The Man Beneath The Holiday

Four centuries of repetition can make a historical figure seem less real rather than more.

Squanto has been drawn, painted, costumed, simplified, celebrated, criticized, and used as a symbol in arguments about Thanksgiving.

The more recognizable the image became, the easier it was to forget that the person behind it had no control over any of those later meanings.

Tisquantum never chose to represent cooperation between Native Americans and the United States.

The United States did not exist when he died.

He never chose to become a children’s lesson about corn.

He never chose to stand forever beside Pilgrims in illustrations.

He never chose to have his kidnapping treated as a prelude to someone else’s success story.

The task of history is not to punish the myth for existing.