America's First Thanksgiving - Postcard Friendship Friday #39

 

What a joyful Thanksgiving it was!  I look around the room savoring this time with my family and wonder what those who first came to our country on the Mayflower would think of our Thanksgiving celebrations today.  How brave those first explorers were.

The first winter was so bad most of the colonists remained on the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see spring.

When the settlers moved ashore, they received an surprising visit from an Abenaki Indian who spoke English. Several days later, the Native American returned with Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery.  Squanto had escaped his captors, finally making his way back to America.  Despite his experiences as a prisoner, Squanto took pity upon the Pilgrims and taught them how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag Indian tribe -- which lasted for more than 50 years.

In November 1621, after a bumper crop of corn and other staples, the grateful Pilgrims organized a great feast and invited their Native American friends to join them. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving,” the festival lasted for three days.

To see another darling Thanksgiving postcard by the same artist visit Postcardy's fabulous blog!

To see more mailboxes and all things postal, visit Gemma at Greyscale Territory for Weekend Mailbox.