Here you are the videos, questions and answers we dealt with yesterday in our class:
Click here to watch the video taken from History Channel.
Video 1 – History Channel: The History of Thanksgiving (traditional
perspective)
Questions
1.
What year did the colonists and the
Wampanoag tribe hold the three-day feast that is now commonly thought of as the
“first Thanksgiving”? The feast was held in 1621
2.
What kinds of food did the text say
were likely served at that original harvest feast (rather than today’s typical
turkey dinner)? The food likely included roast
goose, corn, codfish, and lobster —
not the turkey-centric meal we often imagine today
3.
Who campaigned for a national
Thanksgiving Day in the United States and influenced President Abraham Lincoln
to declare one? It was magazine editor Sarah
Josepha Hale, who wrote many letters to politicians urging a
national day of thanksgiving.
4.
In what year did President Lincoln
declare the last Thursday of November to be Thanksgiving Day? President Abraham Lincoln declared it in 1863.
5.
Name two modern traditions mentioned
in the video that became associated with Thanksgiving in the 20th century. Two modern traditions are:
o The playing of professional football games
on Thanksgiving Day.
o The Thanksgiving parade tradition (such as
the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which began in 1924) and also the linking
of Thanksgiving with the start of the Christmas shopping season.
Video 2 – MTV Decoded: Everything You Know About
Thanksgiving Is WRONG (critical perspective)
1.
At the beginning of the video, what classroom
Thanksgiving crafts does Franchesca show, and what does she say about them?
Suggested answer: She shows cute kindergarten Thanksgiving crafts (like
Pilgrim and “Indian” decorations) and calls them “adorably wrong,” saying they
are based on “half truths and propaganda” that adults have taught children.
2.
How does the video challenge the idea that the
Pilgrims and Native Americans were “best friends”?
Suggested answer: It explains that, at best, they were “political allies,” not
close friends. By the time the Pilgrims arrived, many Indigenous people had
already died from European diseases and slavery, and the settlers were often at
war with Native groups and routinely tortured them.
3.
What information does the video give about Squanto
that contradicts the usual school story?
Suggested answer: Instead of a friendly Native who simply chose to help the
Pilgrims, Squanto is described as someone who had been captured, taken to
Europe as a slave, and who learned English in order to escape, which completely
changes the context of his later role.
4.
What does the video say about another “Thanksgiving”
that took place 16 years later, and why is it disturbing?
Suggested answer: It says that the next “Thanksgiving” was celebrated about
sixteen years later to mark the massacre of the Pequot tribe, meaning that the
holiday was associated with celebrating the killing of Native families, not
peaceful coexistence.
5.
According to the video, when and why did Thanksgiving
become a national holiday, and how did the Pilgrim–Indian myth later become
part of the national story?
Suggested answer: The video states that Thanksgiving wasn’t a nationwide
holiday until Abraham Lincoln declared it one in 1863, during the Civil War, to
help unite the country. The Pilgrim–Indian friendship myth only became popular
in the 1900s, after most Native Americans had been killed, and it was then
written into school textbooks as if it were historical fact.
