That is the correction the historical record demands.

He did not enter history when he walked into Plymouth.

He entered Plymouth after history had already carried him through kidnapping, the Atlantic world, and the destruction of Patuxet.

The famous part came last.

The loss came first.

That order is the key to remembering him honestly.

When modern readers understand that sequence, the old Thanksgiving image does not have to disappear.

It simply stops pretending to be the whole story.

Behind the interpreter is the captive.

Behind the teacher is the Patuxet community that taught him.

Behind the harvest is an epidemic.

Behind Plymouth is Patuxet.

And behind the national myth is a Native man whose actual life was more difficult, more political, and more human than the role later America gave him.