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.
Peter C. Mancall
Peter C. Mancall is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History and Anthropology at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, and the Linda and Harlan Martens Director of the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute.
