LJ Idol - Thanksgiving

[emo_snal]

   "The Pilgrims" arrived in North America in December of 1620. What they found in the area they landed was abandoned Indian villages, some with unburied skeletons of the dead lying among the weeds --due to diseases introduced by earlier settlers,-- and a very hostile reception from those Indians still alive. It would seem the last European to

Comments

[greyweirdo]

As I remember it, there was no sugar that year, so no pie.
:(
Very sad.

[emo_snal]

Oh really? I love these specific little details of stories.

Where did their sugar come from? Sugar beets? Honey? Hmmmm ::tries hard to resist doing more research on this obscure topic::

[greyweirdo]

Now you've done it. I'll have to go look it up and give you a proper answer.

They were actually low on a lot of things that year, and there are a bunch of things they just plain didn't have. I'll have to check a few things to work out a list what they couldn't make.

Sweetness in the Colonies

[emo_snal]

And you've gone and made me look up the history of sugar. Looks like sugar was already a major export from sugarcane plantations in more equatorial regions at that point, so their sugar would have probably been imported from caribbean plantations.

I don't know if Plymouth Colony specifically had any, but early European colonists also brought over beehives (which the indians called "white man's flies") to produce honey. Honeybees weren't native to the area, but flourished and quickly spread out into the surrounding wilds. Within a short time it was highly profitable just to go out into the forest and harvest "bee trees" in which large hives had been established in hollow trees.

[angrylemur]

Huh, I didn't know any of that

[scarlettfan84]

"Thankyou for tuning in to another Emo-Snal Classic Historical Downer! ;D"

lol, no kidding. but this is no more different than the glamorization of columbus day.

[emo_snal]

But see, I like to tell the stories and I think people should be aware of them, but I don't agree with the people who are all up in arms about how we should celebrate the holidays and we should mope around instead or something. Colombus was a fuckass like the rest of them and didn't discover shit, and there's nothing special about the alleged "first thanksgiving," and I could probably deflate the balloons of half a dozen other holidays, but what's the point?

[scarlettfan84]

i want to send you a christmas card, babycakes ^^

e-mail me: atomiccakecassie@hotmail.com

[alycewilson]

Fascinating details, only some of which I already knew.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

[emo_snal]

Oh I did! With much deliciousness! (:

[emo_snal]

A particularly scandalous discovery I made was that the much beloved George Washington (A) was rather bloodthirsty, (B) STARTED the French & Indian War, (C) was a big fan of the "pre-emptive strikes"; as I wrote about here.