The real story of Thanksgiving and making the citizens of the 50 States UNITED again.

There is an enormous amount of misinformation about the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday as we celebrate it today — including when, how and why it became a tradition in the United States. Here’s the real story.

What Americans think they know about the history of Thanksgiving doesn’t always square with the truth.

For example, it is generally believed that in 1621, the Pilgrims invited Wampanoag Indians to a feast in Plymouth Colony to celebrate their first harvest, and a good time, with turkey and pumpkin pie, was had by all. Well, maybe, and maybe not.

Historians, including those at Plimoth Plantation, a living museum in Plymouth, Mass., say that they do know there was a feast that year shared by the colonists and Wampanoag Indians, and Squanto, who had learned English, served as translator. But the one historical account of the actual dinner says venison was served and some sort of fowl, but it doesn’t specifically mention turkey. Pumpkin was available, but it is not likely the colonists whipped up a pie. Furthermore, sweet potatoes were unknown to the colonists, and cranberries may have been served but not as a relish.

There’s a lot of misinformation about the Pilgrims, too. American kids learn that the Pilgrims came to the New World in search of religious freedom, and they dressed only in black and white, and wore buckles on their shoes. No, no, and no.

The Pilgrims left Britain in search of religious freedom, but found it in Holland in the early 1600s, where they found a high degree of religious tolerance. The reason they wanted to come to the New World and establish a colony was to preserve their English identity and for economic reasons. Also, they didn’t wear buckles on their shoes, and Pilgrim women dressed in colors, including red, green, blue and violet, while men wore a variety of colors, too.

If you think Americans have been celebrating Thanksgiving annually since 1621, guess again. Nobody at the time thought of it as the start of a new tradition, and there had been similar gatherings elsewhere earlier. Historians know there was another feast in the colony in 1623 — but it was held earlier in the year. Different colonies celebrated their own days of thanksgiving during the year.

The New England colonists were accustomed to regularly celebrating "thanksgivings"—days of prayer thanking God for blessings such as military victory or the end of a drought.

In 1789, George Washington declared Thursday, Nov. 26, a Thanksgiving holiday, but only for that year, and it wasn’t connected to the Pilgrim feast but rather intended as a “public thanksgiving and prayer” devoted to “the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.”

Enter a 19th century author, poet and magazine editor named Sarah Josepha Hale. She was editor of the influential Godey’s Lady’s Book for 40 years, from 1837 to 1877, when she was nearly 90 years old. She and her husband David Hale had five children, and when he died in 1822, she wore black for the rest of her life. Hale was an education advocate and, through the magazine she edited, became a famous figure in the country who set fashion, reading and cooking trends. Washington Irving Jr., Nathaniel Hawthorne and Oliver Wendell Holmes were among the authors who published work in her magazine. She was also a prolific author, writing dozens of novels and books of poetry, and penned (or co-penned, according to one account) the famous “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” which was published in 1830.

Hale, who was highly patriotic, read about the 1621 feast of the Pilgrims and became captivated with the idea of turning it into a national holiday. She published in the Godey’s Lady’s Book recipes for turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie and started traditions that had nothing to do with the colonists. She began a lobbying campaign to persuade President Abraham Lincoln to make Thanksgiving an official annual holiday, using her magazine to build public support by writing an editorial every year starting in 1846. She also sent letters to all governors in the United States and territories. In 1863, Lincoln did set Thanksgiving as an official holiday to be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November every year.

In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863. The document, written by Secretary of State William H Seward, reads as follows:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Highest God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth."

Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863.

Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States.

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed to move the annual Thanksgiving holiday to the third Thursday of November. Why? To help the economy by making the Christmas shopping season a little bit longer. There was so much opposition to the move that two years later he changed it to the fourth Thursday in November.

Then there’s the myth of how the presidential pardon of a turkey started with Abraham Lincoln when his son begged his dad to save the animal. Actually, it didn’t. The tradition goes all the way back in history to … 1989, when President George H.W. Bush officially pardoned the first one. According to a perhaps apocryphal story, in 1863, Lincoln’s 10-year-old son, Tad, supposedly became fond of a turkey given to the family for a holiday feast. Tad named the turkey Jack and begged his father to save the animal. Lincoln did. The only problem with that as a Thanksgiving story is that Tad’s plea was to save the Christmas turkey!

And, finally, you may hear people say that turkey makes them tired. No, it doesn’t. Turkey contains tryptophan, an essential amino acid that is thought to have a sedative effect. As it turns out, turkey doesn’t have any more tryptophan than other foods, including chicken, and even if tryptophan did induce tiredness, there isn’t enough in turkey to do so. So if you are tired after eating Thanksgiving dinner, don’t blame the turkey.

In conclusion, this Thanksgiving is one of the most invited and needed Thanksgiving holidays. In the past year, events around the world have divided us more than any other. Fear has gripped the nation and the world from Terrorism and lack of leadership. Corruption and greed have taken over people’s souls and allowed their egos and greed to literally throw all allegiances under the bus to get to their private agendas. Innocent lives were lost, people continue to be grotesquely tortured and our innocent children in most international communities are victimized and savagely killed for what? A parcel of land, revenge, hate, religion, a sex toy, human shield?

We have returned to a barbaric age that is chaotic. Our nation, our foster nations stand divided and we are embroiled in a war against one another. We stand at an epic time in history where we have a new administration already embroiled in hostilities before the oath of office has been taken. There is no belief of recovery in this landslide because of tawdry insults but what must we return to and remain as a constant is a unified nation without bigotry, discrimination, corruption and fear amongst its citizens. We know who the enemy is. United we can defeat anyone that stands in the way of our freedoms as Americans.

We cannot be soft on foreign diplomacy and throw our taxpayers dollars to any country that holds it hands out. We must make demands from those who have proven to be imprudent, untrustworthy and dangerous. We must demand that the government are servants of the American people and must act accordingly. Perhaps, when we are in control of our own home, we can return to a much more civilized society. No longer, should we remain such a tolerant mass. We have no one to blame but ourselves. If someone has been a traitor to our country by disseminating government top secret classified documents, even one much less 33,000+, then she should be indicted, tried, convicted and sentenced accordingly to the severity of her actions. Also, if a man regardless of his wealth refuses to file income tax or his is violation of any criminal statute, he must answer for that. There will be NO more double standards for any loathsome self-deprecating prick. Everyone, regardless of standing in a government office will be held accountable for his/her actions and punished equally or even higher.

This Thanksgiving, let us note the history of what this holiday’s foundation is based upon. It began with a woman who had the perseverance of 40 to petition SEVERAL United States Presidents finally convincing Lincoln to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday; a time honored American pastime and tradition. Our own government can be a traitor to us anytime they want. They can hire thousands of agents to enforce their will on the public. They can even call for martial law.

They can forsake Americans in the Foreign Service - leave them to die without even attempting to rescue them. They can look into a television camera and lie with a straight face.

Amidst all this passivity, however, there is great frustration, a smoldering, white-hot anger that only awaits a rallying point to ignite and become the most motivated political force in this nation.

If there has ever been a time in the history of this country for a true leader to step forth, it is now. So, I ask you my friends for everyone to take that step forward in these most uncertain times because we need leaders in every one of you. This is our nation, let’s take it back and lead by example. In numbers, we can champion any cause.

I am a born and bred New Yorker, in times of crisis, we all come together to champion any catastrophe and thousands of others from around the nation run to help also. It seems that the world is lighting candles of support to uplift us when we are crippled to make us whole again. This Thursday, let’s say a prayer to make America whole again in 2017. Leave your Thanksgiving comments below. Thank you and God Bless. 

About the author: Scott Bernstein is the CEO of Global Security International LLC headquartered in NYC. He has extensive experience as a Counter Terrorist Consultant, International Apprehension Operative, Human & Sex Trafficking Expert and a Military and Law Enforcement Trainer. He is available as a Consultant, Expert Witness and as a Speaker. In addition to his LinkedIn profile, you can also interact with Scott on his LinkedIn group https://bit.ly/1LMp2hj.