Most Americans think of Thanksgiving as the courage of the Pilgrims that came to America on the Mayflower. What they do not know is that the Pilgrims were socialists who eventually became converts to capitalism.
In the book “Mayflower” by Nathaniel Philbrick, the voyage, founding and the daily doings of Plymouth, Massachusetts is discussed in great detail from the of diary Governor William Bradford. The first two years were brutal and the colonists were starving and greatly in debt. Here is the excerpt from the book:
“The fall of 1623 marked the end of Plymouth’s debilitating food shortages. For the last two planting seasons, the Pilgrims had grown crops communally – the approach first used at Jamestown and other English settlements. But as the disastrous harvest of the previous fall had shown, something drastic needed to be done to increase the annual yield.
In April, Bradford had decided that each household should be assigned its own plot to cultivate, with the understanding that each family kept whatever it grew. The change in attitude was stunning. Families were now willing to work much harder than they had ever worked before. In prvious years, the men had tended the fields while the women tended the children at home. “The women now went willingly into the field,” Bradford wrote, “and took their little ones with them to set corn.” The Pilgrims had stumbled on the power of capitalism. Although the fortunes of the colony still teetered precariously in the years ahead, the inhabitants never again starved.”
The fortune of the colony was precarious because the colony was deeply in debt to financiers back in Europe.
If social welfare did not work on a debt ridden agrarian colony over 500 years ago, how do we expect it to work today?
Wow…great article, Brad! Although I’ve studied the history of the Pilgrims…I don’t think I’ve ever put the pieces to this puzzle together before, and realized that they were, in fact, socialists. Clearly, they learned an extremely difficult lesson that led them to what ultimately saved them–capitalism.
When we forget our history, we are doomed to repeat it. It would seem many in this country have forgotten our history…which isn’t surprising when you consider who is in control of so many of our schools and universities. You’d think we could just look across the ocean to Europe to see the results of this failed political/economic model. Let’s hope enough of us are paying attention on Nov. 6 to reverse this trend toward what we know WILL NOT work.
Posted by Red Pill Report | October 18, 2012, 11:16 amFascinating! How often do you get to see a group of people experiment with something, learn of its failure, and then correct that failure? Oops, as I wrote that question, I realized that we have seen it other times as well. Reagan did just that. Corrected the failures of the previous administration. I guess the difference here is that it was the same people trying different methods for themselves and settling on what worked. This is particularly interesting to me as I am a direct descendant of William Bradford. Thanks Brad, you just gave me some political and family history! Awesome!
Posted by Cucciolo | October 18, 2012, 12:35 pmI came across a great quote the other day from Steve Jobs. “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” Too many Americans have blinders on when it comes to what has happened in the past, leading to a complete lack of understanding and an inability to connect the past to the present. Great thoughts, Brad. Very interesting perspective.
Posted by Rob | October 18, 2012, 12:50 pmExcellent article, Brad. Thanks for the insightful history lesson. Keep them coming.
Posted by Jesse | October 18, 2012, 12:54 pmI’ve heard this story. If it is true, it tells us far more about the hearts of the pilgrims and where they should have been than it tells us about the validity and potential of either socialism or capitalism.
Posted by Jay Sprout | October 18, 2012, 8:08 pmReblogged this on Wretched Man That I Am and commented:
Study History America or we are doomed to repeat it!
Posted by Wretched Man That I Am | October 19, 2012, 6:05 am