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Post by sloanrodgers on Nov 21, 2012 19:14:42 GMT -5
The December 2012 issue of American History Magazine has a good article by our Alamo friend Steve Harrigan. The piece is called First Encounter and it's about the Pilgrim's unfriendly and violent meeting with the Indians on Cape Cod prior to their settlement at Plymouth and legendary Thanksgiving. It's interesting that the Pilgrims had the spirit of taking before the spirit of giving. They stole Indian corn, dug up Indian graves and threw lead at the Nauset Tribe. There's also a nice story by Elliot West on my favorite chief, Tecumseh. He certainly wasn't a giver to the New Americans and paid for it.
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Post by Allen Wiener on Nov 21, 2012 19:46:05 GMT -5
Sounds interesting; will have to check it out. The best thing I've read on the whole sordid business is Nathaniel Philbrick's "Mayflower."
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Post by sloanrodgers on Nov 22, 2012 18:03:11 GMT -5
I thought so, especially with the Harrigan and my new-found family connection. I knew my Rodgers family traced back to Newberry, Mass., but recently a cousin traced our Dimmick line back to one of the Mayflower Pilgrims. At first, I didn't believe it and didn't want to acknowledge the ancestor. Until a few years ago I still believed all the historical fallacies and myths from my youth. I also thought the Pilgrims were a bunch of crazed religious zealots that were kicked out of England, who later gave birth to the American brahmin class. I've learned since that the Pilgrims were just ordinary people placed in extraordinary situations and did what they had to do to survive in a harsh wilderness. Their descendants aren't even that elite anymore as there are several million of them. I can think of a lot of clubs that are more exclusive. I bought Philbrick's book a few months ago at a used bookstore, but I can't seem find it. Is the tussle with the Nausets mentioned?
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Post by Allen Wiener on Nov 22, 2012 20:48:17 GMT -5
Can't recall; I loaned my copy out some time ago and it now enjoys the fate of most "loaned" books. While I expected to read a book about the Pilgrims and their flight to America, it really was a book about the Pilgrims' war on natives, which was more brutal than I had thought (King Phillip's War); that was the majority of the book.
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Post by sloanrodgers on Nov 24, 2012 0:28:05 GMT -5
Well, I found my copy in my books-to-read-stack. It does have a chapter on the Pilgrim's arrival on Cape Cod, First Encounter Fight and so on. I also expected it to encompass their domestic and religious life, but I guess the author thought their conflicts with other peoples were more important. King Phillip's War was a brutal conflict and probably North Americas' worst in terms of loss of life. It's scary that I had ancestors and uncles (English, French and Indian) who fought on both sides of the French and Indian Wars and sometimes led expeditions against each other. Where would I be if one killed the other? These early conflicts were my family's brother-against-brother war since my relations only fought for the Union during the Civil War. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.
*spelling correction
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