When I was taught about the first Thanksgiving as a child, I pictured the settlers dressed in black and white ‘pilgrim’ costumes, sitting around eating turkey with the Native Americans who had taught them how to grow crops and gather food. However, this idyllic image oversimplifies a time of great struggle and hardship. The Pilgrims left Europe to escape religious persecution, seeking to create a society where they could live according to their beliefs without being disturbed. I imagine the journey across the Atlantic as being a very rough one, and the first few years at the Plymouth colony were no better. The pilgrims struggled with illness and famine, especially during the winter. Because they were unfamiliar with the land, they did not have
