THANKSGIVING REFLECTIONS

THANKSGIVING REFLECTIONS By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman 11/15/13 As grade school children we were indoctrinated with the myth that our national Thanksgiving holiday had to do with starving Pilgrims being fed by benevolent “Indians” at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts. Accordingly, we would participate in pageants in celebration of the kindness of the natives and of the gratitude of the English-speaking, religiously-persecuted, immigrants in the ocean-crossing big canoes. Bonnets, Indian headdresses, corn and turkeys were its symbols in those days of innocent ignorance. Much later as an adult, I learned that our real national Thanksgiving holiday came into being by another Executive Order of President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. During the Civil War, his more notable Executive Order of 1863 had been the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves in rebellious states, and which enabled the enlistment of black troops in the Union Army, on January 1. These new 200,000 troops, this “sable arm,” in conjunction with their “contraband” kindred, turned the tide victory in favor of the Union. For this more favorable turn to the war, Lincoln was thankful and vindicated. Hence, the Thanksgiving holiday, that we first met in grade school, had less to do with benevolent natives “up North.”and had more to do with self-liberating, Union-saving, Negroes “down South!” Linked below is President Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation. Happy Thanksgiving! http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm