Why didn't they come here and adopt the ways of the people that lived here like we want immigrants to do now? Imagine if they did that. And please don't whitewash the fact that natives were given blankets with smallpox. Purposely. That wasn't some accident.
What they teach in the schools about the come together feast was totally made up for political pr. School history books were much like the media today with much biased reporting on all sides.
That happened much later. In one of my history classes in college we discussed the initial arrival of the pilgrims and when they got to the Eastern seaboard they thought that the land was gifted to them from God because there were all these fields that were ready to farm. The natives were already all dead in that area. They had no idea. Many millions of the natives had died from the initial contact with Europeans before the immigrants from England got here. The smallpox blankets happened later after the colonies had been established. Also, please don't accuse me of "whitewashing." I find it personally offensive, and I really think you should be more sensitive to the fact that you yourself were pissed off about how the word "black" is used negatively in the dictionary.
You told me to "please don't whitewash the fact that natives were given blankets with smallpox. Purposely." I'm just asking that you don't accuse me personally of whitewashing.
Well I don't know what else to call it when you bring up disease from simple contact with Europeans.... I personally think that's a load.
Pilgrims didn't even come over until 1620. Millions upon Millions had died from Spanish/Portuguese exploration. This is just in Mexico. And as I said, in one of the books that we were studying in college, the initial explorers from England didn't even really encounter natives and found empty villages that had been wiped out from disease. The smallpox blankets were much later when the British were trying to wage war against the native tribes.
Hey, hey now, I like to pictures of American Indians sitting down to a roast turkey dinner complete with stuffing and cranberry sauce alongside our new pilgrims in their dress garb of the day and a fire in the kitchen fireplace. Oh, the laughter and camaraderie while toasting with a glass of white wine. Isn't that the way it was?
