William Bradford was the governor of the original Pilgrim colony, founded at Plymouth in 1621. The colony was first organized on a communal basis, as their financiers required. Land was owned in common. The Pilgrims farmed communally, too, following the "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" precept.

The results were disastrous. Communism didn't work any better 400 years ago than it does today. By 1623, the colony had suffered serious losses. Starvation was imminent.

Bradford realized that the communal system encouraged and rewarded waste and laziness and inefficiency, and destroyed individual initiative. Desperate, he abolished it. He distributed private plots of land among the surviving Pilgrims, encouraging them to plant early and farm as individuals, not collectively.

The results: a bountiful early harvest that saved the colonies.  After THAT  harvest the Pilgrims celebrated with a day of Thanksgiving.  

Unfortunately, William Bradford's diaries -- in which he recorded the failure of the collectivist system and the triumph of private enterprise -- were lost for many years. When Thanksgiving was later made a national holiday, the present November date was chosen. And the lesson the Pilgrims so painfully learned was, alas, not made a part of the holiday.

Happily, Bradford's diaries were later rediscovered. They're available today in paperback. They tell the real story of Thanksgiving -- how private property and individual initiative saved the Pilgrims.

This Thanksgiving season, one of the many things I'm thankful for is our free market system (imperfectly realized as it is). And I'm also grateful that there are increasing numbers of Americans who are learning the importance of free markets, and who are working to replace government coercion with marketplace cooperation here in America and around the world.

Paul Schmidt

PS: A special thanks to long-time Advocate volunteer Cris Everett, who told us about this neglected bit of history several years ago.

-- copied from http://FreedomKeys.com/thanksgiving.htm  which was excerpted from the Nov. 20, 1997 issue of  THE LIBERATOR ONLINE at http://www.theadvocates.org/liberator/vol-02-num-21.htm
 

for more detailed accounts see: 
How Private Property Saved the Pilgrims at http://tinyurl.com/ylc83r
The Great Thanksgiving Hoax  at-http://mises.org/story/336
The Pilgrims’ Real Thanksgiving Lesson  at 
http://snipurl.com/av27
How Capitalism Saved America  at
http://tinyurl.com/CapitalismSavedAmerica
The REAL Thanksgiving Story   at 
 http://tinyurl.com/RealThanksgivingStory
Giving Thanks for Lessons Learned at 
http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article/2281
and The Plymouth Experiment  at http://snipurl.com/12lca
And there are a lot more HERE:  http://search.mises.org/search?q=thanksgiving&site=default_collection

Find some more excerpts from Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford's journal HERE: http://freedomkeys.com/ofplymouthplantation.htm
and-HERE: http://tinyurl.com/1stThanksgiving

Finally, to see how it feels to be caught in a coerced-sharing society check out THIS page: http://tinyurl.com/20thCenturyMotors
AND for those of you unfortunate enough to have to deal with fanatical self-righteous altruists, see THIS page:  http://FreedomKeys.com/paradox.htm#pcdt

Also see: "Private Property Saved Jamestown, And With It, America" HERE: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8236  and  

The Miracle of the Free Market and No Turkey Czars at http://tinyurl.com/NoTurkeyCzars  

Individualism vs. Collectivism: definitions and how they compare at http://freedomkeys.com/individualism.htm

"Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist." -- President John Adams, direct descendent of Pilgrims John and Priscilla Alden 

"The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen in his person and property and in their management." -- Thomas Jefferson

"Private property is the most important guarantee of freedom." -- F.A. Hayek 

"No freedom is secure if your property rights are not secure." -- Neal Boortz

"Property is the foundation of all civilized society." -- Thomas Jefferson

"It is the institution of private property that protects and implements the right to disagree."-- Ayn Rand

"If you can't own (and use) property, you are property." - Wayne Hage

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Also see Tasty Trivia-here: http://FreedomKeys.com/fascinating.htm
 
 

"Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist." -- President John Adams, direct descendent of Pilgrims John and Priscilla Alden  "The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen in his person and property and in their management." -- Thomas Jefferson "Private property is the most important guarantee of freedom." -- F.A. Hayek  "No freedom is secure if your property rights are not secure." -- Neal Boortz "It is the institution of private property that protects and implements the right to disagree."-- Ayn Rand "If you can't own (and use) property, you are property." - Wayne Hage

HOW CAPITALISM  SAVED AMERICA The Untold History  of Our Country, from  the Pilgrims to the Present Thomas DiLorenzo (paperback)

Find an easier-to-copy-and-email version of this page here: http://FreedomKeys.com/thanksgiving2.htm

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
ENJOY and Please pass it along! ------>

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