Thanksgiving: From Witch Hunts to Increasing Tolerance

The mythical first Thanksgiving and its romanticized ideals are still an elusive goal that needs to be striven for and built upon a truly firm foundation of real justice and tolerance. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was settled by Puritans wishing to spiritually cleanse the newly founded protestant Church of England and were opposed to democracy as being against god’s will. Others such as the Pilgrims who settled in Plymouth were Separatists who wanted a complete break with the English church.

Unfortunately, they brought with them to the Americas the ideology, behavioral norms and intolerant behavior that was prevalent in Europe at the time. Europe had been torn apart by the bloody 30-years War between Protestants and Catholics that had divided the continent into two warring camps. This culminated in three decades of widespread massacres, torture and death by the burning or hanging of supposed heretics by both sides which included hundreds of thousands of women and children. Such a sectarian and hostile environment influenced the various Puritan groups that settled in North America who brought their dogmatic beliefs and intolerant behavior to our shores. Some of these beliefs and practices that were held by the Pilgrims consisted of considering themselves to be the chosen people of god and condemning all other religions as “heretics”; racial hatred combined with the use of violence and theft of Native-American land which culminated in the attack and total massacre of the Pequot Tribe with the few surviving children being sold into slavery. Other beliefs and practices were the mercantilist-capitalist practice of buying and selling humans into indentured servitude and outright slavery; stealing, selling and owning land as private property for profit; brutal punishments; and viewing women as inferior beings who were in need of being dominated and ruled harshly by men. This ideological world outlook and social practices that were brought and implanted onto the soil of the Americas were backward and negative remnants of a declining feudal Europe. The Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony was ruled by a privileged and wealthy elite and while a few Pilgrim males at Plymouth voted on certain things, the autocratic colony was not the democratic ideal that American mythology has created throughout the years.

The early prevalence of hatred, racial fears and intolerance
Punishment in the early colonies was widespread and consisted of placing people in a debtor’s prison, being locked up publicly in stocks, whippings, brandings and death. The religious fear and hatred

in the Massachusetts Colony reached a level of hysteria during the Salem witch trials of the late 1600′s when more than 150 women and men were accused of satanic practices and the capital crime of witchcraft. Eventually, this spasm of hatred, fear and ignorance resulted in the executions of 19 innocent women, young girls and men by hanging and crushing. Other women at different times were denounced as witches and burned at the stake as fire was supposed to drive out the evil spirits from their bodies. During this period of history, the lone and sane voice of Roger Williams preached that “people should be free to worship or not worship without fear or punishment” and that “the pagan Indians should be paid for their land as Christian men shouldn’t steal”. These ideas that were pronounced publicly by him were of course rejected by the Puritan religious leaders since carrying them into practice would have undermined their dominant economic and political power that they held within the Plymouth and Massachusetts Colonies. As a result of making these true and honest declarations, Williams was verbally attacked, threatened and denounced by these religious hypocrites as a heretic and banished from the Massachusetts Colony to what is now Rhode Island. These intolerant and anti-democratic Puritan societies were essentially oppressive religious tyrannies that were dominated by autocratic and cruel men who used religion and fear to control and interfere in people’s personal lives and punish them publicly for violating countless minor infractions that dealt with speech, perceived thoughts and types of clothing worn.

Two contending trends: hate and intolerance versus democracy and rights
The continuation of this intolerance and hatred inherited from the Pilgrims and other Puritans became even more ingrained into society with time and contributed to the anti-Catholic riots of the 1800′s; the

Manifest Destiny-inspired racial war of annexation against Catholic Mexico; the secession of the South and its instigation of the Civil War to defend state’s rights, racism and slavery; the ongoing wars against the Native Americans and the imprisonment of their survivors on desolate reservations; the oppression of women and minorities, and the rise of expansionist U.S. imperialism and seizure of colonies in Latin America and Asia such as Puerto Rico and the Philippines. During the 20th century, large corporations unleashed and encouraged this homegrown intolerance and hatred. It took the form of a rampant nativism and immigrant bashing that was used in order to divide the ranks of labor; promote the growth of the KKK and other fascist groups; and motivated the anti-red and union-busting Palmer Raids. This traditional and deeply-rooted hatred and intolerance also fueled the witch hunts and black listing of the 1950′s McCarthy period and the race riots that occurred in Saint Louis, Oklahoma, Detroit, Newark, Los Angeles and other cities.

Progressive ideals and movements move forward through struggle
Many principles that were created by the philosophes who were writers during the 17th century Age of Enlightenment advocated tolerance and justice and their works deeply influenced emerging American ideals. English philosopher and writer John Locke influenced Thomas Jefferson’s writing of the Declaration of Independence and Frenchman Baron de Montesquieu’s

book the “Spirit of the Laws” was the template for the secular and non-religious U.S. Constitution with its three branches and separation of powers. Jacksonian Democracy expanded the voting rights of poor white men who had been traditionally disenfranchised by property qualifications imposed by the U.S. upper-class. Meanwhile, the Civil War finally put an end to the system of chattel slavery and indentured servitude and consolidated a relatively more progressive capitalism which created a modern working-class. From the 1880′s to the 1960′s, the U.S. labor movement fought for its rights and developed itself by organizing the A.F.of L., the International Workers of the World (Wobblies), the C.I.O. and later the United Farm Workers. The struggle waged by women finally resulted in winning the right to vote in 1920 with the ratification of the 19th Amendment. The 1960′s witnessed the rise of the civil rights struggle in opposition to 300 years of racial segregation; the anti-war and Women’s Movements; and the black, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Asian-American and Native-American movements. In addition, increased access to education and jobs by minorities was achieved through the winning of affirmative action policies.

Thanksgiving: a new perspective based upon ideals of tolerance and justice
While there is presently an increased level of hate, fear, immigrant bashing and derogatory attitudes toward women being disseminated within our society, we should still remain optimistic, but also more organized and active. These are the remnants within the country of traditional intolerant ideas and trends that are in the historical process of slowly dying out. However, these backward ideas and the right-wing groups who promote them will not diminish of their own accord, but need to be exposed and struggled against. Their present targets of harassment and persecution are immigrants, women, unions, gays, the physically challenged and the poor. In essence,

those who these powerful and wealthy forces of intolerance believe are presently vulnerable or weak. For progress to proceed forward, we need to continue to struggle against backward ideas and defend these different sectors of people who are being denied the right to live and work in peace. In other words, to uphold the unfulfilled right to individual “liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. The people whose job it is to disseminate hated, fear and inequality need to be stood up to and pushed back into the trash bin of history along with their pro-slavery, state’s rights and segregationist predecessors. We must rededicate this Thanksgiving to the developing principles of tolerance and justice and not to the mythical and hypocritical ones of religious persecution, racial fear, male supremacy and violence that were ingrained into our society by the Pilgrims and other Puritans 400 years ago. In doing so, Thanksgiving can then be truly symbolic of an evolving society and future that is peaceful and just and comprised of healthy people who are well-educated, tolerant and who possess decent-paying jobs and housing. Enjoy.