The article, Top 10 Myths About Thanksgiving by Rick
Shenkman was published in November of 2001.
Link to article- http://hnn.us/article/406
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The first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims who
came over on the Mayflower right? It was in Plymouth to celebrated religion and
family? A time when Pilgrims and Puritans (same thing) came out of their log
cabins to eat some turkey?
Try again, because everything I just said was wrong! Let’s take
a look on just three of the many myths about the Pilgrims…
The First
Thanksgiving
It is arguably said
to have taken place in a little place called San Elizario, Texas in 1598;
twenty-three years before the Pilgrims festival. The Thanksgiving that took
place in Texas that year was to celebrate the completion of the 350- mile long
trek across the Mexican desert. Some (and when I say some I mean John F. Kennedy
as well) say that the first Thanksgiving took place at the Berkeley Plantation
on the James River 1619, two years before the pilgrims Thanksgiving. But the myth
of the first taking place in Plymouth is almost completely destroyed.
A First Thanksgiving Celebration
Found on 12/14/13 on http://hnn.us/article/406
The Mayflower
It’s the ship that gets all the credit for surviving the
grueling trek along the Atlantic. But how can people not pay credit to the
Margaret; a ship that brought 38 English settlers to the Virginia plantation in
1619. Americans seem to forget the history behind the history we already know.
The Pilgrims lived in
log cabins
Completely false. In fact the English didn’t even know what
a log cabin was! The cabins were introduced by Germany and Sweden in the seventeenth
century! The Pilgrims living in wood clapboard houses made from sawed lumber.
In History class, many of our once believed facts about the
first settlement in America have be destroyed. Earlier in the week when creating
maps, my group was assigned to create a map with all the major Native American
tribes in North American circa 1500. When creating we noticed that there were
many tribes clustered around the modern day Arizona, New Mexico and Texas area.
This observation goes hand and hand with Rick Shenkman stating that the first
Thanksgiving might have taken place in Texas.
Is ‘A Charlie Brown
Thanksgiving’ to blame? I don’t know. But I do know that as American we must be
aware of the true history of our
country.
i liked how you were able to connect from today to back then. Also i liked the pictures you used. good job
ReplyDeleteWow!!! I didn't know that and I'm pretty sure not many people did. I agree with you though, Americans don't know much about before the history of what we know. It seems like we have been learning myths since we were little children. I remember in first grade learning about the Mayflower, and the first Thanksgiving and the first settlement. But now, we find out that they were not all true!!! I think the real question is how we started believing in these facts when there not true. Overall, I think you did a really good job responding to the article you read. The title captured my attention immediately and your paragraphs were very informative. Nice job!!!
ReplyDeleteYour blog post was very good and very informative. I had no clue that the first Thanksgiving hadn't taken place in Plymouth. I had always believed that that's were it had taken place and I was shocked to hear that I was wrong. I also was surprised that the first settlers hadn't even heard of log cabins. Your title was also very grabbing and as soon as I read it I wanted to read more. I also liked how you placed your pictures to help capture what you were talking about. One thing that I wish you had done a better job at was connecting the facts to the Charlie Brown aspect of it. But overall you did a very great job.
ReplyDeleteThis post had a lot of new information for me. I always thought of the Pilgrims living in log houses. And I agree, Americans don't know nearly as much about the history of our country as we should. I think you could have included things like why A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving would be to blame, a picture from the movie perhaps, what makes Puritans different from Pilgrims, etc. However, this was very interesting because of the topic you chose, since a lot of people have seen A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and the title makes them wonder what you're talking about. Cool post!
ReplyDeleteI really liked how much new information this piece included about the tradition of Thanksgiving. It really related to the article that we read by Tony Horwitz about the Spanish influence in the North American region. You brought some new, very specific evidence into your argument that Thanksgiving first happened in Texas. I also really liked how you made your argument more valid by including that President John F. Kennedy also agreed with your position on this issue. Your title really intrigued me, and made me want to read more! But, having said that, I think that your title could've been more included in the rest of your essay, and you could've brought up the aspect of your Charlie Brown more in your essay. Overall, great job!
ReplyDeleteI can tell you did a lot of thorough research and I learned a lot from your post. Your title was really creative and that's why I read this article/. Your class connections were very clear. I thought it was a really good idea and now I know that what I learned when I was younger isn't actually true.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a really good job of connecting it to class and making it interesting. I was really surprised to learn that the first thanksgiving was in Texas! Also, I like how you added humor into the title. Finally, good use of facts and well done.
ReplyDeleteI find this very interesting because before this year I believed in all of the myths about thanksgiving. I can tell you did a lot of background research on the subject which is good because it makes it easier to understand what really happened. It would have been better if you further elaborated about charlie brown but overall i really enjoyed your paper.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post. I was surprised when I found out that the first Thanksgiving did not really happen in Plymouth. I had no idea that there were arguments about the actual date of the first Thanksgiving! Your title was very grabbing because I love the Charlie Brown movies, so it made me want to read this. I liked how you were very descriptive with three myths rather than being general with a lot of myths. It made it clear to me that you did a lot of research or you already knew a lot about this topic. I wish you connected the Charlie Brown movie more. It was hard to tell how the Charlie Brown movie was to blame for the myths. Besides that, I think you did a great job with your blog post!
ReplyDeleteThis was a very surprising blog post. It is weird to think that what has been taught to us in elementary school could e a lie. You used a lot of great facts. The whole post flowed very well. It was really interesting to learn about all of this! It is also great how you tied it together with a Charlie Brown movie we can all relate to.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your blog post and I thought it was really cool to learn that the first Thanksgiving didnt actually happen in Plymouth. Your post really showed that there are so many myths in history today that we believe and just assume are true. I wish you added how this connected to Charlie Brown a little more but over all I think you did a great job.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very informative post, which really explained a lot about Thanksgiving and the common myths about it. I didn't know that it was debated which celebration was really the "first thanksgiving" or that 'A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving' popularized these myths. I had also never heard of the celebration in Texas in 1598 which could have been the first.
ReplyDeleteVery well done, Christopher! The myths that your blog post debunked are immensely popular, and still far too prevelent. Not only was your post eloquent; it was very informative. I enjoyed the format of your post as short, readable tidbits, so to speak. I think the most interesting information given in your post was that the first thanksgiving may not have even been in Plymouth. A very nice post!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post and found it filled with very interesting information. Your introduction did a great job of getting me curious about the rest of the post. I liked the connection between Charlie Brown and the pilgrims, but could have used a little more information on how the two connect. Overall I thought this was a great post!
ReplyDeleteGreat job! The title of your blog post was so creative and fun; it made me click on it right away! This blog post was really informative and now people can see that our perspective of what the first thanksgiving was is actually quite false. The way you divided your blog post into short paragraphs describing each myth helped make your blog post more realistic and easy to read and understand. There were a few grammatical mistakes and I wish you would have included another picture of what Americans think the first Thanksgiving looked like or a picture from ‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.” I also think if you further explained how your topic of the first thanksgiving relates to specific topics that we have been studying in our history class it would have made the connection more clear. Overall, I really enjoyed this post and now think about what likely happened at the first Thanksgiving versus the standard story that we were taught in elementary school. Fantastic job!
ReplyDelete