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Writer's pictureAndy McIlvain

Thanksgiving: Celebrating the History & Traditions with Dave Stotts - Drive Thru History Special

Updated: Nov 23, 2023

As finite human beings whether we know it or not all of what we need to live daily is supplied by God.

Therefore in humility we should be thankful everyday.

Genuine thankfulness we soon discover is an act of our heart’s affections, not an act of the mouth. We become aware of good will directed toward us, and either we feel gratitude or we are ungrateful for it.

As fallen sinners whose hearts are dull we should regularly pray for God to diminish our sinful hardness of heart, and cause us to see his goodness and feel and be thankful.

In the video below Dave Stott gives us an excellent overview of the history of Thanksgiving in America.



Thanksgiving: Celebrating the History & Traditions with Dave Stotts - Drive Thru History Special

"Drive Thru History: Happy Thanksgiving! Today, host Dave Stotts takes us through the history of Thanksgiving and the many traditions this holiday brings to America. From the pilgrims and Native Americans, to delicious food, to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, we've got it all for you today! Watch full episodes of Drive Thru History with Dave Stotts on TBN On Demand: https://watch.tbn.org/drive-thru-history SUBSCRIBE: / @drivethruhistory Need more Drive Thru History content? Visit our website to subscribe and watch a full episode! https://www.drivethruhistory.com/subs... Want on-demand curriculum to stream and work alongside all the Drive Thru History shows? http://drivethruhistoryadventures.com0:00 Happy Thanksgiving 0:59 The Pilgrims arrive at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts 5:43 The Pilgrims govern themselves with the Mayflower Compact 6:52 The First Thanksgiving celebrated between the Pilgrims and Native Americans 8:07 The National Monument to the Forefathers, the world’s largest solid granite monument 11:16 Thanksgiving Declarations of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln 16:54 The History of Thanksgiving food: Turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie, and more! 23:28 New York City, the heart of American finance and entertainment 24:26 Thanksgiving traditions that started in NYC: Evacuation Day and Ragamuffin Day 30:06 The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade rings in the Christmas Season 33:00 The Presidential turkey pardon 36:39 Making the perfect Hand Turkey 40:00 Interview with comedian Bob Smiley 52:11 The benefits of gratitude 53:13 Living in a posture of thanksgiving towards God" from video introduction


The Myths of the Thanksgiving Story and the Lasting Damage They Imbue

In truth, massacres, disease and American Indian tribal politics are what shaped the Pilgrim-Indian alliance at the root of the holiday

(2019) In Thanksgiving pageants held at schools across the United States, children don headdresses colored with craft-store feathers and share tables with classmates wearing black construction paper hats. It’s a tradition that pulls on a history passed down through the generations of what happened in Plymouth: local Native Americans welcomed the courageous, pioneering pilgrims to a celebratory feast.

But, as David Silverman writes in his new book This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving, much of that story is a myth riddled with historical inaccuracies. Beyond that, Silverman argues that the telling and retelling of these falsehoods is deeply harmful to the Wampanoag Indians whose lives and society were forever damaged after the English arrived in Plymouth. Silverman’s book focuses on the Wampanoags. When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620, the sachem (chief) Ousamequin offered the new arrivals an entente, primarily as a way to protect the Wampanoags against their rivals, the Narragansetts. For 50 years, the alliance was tested by colonial land expansion, the spread of disease, and the exploitation of resources on Wampanoag land. Then, tensions ignited into war. Known as King Philip’s War (or the Great Narragansett War), the conflict devastated the Wampanoags and forever shifted the balance of power in favor of European arrivals. Wampanoags today remember the Pilgrims’ entry to their homeland as a day of deep mourning, rather than a moment of giving thanks.

We spoke with Silverman, a historian at George Washington University, about his research and the argument he makes in his book..." from the article: The Myths of the Thanksgiving Story and the Lasting Damage They Imbue


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