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MFP Contributor

Author: Peter C. Mancall

Artistic vision of pilgrims and Native Americans eating at Thanksgiving
MFP Voices

The First Thanksgiving Is a Key Chapter in America’s Origin Story

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving in New England. Remembered and retold as an allegory for perseverance and cooperation, the story of that first Thanksgiving has become an important part of how Americans think about the founding of their country. But what happened four months later, starting in March 1622 about 600 miles south of Plymouth, is, I believe, far more reflective of the country’s origins—a story not of peaceful coexistence but of distrust, displacement and repression.

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