The true Thanksgiving story.... long... not for fainthearted

DreamTone7 · Joined: 20 Sep 2002 Posts: 2571

chris...couldn't you have saved this for AFTER Thanksgiving? (There goes my appetite.) :muede

Melody and Instruments for the soul...

bbchris

The first year in America the Pilgrims had very

little for which to be thankful. That first bitter

winter they had limited food supplies, poor clothing

and crudely built housing. During the months before

spring, fifteen of the eighteen married women died

as did twenty-two of thirty-eight men. Because of

this great trauma of death from starvation, something

had to be done to assure the future survival of the

colony.

In March of 1624, the first dairy animals came

to Plymouth on the ship Charity, which delivered

three cows and a bull to the grateful pilgrims.

Within a generation every family in America had a

dairy cow. Milk from these cows was churned into

butter. Will and Ariel Durant who wrote "The Story

of Civilization" revealed that a typical dairy cow

in the 12th century yielded little milk. One can

assume that cows in the 1600s yielded as much milk

as cows in the 1300s. In "The Age of Faith, History

of Life in the Middle Ages," the Durants wrote:

"Dairy farming was unprogressive; the average cow

in the thirteenth century gave little milk, and hardly

a pound of butter per week."

Making butter requires 21.2 pounds of milk for

each "finished" pound of butter. One quart of milk

weighs 2.15 pounds. A dairy cow in Plymouth Rock,

Massachusetts might have yielded his Pilgrim family

"hardly a pound of butter per week." That averaged

out to three pounds of milk per day, about a quart

and-a-half.

People who believe that early Americans drank

milk as a routine part of their diet do not consider

how little milk cows gave. Nor do they consider the

existence of butter churns. Butter churns weren't

hood ornaments for Pilgrim's carriages. Pilgrims

used them only for one purpose: to churn milk into

butter. That three pounds of milk per day would

yield only one-half stick of butter. Imagine fifteen

of the eighteen Pilgrim wives dying during the first

winter. Imagine the same proportion of the mothers

in your community dying from starvation over the winter.

You'd need emergency rations to survive. Fat from milk,

stored underground, saved for the winter months. Got

milk? No way! One-half stick of butter per day, one

pound of butter per week, carefully and strenuously

churned by a Pilgrim and stored for the cruel New

England winter.

Did the Pilgrims drink and store milk in the summer?

Milk was loaded with bacteria that quickly spoiled,

making it undrinkable. By churning the milk into

butter and storing it underground, the fat was saved

until it was needed. The Pilgrim experience made it

necessary for every family to carefully store food

through the bountiful months so that they might survive

the hardships of winter. Butter became their insurance

policy. It became necessary for every New England family

to own a dairy cow. In a few years, that's just what

happened.

Imagine the depression of imminent death by

starvation. You come to a new world without food

and shelter, haven't bathed in three months and are

wearing the same clothes in which you started your

voyage. It's December of 1620 and it's snowing, you've

sent a landing party ashore and stolen corn from some

very angry Abenaki Indians who would like nothing

better than to shoot their arrows at you. (Which they

did!) Didn't the Pilgrims bear in mind the Eighth

Commandment, "Thou shalt not steal?" Obviously not!

They left England, seeking religious freedom, or so

our school children are taught, and immediately broke

one of God's commandments by stealing food from the

Indians. How would you handle such fear? By spring,

half of your fellows are dead.

The Pilgrims had actually planned for the harsh

winter of 1620. They sailed from Holland to London

to Southampton, England, where they boarded the

Mayflower, bringing along their provisions. There

was one problem. At this point in their journey,

they were broke and they could not pay their bills.

Owing 100 English pounds, they couldn't sail until

they paid this bill. So they sold some of their

provisions, a calculated gamble which put them at

the mercy of diminished resources and divine providence.

Unfortunately, their resources were inadequate. The

bet didn't work. Historian William Bradford relates:

"So they were forced to sell off some of their

provisions to stop this gap, which was some three

or four-score firkins of butter, commodity they

might best spare, having which provided too large a

quantity of that kind."

They sold their insurance policy, their food for

the winter, their butter, and with it the lives of

half of their number. A letter written on August 3, 1620,

to the "beloved friends" of these Pilgrims explained:

"We are in such a strait at present, as we are

forced to sell away our provisions to clear the haven

and withal to put ourselves upon great extremities,

scarce having any butter...we are willing to expose

ourselves to such eminent dangers as are like to ensue,

and trust to the good providence of God..."

They sold the concentrated fat that would have

helped them to survive in New England. Had they not

sold this treasure, they would have most certainly

not starved and suffered the trauma of seeing half

their number perish. Would a three-day Thanksgiving

have been called for, the following year? All because

they sold their butter. How much butter did they

intend to bring to the New World? Some "three to

four-score firkins." William Bradford, author of

"Plymouth Plantation," said that the Pilgrims sold

approximately 4,040 pounds of butter. That meant that

every man woman and child was rationed 40 pounds of

butter. By today's standards, in order to produce those

4,040 pounds of butter they would have required 85,648

quarts of milk. A herd of 100 cows, each producing one

quart of milk per day would have taken nearly eight

months to produce that much milk. Now, that's a lot

of churning!

The Pilgrim diaries reveal the favorite food of

the native Americans at the first Thanksgiving. Their

food of choice was "rancid butter." One can only imagine

the salmonella, E. coli, bovine leukemia, clostridium

and colonies of paratuberculosis thriving in that

rancid butter. Indians fell in love with the creamy

taste of the Pilgrim's butter. They traded furs and

fish, meat and land for this much desired commodity.

Were flu-stricken Pilgrims sneezing behind trees in

the woods responsible for the deaths of one million

Abenaki and Wampaunoag? Was it perhaps the Native

American's love for the rancid butter, the gift of

the bovines? Our day of giving thanks might very well

have been their day of destruction.

bbchris

I did say not for fainthearted...... Sorry Dreamtone!

The Master68 · Joined: 04 Nov 2004 Posts: 442

Damn, I just ate Indian food, too...

--------------

When you argue with a fool, be sure he isn't similarly occupied...

--------------

Music - Organismo Cibernetico (Cybernetic Organism)

bbchris

Like a Tandoori curry?

bbchris

Wonder if the FBI know I posted this true Thanksgiving story.... :dunno

Galmin · The King has spoken! Joined: 30 Dec 2001 Posts: 1711

Quote:
Thanksgiving is closely related to harvest festivals that had long been a traditional holiday in much of Europe. The first North American celebration of these festivals by Europeans was held in Newfoundland by the Frobisher Expedition in 1578.

Seismic Anamoly · Joined: 22 Aug 2002 Posts: 3039

Chris.....watch your back!!!!! :aua

Quote:

....a holiday celebrated in much of North America, generally observed as an expression of gratitude, usually to God.

Say it ain't SO.

Almost ALL of North America.........JESUSLAND??!! :aua

BTW, Galmin....interesting article. Thanks for posting it. Seriously. Some good info there.