Happy Thanksgiving! You probably know that many myths about the holiday still persist. And you probably have Thanksgiving romanticizes, to put it lightly, the history of the United States and the relationship between European and indigenous people.
Throughout history, European settlers have thanked god for help killing off indigenous populations. Because I would literally be here until the next Thanksgiving if I tried to compile all the “thanks for the extermination back up, God” quotes, I’m going to focus on the way a particular massacre inspired gratitude and thanksgiving celebration among the British.
The Mystic Massacre was part of the Pequot War (1637 and 1638), which took place between Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut and Plymouth colonies against the Pequot tribe. The Europeans (Surprise! Surprise!) took advantage of tensions among the different tribes and convinced the Naragansett and Monhegan tribes to join them. On June 5, 1637, the English, supported by the Naragansett and Monhegan, surrounded the fortified village of Mystic, burned it to the ground and killed between 400-700 Pequots. As you will see below, this massacre really added to the celebration of Thanksgiving that year.
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