Seeking Squanto and the First Thanksgiving

“A spetiall instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectations.”

 Gov. William Bradford (Regarding Squanto)

                  I can clearly recall the day, in 6^th grade we began to study the landing of the Plgrims in Massachusetts. The colony was ill-equipped for the weather and they were starving when suddenly a Native American appeared, speaking fluent English, and offering assistance. Even then I wondered where this man learned to speak fluent English. Little did I know how convoluted the story was and how intertwined the lives of the Indigenous people and the Pilgrims were. Tisquantum, known in legend as Squanto, has faded into much of the story of the first Thanksgiving but his salvation of the Pilgrims, by interpreting for them and teaching them about New World food techniques and sources, is less prominent in the overall chronicle.

Squanto was born around 1580 into the Patuxet Tribe of the Wampanoags, People of the First Light. He, and about 25 other natives, were enticed aboard a British slave ship bound for Spain. As many as 5.5 million natives were enslaved from 1492 and 1880. With assistance he escaped, fled to London and was employed by John Slaney the treasurer of Newfoundland. From Newfoundland he worked aboard another ship that took him closer to Patuxet. #Squanto

In the New World European explorers spread the plague, The Great Dying, from 1616-1619. The plague wiped out 2/3 of the 70,000 indigenous people in the 69 Patuxet villages. When the Pilgrims landed the bones of the dead littered the landscape and they viewed it as a sign that God had made a way for the Puritan faith to flourish. 

In 1609 the Puritans had immigrated from England and settled in Leiden in the Netherlands, for 11-years, but the Britishcontinued to harass them. Finally, in 1619, the Dutch Merchant Adventurers financed a land patent near the Hudson River including provisions, two ships, the Mayflower and the Speedwell.

The Leiden American Pilgrim Museum is housed in Leiden in a house constructed in 1365. The 2-room museum has exhibits reflective of a room the Pilgrims might have inhabited and a room that showcases medieval décor. Due to its size reservations are encouraged.

The Pilgrims sailed from the port of Delfshaven near Rotterdam. On August 1, 1620. The Speedwell, originally a 1577 warship, docked in Southampton to board passengers but it began to leak. The 102 Pilgrims were then placed aboard the 106-ft. Mayflower. The Mayflower landed near Plymouth Rock on December 18, 1620. More than 50% of the party died the first winter in Massachusetts, The Starving Time. The first Blacks arrived in Plymouth Colony between 1623 and 1640. They were accepted into the Plymouth community and served in the Plymouth militia. 

Squanto appeared shortly after the Pilgrims came ashore. He functioned in a variety of roles including peacemaker, notably for Chief Massasoit of the Pokanoket tribe. Squanto helped negotiate a peace treaty with Chief Massasoit. The two groups shared a harvest feast, Thanksgiving, in 1621, to solidify their “partnership.” A majestic sculpture of Chief Massasoit on the First Thanksgiving stands in Plymouth.

                  Squanto was the last member of his tribe. He had been kidnapped, enslaved, traveled the world and is believed to have been poisoned by either the natives or the Pilgrims as a result of a belief that he had helped betray one group or the other.

                  The Mayflower Pilgrims landed on a 600-million-year-old rock of Dedham granodiorite. It has been moved several times and is today in a granite portico, the first national landmark. It is inscribed with the year 1620, placed there at a later date.

Plimoth Patuxet Museums immerses visitors into the 17^th century and invites you to a number of living history sites, the Mayflower II, Plimoth Grist Mill, 17th-Century English Village and Historic Patuxet. 

Historic Patuxet interprets the culture and lifestyle of the Native population. Inside a reconstructed wetu (home). You can participate in activities in the campsite including cooking, weaving, gardening and toolmaking. The tribe also consists of Wampanoag descended from those the English enslaved in the 1670s.

                  The original site of the English Village is 2.5-miles from the recreated colony. Homesites are denoted along Leyden Street by historical plaques. Structures are interpreted by authentically clad docents.

                  Plymouth Colonists’ original 1636 grain mill is situated on Town Brook. Tours are offered.

                  No one is certain what happened to the original Mayflower. Many historians theorize that after it returned to England it was scrapped for timber. A full-sized replica was constructed in England and sailed to Massachusetts in 1957. In 2020 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. plimoth.org

The 81-ft. tall National Monument to the Forefathers is on a hilltop in Plymouth, Mass, the largest freestanding granite monument in the world. Faith, a 36-ft statue is carved with symbols that represent the ideals of the Pilgrim Forefathers and was dedicated in 1889. Faith looks back to Plymouth, England with a foot on Plymouth Rock. A star atop her head represents wisdom.

                  Massachusetts is a year-round destination that affords the opportunity to get up close and personal with and understand those who impacted on North American history from its beginning. #VisitMa.com

                  Give thanks every day!

 

                  

 

Hunting History in Winston-Salem

“In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, love.” –Moravian Motto

                  Winston-Salem, one of the oldest cities in the state, is actually two cites, the oldest, Salem, dates from 1752. The Moravians, a protestant sect that originated in what is now the Czech Republic, originally settled in Pennsylvania but eventually a group moved to 100,000-acres in North Carolina and named their colony Wachovia, the land of streams and rivers. In 1766, Salem was chosen as the administration center site.

                  Salem has been a destination since its founding as a congregational town in 1766. The village had the first public waterworks in the country by 1788 and 3-years later George Washington visited to see it and spent 2 nights in the Tavern. In 1849 land was sold by Salem to establish Winston but it was not until 1913 that the two towns officially incorporated. VisitWinstonSalem.com

                  Interestingly, some of the greatest innovations the area has to offer are to be found in historic Old Salem dating from 1760-1850s. The district has more original historic structures than Williamsburg and 8 restored gardens surrounded by historic fencing styles. 

                  The Heritage Bridge visually and physically connects modern Salem with Old Salem Historic District. Fishcetti designed this 1999 replica of an 1800s frame bridge. As you walk the 120-ft. bridge you can almost feel the centuries slide away and then you step out into the Moravian world, as it existed between 1766 and 1840. www.oldsalem.com

Old Salem Museums & Gardens preserves more than 70 structures and is an important and well-regarded living history site. The Old Salem Visitor Center was constructed in 2003 and provides an orientation to Old Salem through an introductory video and themed exhibitions. Housed in the James Gray Auditorium is a Pennsylvania, restored, 1800 David Tannenberg Organ

The country’s largest collection of southern furniture and decorative arts is situated adjacent to the visitor center in the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA). African American crafts and craftsmen are prominently represented throughout. Three of the most renowned artists whose works are included are Joshua Johnson, David Drake the Potter and Thomas Day. In the late-1700s Johnson was the first African American portraitist in the country. Only one of his portraits was signed. Dave the potter was born in 1801 and was taught to read and write by his owner. He included original poems on some of his works and he signed some of his pieces. In his 30s he lost a leg and could no longer operate the treadle on the pottery wheel. The slaveowner paired him with another slave who had crippled hands but could work the treadle. During the Civil War his owner had him make pots to hide his fortune. mesda.org

African Americans were always an integral part of Salem. They made the bricks, helped construct the structures and were artisans, craftsmen, tradesmen woven into the settlement’s fabric. The majority of the enslaved were bilingual, speaking both German and English, and were called upon to serve as translators. Four years after Salem was established records reveal that Africans and African Americans were approximately 20% of the population. 

Attitudes towards the enslaved changed in the 1800s and in 1822 blacks organized their own church funded by the Female Missionary Society of the Moravian Church. The “Negro Church” was log and stood 32-ft. by 28-ft. The Missionary Society established a school there in 1827 that operated until teaching African Americans to read became illegal. The congregation outgrew the church and in 1861 built a new one. The church became a Freedman’s Hospital after the Civil War. In 1999 it was reconstructed on its original.

In 1861, the congregation constructed a Greek revival brick church. Union Chaplain, Reverend Clark, read the Emancipation Proclamation from the pulpit on May 21, 1965. In 1914 the church was officially named St. Philip’s Moravian Church in reaction to its being known as the slave church. stphilipsmoravian.org

Moravians were originally buried together in God’s Acre (1766) by choir, or gender group and non-Moravians were buried in the Stranger’s Graveyard. The first black burial was Catarina (Sukey) in 1799 and the final one was in 1813. In 1816, it was determined that burials should be segregated and “Negro God’s Acre” was established at the opposite end of town

In the 1990s, efforts were made to locate and identify the gravesites. Excavations determined there are more than 100 graves. One elderly woman recalled hearing that there were gravestones beneath the church steps, acting on this information they recovered 12 gravestones. 

                  The village was laid out in a grid pattern with a main square flanked by a street on a north-south axis. At one end of the town a tavern for use by “outsiders” was erected in 1784. No windows were built in the side that faced the village. It now functions as the Tavern Museum and reflects the experience of a person lodging there. It is believed to be haunted and is one of two National Historic Landmarks in Old Salem.

The 1769 Single Brothers’ House, the second landmark, housed the unmarried brethren. 

Winkler Bakery has one of the oldest operating dome ovens in the nation and is wood heated. This functioning bakery sells both Moravian cookies and their famous sugar cake. Mrs. Hunters’ Moravian Cookies are hand-rolled, hand-cut and hand-packed at the rate of more than 10-million annually. Oprah Winfrey listed them as one of her favorite things. Hanescookies.com

In the 1930s Vernon Rudolph began making doughnuts in a rental property in Old Salem. The secret recipe was purchased from a chef in New Orleans and went on to become known as Krispy Kreme doughnuts. 

Richard Joshua Reynolds founded a tobacco company in Winston-Salem and established one of the world’s largest tobacco firms in 1874. In 1912 40 dependencies on their 1,067-acre formed a model farm estate. The residence, Reynolda House, is considered one of the last and best-preserved examples of American Country House architecture. The 64-room, interior is filled with the best American craftsmanship of the era with metalwork by Caldwell & Company and furniture ordered from Wanamaker Department Store’s. The original furnishings have survived and are largely Italian Renaissance and English Tudor. A 2,566 pipe Aeolian organ, one of only 899 made, is situated in the two-story Reception Hall and is played daily. The house has four levels in the center with two additional wings. Ironically, Reynolds, responsible for the first successful packaged cigarettes, did not smoke cigarettes or cigars.

Reynolda House Museum of American Art exhibits the best collection of American Art in the Southeast United States. Tours are self-guided and audio guides are available. Continue your visit in Reynolda Gardens, a fine example of the American Garden Movement. reynoldahouse.org

Maya Angelou was a resident of Winston-Salem and both her 75^th birthday party and her funeral repast were hosted by Oprah Winfrey and held at the Graylyn Estate. World class cuisine and 85 accommodations are on offer there.graylyn.com