Transcript

11.28.25 · History Hour

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Speaker 1: Welcome and hello. This is Joseph Boltz and I am
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with you today for Radio Ey's History show. Glad to
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be with you for this time. And before we begin
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today's show, I just want to remind you that RADIOI
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is listener driven and we welcome any of your comments
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or suggestions about the programming or anything we do. So
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please call us if you have any thoughts or questions
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at eight five nine four two two six three nine
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zero and let us know what you're thinking. As you know,
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RADIOI is a reading service intended for people who are
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blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult to
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read printed material. So this is the week before Thanksgiving,
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and I thought maybe I would pull a few articles
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on Thanksgiving, maybe some that you haven't heard, and talk
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about that and get ready for this holiday. So the
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first article that I want to read comes from one
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of my favorite sources, history dot com, and it's entitled
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who was Squanto and what was his role in the
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First Thanksgiving? And the article was written by Tony Tekaroniac
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Evans and it was written in November of twenty twenty two.
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So let's get the reading. For generations, the dominant cultural
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narrative of America's Thanksgiving holiday was told how a Native
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American man named Squanto showed the pilgrims how to get
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food after they arrived on the Mayflower in Massachusetts in
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sixteen twenty. Having fled their native England. The new arrivals
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endured hardship and privation in both their journey and their
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adjustment to the new Land. Who survived in the early
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settlement are said to have gathered with the native people
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in a feast of gratitude, establishing the time honored tradition
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of having a quote Thanksgiving dinner in quote on the
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fourth Thursday of November. The historical details of this somewhat
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myths mythical story that is, are far from complicated, or
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rather they are far more complicated sorry, As was the
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life of Squanto, whose actual name was Tisquantum, he and
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his indigenous relatives would have been rather familiar with the
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tradition of Thanksgiving because it was and still is, an
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essential aspect of their regular spiritual practices, one that predates
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by many generations the American holiday of Thanksgiving. A member
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of the Wampanogas to Squantum was likely born around fifteen
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eighty when he encountered the Plymouth Colony settlers. He spoke English,
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having lived five years in Europe himself, including time at
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the home of a London merchant. He proved indispensable to
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the English settlers at Plymouth, but in the end was
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reviled by some of his own people for his role
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in broker in a treaty that undermined tribal sovereignty. But
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without Tisquantum to interpret and guide them to food sources,
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the Plymouth Colony Pilgrims may never have survived. So this
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is a quote. His is such a seminal backstory to
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Plymouth Colony that the lack of historical reference to it
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is conspicuous. And that quote comes from PAULA Peters, who's
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a journalist and member of the Mashpee Wampa Nogad, in
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an essay about to Squantum, the Wampa Nogad and the
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Pilgrims for the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. His name remains
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ubiquitous in Thanksgiving stories, but little is known of his life, family,
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and tribulations Prior to encountering the Plymouth Colony settlers. The
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Wampa Nogad, whose name means people of the first Light,
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and their ancestors had lived for at least ten thousand years.
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They hunted, fished, in farm, corn, beans, and squash. When
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encountered for the first time by Europeans, their non high
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arle system of governance and nature based spirituality bewildered the
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new settlers. By sixteen nineteen, the Wampanogic survived a devastating
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plague brought by European explorers, called the Great Dying. The
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disease killed about two thirds of their seventy thousand people,
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who had been living in sixty nine villages along what
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is now the southern Massachusetts coast. So sudden and overwhelming
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was the sickness that when the Mayflower landed, its passengers
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had to stride across the bleached bones of plague victims'
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rights peters. Some of the colonists described the Great Dying
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as a providential act of God that made way for
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a flourishing of their Puritan faith. To Squantum escaped the
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scourge because years earlier he had been lured, along with
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about two dozen other Wampanogi on to a British ship
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bound for a slave market in Spain. According to James
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Seely Junior and Sean Shelby, historians, at Kent State University
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and authors of Shaping North America from Exploration to the
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American Revolution. He escaped with the help of Catholic friars
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and made his way to London, where he lived with
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John Slaney, treasurer of the Newfoundland Company, which had colonized
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Cooper's Cove in Newfoundland in sixteen ten. Tisquantum likely used
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his connection to depart England for home, working on a
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ship for Captain John Mason, the Newfoundland Colony's governor. He
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then found passage on another ship that brought him south,
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where he eventually made his way back. Disquantam was among
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two to five and a half million Indigenous people enslaved
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in the Americas between fourteen ninety two and eighteen eighty,
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many of whom were sent to work in the Caribbean.
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According to the Wampanogic historian Linda Jeffers Combs, Tisquantum was
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one of only two tribal members who found his way
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back home from the slave ship that landed in Spain.
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On his return, the Squantum was distraught to find his
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people decimated by plague. When he encountered the mayflier's ragged survivors,
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he was an orphan himself, but he was uniquely poised
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to help them survive and willing to help them form
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a vital alliance with his Wampanogic leader named o samequin
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Tisquantum favored the English enough to teach them how to
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grow corn and where and how to fish and hunt. Fever,
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he also gained protection from the English at times from
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his own people. The treaty he helped negotiate between his
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people and the English allowed the Wampennogic to gain a
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powerful ally against their enemy, the naragasst, but it was
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also empowered. Rather, it also empowered the English with the
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dominant rule of law, while restricting the Wampanogic's use and
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display of weapons at meetings. This treaty led to subjugation
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and Disquantum died while allied with the English, perhaps even
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poisoned by his own people in late sixteen twenty two,
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writes historian Nathaniel Philbrick in his book Mayflier, The Story
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of Courage, Community, and War. It's likely the Pilgrims didn't
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actually invite the Wampennogic to the First Harvest Thanksgiving, but
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moraialized in the now popular American holiday In fact, the
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Tenth Day's Long Feast convened to put at ease some
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ninety Wampanogic warriors who had arrived at Plymouth fully armed
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in response to a volley of celibratory gunfire they had
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heard shot by the colonists. Historical sources state that once
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they realized the gunfire wasn't intended as hostile, the Wampanoga
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killed five deer and brought them to Plymouth as their
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contribution to what has been described as a harvest feast
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and perhaps a celebration of survival for making it through
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their second winter. If you're getting ready to eat, we
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will bring food for you. That's who we are as people.
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That's a quote from Anita Peters, known as Mother Bear,
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a Mashpee Wampanogic tri tribal member. But that feast was
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never repeated, and that should tell you something. As in
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need of Peters. Nakai Clearwater Northrop Museum, educator at the
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mashin Tucket Pequit Museum and Research Center, says that Thanksgiving
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holiday likely conflates several feasts held during the time period,
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including the pilgrim's celebration of their victory in the Mystic
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Massacre of sixteen thirty seven, in which six hundred Pequits
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lost their lives in about an hour. This was the
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primary tragic moment in our history. Northrop said. It laid
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the foundation for colonialism, and the first reservation was created
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right here in Connecticut. This laid the blueprint for the
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rest of our native relatives for generations to come. Indigenous religions,
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which have long included ceremonies of giving thanks for many
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food sources throughout the year, would be suppressed by the
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dominant culture of Christianity. Yet the spiritual practices of reciprocity
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and thanksgiving for the gifts of the earth survive among
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the Wampanogi and many other indigenous nations to this day.
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When I was young, we were taught by our grandparents
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and great grandparents to believe that the purpose of life
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is to be in a state of thanksgiving every day,
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says mother Bear. The second article that I like to
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read today comes again from history dot com, and it's
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called Colonists that the first Thanksgiving were mostly men because
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women had perished. It is written by Sarah Pruitt in
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November of twenty twenty four. When families gathered annually in
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the fall to eat turkey, watch football, and perhaps partake
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in some Black Friday shopping. They might be surprised to
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learn how much we don't know about the origins of
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the Thanksgiving. Nearly all of what historians have learned about
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one of the first Thanksgivings comes from a single eyewitness report,
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a letter written in December of sixteen twenty one by
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Edward Winslow, one of the hundred or so people who
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sailed from England aboard the Mayfler in sixteen twenty and
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founded Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. William Bradford, Plymouth's governor, in
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sixteen twenty one, wrote briefly of the event of Plymouth
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plantation his History of the Colony, but that was more
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than twenty years after the feast itself. According to this account,
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elements of which continue to be debated by historians, especially
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regarding the presence and role of Native Americans, the historic
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event didn't happen on the fourth Thursday in November as
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it does today, and it wasn't known as Thanksgiving. In fact,
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it took place over three days sometime between late September
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and mid November in sixteen twenty one, and was considered
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a harvest celebration. Basically, it was to celebrate the end
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of a successful harvest, says Tom Begley, the executive Liaison
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for Administration, Research and Special Projects at Plymouth Plantation. The
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three day celebration included feasting, games and military exercises, and
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there was definitely an amount of diplomacy between the colonists
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and the native attendees as well. Just over fifty colonists
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are believed to have attended, including twenty two men, four
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married women, including Edward Winslow's wife, and more than twenty
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five children and teenagers. These were the lucky ones who
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had made it through a rough entry into the New World,
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including a harsh winter during which an epidemic of disease
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swept through the colony, felling nearly half the original group.
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Some seventy eight percent of the women who had arrived
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on the Mayflower had died during the first winter, a
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far higher percentage than for the men or children. For
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the English. The first Thanksgiving was also celebrating the fact
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that they had survived the first year here in England.
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New England vaguely points out the Plymouth colonists were likely
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outnumbered more than two to one at the event by
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their Native American counterparts. Winslow's account records quote many of
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the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their
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greatest king massoussett with some ninety men Massouisset, who was
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actually the leader of the Pokinoke Wampanogae, a local Native
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American society that had begun dealings with the colonists early
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in sixteen twenty one. We don't know for sure how
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it came about that they were there, Begley says of
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the Native Americans at the first Thanksgiving. Some Native historians
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have suggested that the Massasoit and his men were in
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the area anyways, because at the end of the harvest
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was when they typically made their diplomatic rounds to other
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Native groups. Although Massasoit commented to the Pilgrims in March
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of sixteen twenty one that they would be back to
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plant corn on the south side of what we now
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know is Town Brook in Plymouth, so he still recognizes
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that there are some planting grounds that are his peoples
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in Plymouth. While the sixteen twenty one event may not
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have been called Thanksgiving, the sentiment was certainly present in
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that historic celebration, just as it would play a defining
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role in how the tradition developed over the centuries to come.
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Giving thanks is really an important part of both cultures.
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Begley says, for the English, before and after every meal,
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there was a prayer thanksgiving for something on this scale,
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celebrating a successful harvest, there definitely would have been moments
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of giving thanks to their God. For the Native Americans
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at the first Thanksgiving, giving thanks was a daily part
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of life. We as Native people, have Thanksgivings as a daily,
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ongoing thing, Linda Holmes, the former associate director of the
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Wampanoga Program at Plymouth Plantation, told the Christian Science Monitor.
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She goes on to say every time anybody when hunting
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or fishing or picked a plant, they would offer a
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prayer or acknowledgment. When the colonists and Native Americans sat
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down to feast, they probably enjoyed quite different fair than
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what we're used to seeing on our Thanksgiving tables. They
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may have eaten wild turkey, which Bradford mentions was plentiful
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in the colony, but it's not certain even that most
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of Thanksgiving staples was on the menu. In addition to venison,
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Winslow wrote that the Native Americans killed five deer and
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presented it to the colonists. Begley says that the group
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probably ate fish and shellfish, which were abundant in the region,
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as well as fruits and vegetables that the colonists grew
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in their home gardens cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, leaks, lettuce, parsnips, pumpkins.
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There were also a lot of native wild plants that
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the English learned how to cook, including jerusalem artichokes, garlic, cranberries,
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concord grapes, walnuts, and chestnuts. The Plymouth Calmnists certainly did
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not serve potatoes, which weren't available to them at the time,
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and it's unlikely they prepared the sweet cranberry sauce we
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know today. Their cranberries were more like a tart garnish.
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Pumpkin pie would have been impossible, as the colony didn't
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have butter, wheat, flour, or even an oven. As for
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who prepared the food for the first Thanksgiving, Winslow's account
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doesn't offer much in the way of domestic details. There
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were only four English housewives that were alive in sixteen
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twenty one, out of I think about twenty that came
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on the Mayflower. Begley says, that's not really a lot
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of people to help you prepare a meal for over
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one hundred, so we can speculate that the children, servants,
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and probably some unmarried men were also helping out and
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preparing all the food. While it's not known whether the
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Plymouth colonists repeated the sixteen twenty one celebration in subsequent years,
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the tradition of giving thanks to God merged with celebrations
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of the harvest to become a fall tradition in New
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England by the late sixteen hundreds, but the significance of
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that first sixteen twenty one harvest celebration didn't really emerge
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until mid nineteenth century, after the writer Alexander Young rediscovered
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Winslow's letter and made it famous in his nineteen forty
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one book entitled Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers. Bradford's manuscript,
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stolen by the British during the Revolutionary War, was recovered
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in the eighteen fifties, just in time for the magazine
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editor Sarah Josepha Hale to incorporate it into her campaign
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to create an official national Thanksgiving holiday in eighteen sixty three,
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Hale achieved her goal when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the
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final Thursday in November as a national Thanksgiving holiday for
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the first time. From its roots in the Plymouth Harvest
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celebration to Hale and Lincoln's attempt to mend a divided
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nation during the Civil War, we can trace the origins
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of the annual celebration of family, food and gratitude that
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we know to day. My final article to Day comes
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in from history dot Com is entitled How the First
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Thanksgiving College football game kicked off a holiday tradition, written
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by Christopher Kleine in November of twenty twenty three, seven
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years after battling Rutgers in what is considered the first
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college football game, Princeton met Yale on November thirty, eighteen
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seventy six, in the first college game played on Thanksgiving Day.
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Fewer than one thousand fans, mostly alumni and students, watched
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Yale win two to nothing in Hoboken, New Jersey, in
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a game that resembled rugby. Less than five years later,
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as college football's popularity surge, the rivalry had become a
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major event on the social calendar, with thousands of fans
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fill in the stands. In eighteen seventy three, as college
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campuses in the Northeast incubated the sport, students from Princeton, Yale, Harvard,
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and Columbia formed the Intercollegiate Football Association. The league's standardized
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rules and set schedules that included an annual Thanksgiving game
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in New York between the teams with the best records
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from the previous season. Except for Harvard in eighteen eighty
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three and eighteen eighty seven, those teams were Princeton and Yale.
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In the eighteen eighties and nineties, their Thanksgiving confrontations became
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the biggest events on the college football calendar. When the
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Thanksgiving game between Princeton and Yale shifted across the Hudson
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River to Manhattan's Polo Grounds in eighteen eighty, crowds swelled
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from hundreds to thousands. Ten thousand fans watched the eighteen
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eighty one game, and attendance serge throughout the decade. By
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the mid eighteen eighties, the Princeton Yale showdown had become
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a major social event in New York City, and an
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annual game between Wesleyan and Pennsylvania was added. As a
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side dish to the main course. While football in the
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eighteen eighties was a brutal game of maass tackles in
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flying wedges between players wearing nothing thicker than skulp caps
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on their heads, the fan experience wasn't far different than
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it is today. Outside venues, vendors hawking pennants and flags.
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Profiteers resold one dollar tickets for five oddsmakers exchanged betting
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slips for cash from fans, and gambled on the outcome
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of the game. Like the Fall Foliage, the stands were
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ablaze in color, with Princeton supporters decked in orange and
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black and yells backers in blue. Fans tied handkerchiefs with
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their team's colors to umbrella handles and walking sticks, and
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decorated hats and lapels with colored ribbons. Yale's female fans
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wore violets, while their counterparts from Princeton donned yellow chrysanthemums
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and orange and black rosettes. Ticket Holders and stage coaches
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and carriages parked next to the football field to enjoy
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the ultimate tailgating experience. Sitting in his coach drinking champagne
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from a goblet. Millionaire William K. Vanderbilt was among those
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enjoying a side line view of the eighteen eighty nine
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game at the Berkeley Oval and the led by All
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American quarterback Edgar Allen Poe, whose father was a cousin
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of the famed writer, Princeton capped an undefeated season with
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a ten zero victory. By the close of the eighteen eighties,
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football teams had sproutled on college campuses from coast to coast,
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and veterans of the Princeton Yale games such as Walter
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Camp and Alonzo Stagg, were instrumental in its spread. By
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eighteen ninety, forty five former Yale players and thirty five
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former Princeton players were football coaches around the country. At
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the dawn of the new decade, Yale started a thirty
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seven game winning streak which included thirty six shutouts, with
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a thirty two blanking of Princeton at Brooklyn's Eastern Park
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in eighteen ninety. The following year, Yale shut out Princeton
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nineteen to nothing in a pelting reign to complete a
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perfect season which outscored its opponents four hund undern eighty
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eight zero. That game in the newly opened Polo Grounds
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was played before forty thousand fans, including thousands who watched
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from a distance atop the rocky crags of Manhattan's Washington Heights.
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With their new venue, Princeton and Yale demonstrated that although
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an amateur enterprise, college football had become big business. While
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the schools each pocketed three hundred and forty dollars and
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forty two cents for their eighteen eighty game, that number
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soared to over fourteen thousand by eighteen ninety one. Fans
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from around the country filled Fifth Avenue's swankiest hotels and
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shop owners courting business. In the weeks leading up to
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the Thanksgiving game placed photographs and colors of the team
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in their storefront windows. Religious leaders across New York moved
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up the times of their traditional Thanksgiving services to avoid
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conflicts with the kickoff. A great and powerful and fascinating
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rival has come to take the place of the thanksgis
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Giving Day dinner. The Thanksgiving Day game, declares Harper's Weekly
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in eighteen ninety one, And now everyone goes out to
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see Princeton and Yale deside the football championship instead of
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boring each other around the dinner table. After another Yale
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victory in eighteen ninety two, Princeton snapped its rivals epic
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winning streak the following year with a six toz victory
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for more than fifty thousand fans. That eighteen ninety three
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game in New York would be the last between the
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rivals on Thanksgiving, although they clashed in the city for
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the next three seasons. In eighteen ninety seven, the annual
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games shifted to their campuses. Thanksgiving football, however, was here
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to stay, as family and friends communed around fields in
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addition to dinner tables. In these times, Thanksgiving Day is
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no longer a solemn festival to God for mercies given,
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reported the New York Herald in eighteen ninety three. It
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is a holiday granted by the state and the nation
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to see a football game. Well that about does it
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for this chapter of Radio I history. Thank you for
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your time to day. I'm your host, Joseph Bolt, and
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I'll be back with another chapter of Radio I history.
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Until then, Happy Thanksgiving and happy trails.