–An American Tradition...
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–An American Tradition...
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This American tradition began with a body of 101 colonists–the first permanent English settlement in the “New World” (in North America), in the year 1620. Thirty-five of this body’s members were Puritans escaping “religious persecution.” And the Mayflower bore this body freely upon these shores.
The Winter elements took their toll upon this body, however, reducing the number considerably. Still, this body survived–with the helpful body of neighboring Indians. And together, these two dissimilar cultures assembled...coming together as one body “in thanksgiving.” Thus was born the “first” Thanksgiving.
Antipathetic to this “prayerful” first beginning, the first body of Black souls to broach the American shores (in Jamestown, Virginia, in the year 1619) did so not freely, but as “chattel"--slaves whose primary course it was to give service to man...not GOD.
Were this indigenous body denied religion, culture, presence of self, and hope. Was this body denied any glimmer of offerings of thanks.
We, those amongst us who share a memory of a bygone era, may call to mind a painterly presentation of a Thanksgiving feast by America’s premiere painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell. The body of family members, tabled about the Thanksgiving mass, shares a spirit on "oneness" and "thanks"...thus receiving Grace and "freedom from want."
