James and the National Day of Mourning; and the Wampanoag nation today. Told calmly, with the evidence named, for listening late at night or drifting off to sleep. Where are you listening from tonight, and which version of the first Thanksgiving did you learn in school? Chapters: 0:00 The Letter From Plymouth 6:59 The Harvest Gathering 13:10 Patuxet and the Coast 19:27 Tisquantum's Way Home 25:37 The Great Dying 31:39 The Mayflower Arrives 37:30 The First Winter 43:09 The Treaty of Spring 50:01 A Year of Alarms 56:19 A Day Called Thanksgiving 1:02:38 Fasts and Thanksgivings 1:09:05 The End of the Alliance 1:16:18 The Yearly Autumn Day 1:23:16 The Rock and the Footnote 1:29:08 Hale and Lincoln 1:35:29 The Roots of the Holiday 1:42:01 The Paintings 1:48:00 Granite and Bronze 1:54:12 The Rival Firsts 2:00:47 The Day of Mourning 2:07:06 The Wampanoag Today 2:13:47 Back to the Letter #historyforsleep #thanksgiving #darkhistory #wampanoag #sleephistory