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The history behind your holiday dinner is more complicated than you think! Join us as we explore the surprising truths behind Thanksgiving that rarely make it into textbooks. Our countdown includes the origin of TV dinners, the Wampanoag perspective, Lincoln's political strategy, and the holiday's use as national propaganda. What surprising Thanksgiving fact shocked you the most?
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00:00There's like four little facts of what happened, and then the rest of it is fluff that's been added over the century.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at 10 shocking and interesting facts about Thanksgiving that aren't widely known.
00:13In 1676, King Philip, the Wampanoag chief, was captured and drawn and quartered.
00:21Number 10. The 1621 Thanksgiving was not the first.
00:25Menendez christened the new settlement San Agustin, or St. Augustine. It was September 8th, 1565.
00:34Long before the pilgrims, indigenous peoples across the Americas held harvest celebrations to give thanks for nature's gifts like animals and vegetables.
00:43Even among Europeans, earlier thanksgivings took place, and in North America no less.
00:48Father Lopez then conducted a mass of thanksgiving, and Menendez ordered that a meal be prepared for everyone, including the natives.
00:57This was 55 years before the pilgrims even arrived in Plymouth.
01:02Spanish explorers held a Thanksgiving mass in Florida in 1565, and English settlers in Virginia observed another one in 1619.
01:10The 1621 event was unique mainly for symbolizing cooperation between the Wampanoag and the pilgrims after a successful harvest.
01:19It's not like they both got together and just invented a whole new practice for the fun of it.
01:24It was a combination of pre-existing traditions from both cultures.
01:28A few years ago, Dr. Michael Gannon drew fire when he called this meal the true first Thanksgiving.
01:34Number 9. Probably no turkey.
01:36Today, we're flipping the script on an American classic, Thanksgiving.
01:41No turkey, no cranberry sauce, no stuffing.
01:44Turkey is so ingrained with Thanksgiving that it's hard to imagine it not being a part of the holiday.
01:49Of course, it was probably not the centerpiece of the first Thanksgiving.
01:52When the pilgrims and the Wampanoag shared a feast in 1621, it looked almost nothing like a modern Thanksgiving meal.
01:59We're going to try to recreate what could have been the spread at the first feast.
02:02In particular, the 1600 version of stuffed duck with corn porridge.
02:07They ate copious venison provided by the Wampanoag, along with seafood like fish, clams, and mussels.
02:13Vegetables like corn and squash were staples of indigenous diets and were also served as side courses.
02:19Turkey may have been served alongside other wild fowl, but historians believe it was more likely to be ducks or geese.
02:26The tradition of a centerpiece turkey didn't emerge until the 19th century, well after this dinner was in the history books.
02:33Along with the duck and the corn porridge, we've also added raw nuts, cranberries, and cod to our spread,
02:39since those were also mentioned in the writings about the first Thanksgiving.
02:42Number 8. Ragamuffin Day
02:43For this abounding provision, O Lord, we thank Thee.
02:47Amen.
02:48You all know about Thanksgiving, but do you know about Ragamuffin Day?
02:52Starting in the late 1800s, kids in New York City dressed in rags or dirty old clothes,
02:57and went door to door on Thanksgiving, begging for treats or food.
03:01Please, sir, I want some more.
03:04Sound familiar?
03:05Yep.
03:06Ragamuffin Day is the spiritual precursor to Halloween trick-or-treating, which didn't emerge in America until the 20th century.
03:13The practice of Ragamuffin Day largely came to an end in the 1930s,
03:17owing to a combination of the Great Depression, public anti-begging campaigns,
03:21and the growing proliferation of Thanksgiving Day parades.
03:24Macy's announced within a week that the whole city should set aside Thanksgiving morning 1925 because the parade would be back.
03:33Number 7. TV dinners came from Thanksgiving leftovers.
03:36While Swanson kept the meat refrigerated by running the train back and forth between the East Coast and the Midwest,
03:41they searched desperately for a better solution.
03:44Next time you pop a frozen meal in the microwave, you can thank a slightly overzealous turkey order,
03:50at least according to one popular story.
03:52In 1953, the Swanson Company allegedly ordered way too many frozen turkeys.
03:58Not wanting to waste the enormous surplus of unused food,
04:01the company had the idea of packaging some leftover slices with a side of potatoes, peas, and stuffing in a metal tray.
04:08Borrowing from the concept of the strato plate, Swanson salesman Gary Thomas pitched an idea.
04:14Preserve the turkey through flash freezing and sell it to consumers as a meal in a box.
04:20Voila, the TV dinner was born.
04:22They called it a TV dinner, and it was a revolution.
04:25Fast, yummy, and perfect for watching football.
04:28It was not the first frozen meal, but thanks to the genius marketing of Swanson,
04:32it was the one people came to know.
04:34I don't know what a TV dinner feels like.
04:38Number 6. A magazine editor helped make it national.
04:42For Women's History Month, we want to introduce you to a historical figure you may not even be aware of
04:47who has made an impact on our nation.
04:49If you thought a president came up with Thanksgiving, think again.
04:52For decades, it was actually the passion project of one determined woman,
04:56Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of Godey's Ladies Book.
05:00She spent over 30 years lobbying politicians to make Thanksgiving a national holiday,
05:05writing letters, publishing essays, and even appealing to five different presidents.
05:10Five!
05:10But her persistence eventually paid off, and her pleas found some ears.
05:14Abraham Lincoln's ears, to be exact.
05:16In 1863, he declared a national day of Thanksgiving and praise.
05:21So if you enjoy a long weekend in November, you can thank this 19th century magazine editor.
05:26Impressive.
05:26That is impressive.
05:28I like it.
05:28That's some history for you, and women's history.
05:30Number 5. A Civil War Unity Tactic.
05:33The President of the United States, right before he came to Gettysburg,
05:37issued a proclamation on October 3rd, 1863,
05:41asking Americans to set aside a day of Thanksgiving and prayer
05:46on the last Thursday of the month in November.
05:51When Abraham Lincoln issued a national Thanksgiving proclamation,
05:54it wasn't just about gratitude, it was about the power of unity in a fractured nation.
05:59In 1863, America was deeply divided, torn apart by the Civil War,
06:04and struggling to maintain any semblance of shared identity.
06:08Lincoln, with the help of Sarah Hale, of course, saw Thanksgiving as a way to promote unity
06:12and boost morale, particularly in the Union states, where optimism was essential for victory.
06:17But thanks to President Lincoln, the Thanksgiving that you and I know as a standard national holiday
06:24takes place because of the American Civil War.
06:27By giving Americans something positive to rally around,
06:31he hoped to strengthen both the public spirit and devoted faith in the Union.
06:35It worked, at least symbolically.
06:37The holiday became a tradition, but it was one built during one of America's most painful periods.
06:42We've made it possible for one another to do terrible things.
06:48We've won the war.
06:50Now, you have to lead us out of it.
06:54Number 4. The Wampanoag weren't invited guests.
06:57And as the leaves began to turn, they prepared, Edward Winslow reported,
07:02to in a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors.
07:07The iconic image of pilgrims and Native Americans sharing a peaceful meal leaves out one major detail.
07:13The Wampanoag weren't formally invited.
07:15In their canonical oral tradition, the Wampanoag showed up because they heard gunfire
07:20and assumed the settlers might be preparing for battle.
07:22When they discovered it was just a feast celebrating the settlers' harvest,
07:26they offered to bring along some food.
07:28There isn't much of a record.
07:30There's a paragraph, I think, in Winslow that describes what's come to be known as the first Thanksgiving.
07:37It says nothing about an invitation.
07:40It's just that the English were doing this thing, and Massasoit showed up with these 90 men.
07:45The pilgrims agreed, and the legend of Thanksgiving was born.
07:48Other historians slightly disagree with this take,
07:51arguing that Massasoit was already nearby for treaty business.
07:55So, while cooperation did occur, the pilgrims initially had no plans
08:00on involving the natives in their celebratory feast.
08:04Can I squeeze in?
08:07Sure you can.
08:08Number 3. The pilgrims later betrayed the Wampanoag.
08:12But in 1675, another deadly conflict took place,
08:16when the English would remember for generations as King Philip's War.
08:20King Philip was actually a name given by the English
08:25to the Indian chief of the Wampanoag tribe, neighbors of Plymouth Colony.
08:29That alliance between the settlers and the Wampanoag?
08:32Yeah, it didn't last.
08:34Within just a few decades, the English settlers turned against their former allies,
08:38seizing Wampanoag land, spreading disease, and waging war in their drive for expansion.
08:43By 1676, just 55 years after that legendary Thanksgiving,
08:48the Wampanoag were devastated by King Philip's War,
08:51one of the bloodiest and most destructive conflicts in early American history.
08:54Tensions between Plymouth Colony and the Wampanoags were starting to develop
08:59because Plymouth Colony was growing and expanding,
09:03taking over more and more land, and placing more and more demands on the Wampanoags.
09:08Villages were destroyed, over 7,000 lives were lost,
09:11and entire Native communities were shattered.
09:14This side of the story often gets brushed aside in favor of the feel-good narrative,
09:18but it's an essential part of understanding what Thanksgiving meant for Indigenous peoples,
09:22a story of survival as much as loss.
09:25The English, who at this point were inclined to see all Native Americans as enemies
09:31attack the other major group in the region, the Narragansetts.
09:34The end result was that the Wampanoags and the Narragansetts were pretty much hunted down.
09:38Number 2. Thanksgiving as Propaganda.
09:41You right sure you want to jump them, Ethan?
09:46That's what we came for, ain't it?
09:48I thought we were trying to get them girls out.
09:51Alive.
09:52You jump them, Comanche, they'll kill them, you know that.
09:55As America expanded westward, Thanksgiving took on a darker, more nefarious purpose,
10:01one of national propaganda.
10:03Throughout the 19th century, politicians, preachers, and writers
10:06used the holiday to promote the idea of American destiny,
10:09framing settlers as righteous pioneers civilizing the wilderness,
10:13and indigenous resistance as an unfortunate obstacle to progress.
10:17Comanchees.
10:19They're not going to like us killing these friends of theirs.
10:22We better get moving.
10:23School plays, paintings, popular stories, and public speeches
10:27all painted a romanticized image of the pilgrims and their supposed harmony with native peoples,
10:32a comforting national myth that helped justify colonialism and assimilation.
10:37So while the holiday brought families together around shared meals and gratitude,
10:41it also reinforced a selective national story that left many others unheard and ignored.
10:46Though there is so much pain associated with the original Thanksgiving,
10:50I do appreciate being able to connect to the Wampanoag people through the food they may have eaten.
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11:07Number one, a national day of mourning.
11:13It's a tale of two Americas and two perspectives.
11:16While many people spend Thanksgiving with their loved ones and reflect on what they're thankful for,
11:22for other groups of people, it's a day filled with grief.
11:25As you can imagine, Thanksgiving is actually a day of mourning for many Native American cultures.
11:30Since 1970, indigenous activists, elders, and community members have gathered at Plymouth Rock
11:36to honor their ancestors and protest the historical erasure tied to their colonization and forced assimilation.
11:43The truth is not told about what the real Thanksgiving was.
11:49It's like believing in the tooth fairy.
11:52The event serves as both a memorial and a call to action,
11:56reminding the nation that for some, Thanksgiving represents not gratitude,
12:00but the beginning of centuries of violence and displacement.
12:02A reminder that for some to be thankful, others must suffer.
12:06It's a powerful counterpoint to the traditional story,
12:09urging Americans to look beyond the myth, confront some uncomfortable truths,
12:13and acknowledge the complicated history of how this holiday came to be.
12:17Our presence here is a stark reminder of the true story of Thanksgiving
12:20that differs from so much from the fable story shared in classrooms,
12:25history books, and celebrations across this nation.
12:28Do you know any other interesting facts about the holiday?
12:30Let us know in the comments below.
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