Skip to main content

Chapter 2: John Winthrop and the Official Thanksgiving Day Declaration (1637)

Table of Contents:

Chapter 2:
John Winthrop and the Official Thanksgiving Declaration
1637

Uncas looks up, like he just heard Sassacus yelling.
Uncas

 The Pilgrims are standing around in some assembly hall in a government building somewhere.

William Brewster: “Psalm 18. David wrote and dedicated this psalm to God after God delivered him from all of his enemies, especially Saul. David began the psalm with:

[Uncas looks out of the window of the building, and see the hacked off heads of Natives being kicked through the streets like soccer balls by Pilgrim boys; Uncas shudders] 

Brewster: “I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.”

John Mason: “I'm happy to have the love and support of the religious community during our trying times of survival as a colony. Make no mistake about it. We are doing God's work. At Mystick River, all of the enemy were vanquished. Only 7 Pequot escaped, and we brought 7 Pequots home to be used as slaves, or to sell them to Spanish traders who run the ship Desire. The surviving Pequots were hunted but could make little haste because of their children. They were literally-run to ground...tramped into the mud and buried in the swamp. We also attacked and sacked a second Pequot Village was attacked, massacred and destroyed on June 5, 1637 near present day Stonington and a third Pequot Village was attacked, massacred and destroyed on July 28, 1637 near present day Fairfield." ... "For recognition of my great conquering hero status, and that's why, today, I want to announce, that Connecticut Plantations have decided to make me Governor General, and I'll be responsible for training the military men of Connecticut.”
John Mason
(with Underhill and Troops)

[polite applause and congratulations from the peanut gallery]

A man from the gallery: “Well let's hope Captain Mason is better than Captain Underhill. Captain Underhill still needs to catch Roger Williams.” (laughter)

Underhill: “I know he's in Rhode Island somewhere!” (laughter) "If you're so brave, you chase after him in Narragansett territory." 

William Brewster: “Psalm 18: Verse 29-39. With [God's] help I can advance against a troop [or can run through a barricade], with my God I can scale a wall. . . . It is God who arms me with strength. . . . He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. . . . I pursued my enemies and overtook them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed. I crushed them so that they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet. You armed me with strength for battle, you made my adversaries bow at my feet." ... “In a little more than one hour, five or six hundred of these barbarians were dismissed from a world that was burdened with them.”

William Bradford: “Those that scraped the fire were slaine with the sword; some hewed to peeces, others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatchte, and very few escapted. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fyer, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stincke and sente there of, but the victory seemed a sweete sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to inclose their enemise in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enimie.”
Bradford

William Brewster: "Did David not war with the Philistines, and the House of Saul, and his sons Absalom, and the nomads? And where would we be without David having had shed the blood of Goliath the Giant? Instead of killing Goliath the Giant, we killed all he knew, and loved. We killed his spirit and purpose for living, and his future legacies. We killed his wives, his children, and his parents, and one day, we shall get Goliath the Giant ourselves."

Pilgrim 1: "Do not forget. David wasn't allowed to build the temple, because his hands were drenched in blood. That's why God grant Solomon permission to build the temple."

Brewster: "Even if we have to war like David, with all of this blood on our hands, eventually, our children of peace, like Solomon, will be able to build the temples that pleases the Lord.

Underhill: “Sometimes the Scripture declareth women and children must perish with their parents; David’s war, when a people is grown to such a height of blood, and sin against God and man, and all confederates in the action, there he hath no respect to persons, but harrows them, and saws them, and puts them to the sword, and the most terriblest death that may be: It may be demanded…Should not Christians have more mercy and compassion? We had sufficient light from the word of God for our proceedings.”

John Winthrop “Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony” proclaims: "Say a final grace Reverend Brewster, and I will make today the official day for Thanksgiving for all of posterity."

Brewster: "O Lord our God and heavenly Father, which of Thy unspeakable mercy towards us, hast provided meate and drinke for the nourishment of our weake bodies. Grant us peace to use them reverently, as from Thy hands, with thankful hearts: let Thy blessing rest upon these Thy good creatures, to our comfort and sustentation: and grant we humbly beseech Thee, good Lord, that as we doe hunger and thirst for this food of our bodies, so our soules may earnestly long after the food of eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, Amen."

Winthrop: “Today, the 12th of the 8th Month, we, the English Protestants of the Massachusetts Bay Colony shall hold a public day of Thanksgiving to God in all of our Churches for his great mercies in subduing the Pequot, bringing the soldiers in safety, the success of the conference, and for good news from Germany. Perhaps we can now be forever free from these Pequot savages. We shall divide the few remaining prisoners amongst all of the tribes, and outlaw the Pequot out of existence. Even their names shall be wiped out of history. We are the exceptional city on the hill. We cannot allow the muck to sink us. We're God's chosen people. The lost tribe of Israel. We will not lose. [evil laughter] And to commemorate this Blessed Day, the vanquishing of the horrid savage Pequot, I officially declare, hence from this day forward, for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, to celebrate annually, an official Day of Thanksgiving.”

Everybody: "Amen"

Where Are They Now?

[like a baseball card]
Picture of John Underhill (1597-1672) smiling, with his face on the right side:




“Underhill takes several Pequots to be his own personal servants! Captain John Underhill was excommicated and disgraced from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. John Underhill owned a Tobacco Plantation in New Netherlands! Underhill then sold his services to the Dutch as a mercenary, and would go on to commit 2 MORE MASSACRES! Underhill massacred over 500 Lenape, who he thought were the Siwanoy and Wechquaesgeek bands of the Wappinger Confederacy. Underhill also attacked and burned the Massapequan fort, killing 120 Indians.

Underhill shouting towards the camera: “Yall better clear out of here before I start to strike at random!”

Where are they now?

[Baseball card picture of “Miantonimo, Chief of the Narragansett” (1600- August1643) smiling.]

In August 1643, during the Mohegan-Connecticut war (with sachem Sequasson), Miantonimo is captured by Uncas, and Uncas delivered him right up to the English. Miantonimo was wearing European armor that weighed him down, and that's how Uncas caught him. Miantonimo is tried and convicted by 5 Puritan clergymen. Miantonimo is executed when the English allows Uncas's brother, Wawequa, to chop Miantonimo's head in half with a tomahawk while Miantonimo was being escorted to Norwich. Uncas also murdered many of Sequasson's men too.

Where are they now?

[Picture of Desire, the Slave Ship]
The Desire was America's first slave ship. Desire sailed her maiden voyage in June 1637, leaving Plimouth, proceeding to Barbados in the Bahamas, with a cargo of dry fish and strong liquors and Sassacus's wife and children, and the Englishmen traded the Pequot prisoners of war with a Spanish slave ship for African slaves, which began the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Rhode Island Colony, Providence Plantations, and the Connecticut Colony all followed Massachusetts into the slave trade shortly afterwards.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Books Read By Anne Frank

2 outta 5 Kyians can't read, according to a 1999 Paul Patton Task Force commission report. “44% of Kentuckians struggle with minimal literacy skills, and 37% of the Kentuckians age 25 and older do not have a high school diploma.” http://www.lrc.ky.gov/lrcpubs/rr296.pdf But hey, Kentucky, don't lose heart. Just look at the good side. If 44% of Kentuckians CAN'T read, then that means that 56% of Kentuckians CAN read, so let's look at the positive side. Here's Wendy, a Kentuckian, from Letcher County, who I met the other day:  Many Kentuckians, especially the backwards, racist, and illiterate, love to fuck up their words as bad as they possibly can. “Taters” isn't only stupid... it's childish. Plus, potatoes aren't that great. Potatoes were responsible for killing off a huge Irish population... sure it's one of the world's main basic food staples, but rice, pork, beef, wheat, sugar, etc., are so much more important, and more d

Haiti's Revolution 3

alex hamilton repn hte US while gw was away gave France $$$ for US repayment of Revolutionary War loans from the US treasury, which amounted to about $400,000 and 1,000 military weapons. N the period b/t Sept 1791 - June 1793, 22 months … US gave $726K to French white colonists. GW was a slave owner. He joined the US rev to protect his slaves from Lord Dunmore's Emancipation Proclamation; GW loved havn slaves, too much. That's why he helped France fight their rebelling slaves. Escargo & frog eatn French. French kiss... french fries... frenches mustard & ketchup french toast deja vu; cest la vie; jena ce qua; ew-lala vis a vis … viola! sacrabeau! ; a propos; au courant; au contraire; blasé blasé blasé Bon yovage! Bourgeouis!; cache cafe! Chueffer! Clique! Cliché! Critique croissant; cul de sac escusez moi; extraordinaire; facade; faux, faux pax; hot shots, part duex; gaffe, genre Grand Prix voyeur boutique cause celebre, laisse faire; madam malaise

100 Greatest Works Humanity Has Ever Made

A Great Books Canon “To ignore the leaps and bounds we've advanced in the fields of technology and science is to forever play patty-cake to the cavepeople of yesteryear.” Podcast Explanation for the first few Great Books of the Freedom Skool: http://youtu.be/7jD_v4ji1kU This is the Freedom Skool's 2015 list of the 100 Greatest Works Humanity Has Ever Made in the order of most important to least. Books are too limiting in their scope for what ideas can cloud the brain, and folks from all over the world, yesterday, today, men, women, atheist, spiritual, white, black, straight, gay, transvestite, have all helped in the collaboration in the making of this list. Out of the great pool of ideas, the best ideas should prevail. Thus, the 100 greatest works ever are nothing more than the 100 greatest ideas ever constructed. For all intensive and respectful purposes, consider this my own personal 100 “great books” list. For all kinds of culture, things which please the eyes, su