In 2008, Benjamin Powell wrote this short historical blurb for the Independent Institute. It is a good summary of the transition that the Pilgrims made from 1620, when they first landed and established Plymouth Plantation, to 1623 when the First Thanksgiving Feast was celebrated. Here are some excerpted highlights from Mr. Powell:
In 1620 Plymouth Plantation was founded with a system of communal property rights. Food and supplies were held in common and then distributed based on equality and need as determined by Plantation officials. People received the same rations whether or not they contributed to producing the food, and residents were forbidden from producing their own food. Governor William Bradford, in his 1647 history, Of Plymouth Plantation, wrote that this system was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. The problem was that young men, that were most able and fit for labour, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. Because of the poor incentives, little food was produced.
Faced with potential starvation in the spring of 1623, the colony decided to implement a new economic system. Every family was assigned a private parcel of land. They could then keep all they grew for themselves, but now they alone were responsible for feeding themselves. While not a complete private property system, the move away from communal ownership had dramatic results.
Once the Pilgrims in the Plymouth Plantation abandoned their communal economic system and adopted one with greater individual property rights, they never again faced the starvation and food shortages of the first three years. It was only after allowing greater property rights that they could feast without worrying that famine was just around the corner.
It is customary in many families to give thanks to the hands that prepared this feast during the Thanksgiving dinner blessing. Perhaps we should also be thankful for the millions of other hands that helped get the dinner to the table: the grocer who sold us the turkey, the truck driver who delivered it to the store, and the farmer who raised it all contributed to our Thanksgiving dinner because our economic system rewards them. That’s the real lesson of Thanksgiving. The economic incentives provided by private competitive markets where people are left free to make their own choices make bountiful feasts possible.
Sadly, I was an adult before I learned the true story of The First Thanksgiving. I was taught in school that the Native Americans and Pilgrims sat down to a feast because the Native Americans had taught the Pilgrims how to survive in the land and had saved their lives by that, and a peaceful Thanksgiving Feast was the result.
Even more sadly, it is clear to me that in 2010 we are on a fast-track to return to the system that the Pilgrims rejected, and away from the private property rights included in the Constitutional Republic and Free Market system that they set the groundwork for with their practical response to their near-starvation experience.
.jpg)
