As Thanksgiving approaches, American history usually beckons us to reexamine the origins of the holiday and the role the Pilgrims played in starting that tradition.  Yet history and our school textbooks tend to omit the real Thanksgiving story, which includes a much more important function the Pilgrims performed not only in starting the Thanksgiving tradition, but in our country’s formation. 

Before Karl Marx, the very first Americans–these Pilgrims–tried socialism, and they realized very quickly that, in practice, it was an abject failure.  Rush Limbaugh wrote about this story in his bestselling book, The Way Things Ought to Be, and it bears repeating every year when Thanksgiving rolls around.

The First Socialist Experiment

When the English Separatists we now know as the Pilgrims settled in the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620, their leader and eventual governor was a young, religious man named William Bradford.  If not for Bradford’s courageousness and innovation, America would be a much different place today.

The Pilgrims came to America in search of religious freedom.  Upon arrival, however, they understood, as pioneers, that their new colony would need a system of support–what we today refer to as an economy.

During the first two years of their settlement, the Pilgrims established a simple economic system.  Each household shared whatever products they produced.  The crops and fish from each family were placed in a “common stock” from where every other family took what they needed.  Or, as Marx put it, “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

Problems Set In

It did not take Bradford long to realize that this system had an inherent defect.  Some families worked hard and diligently, from sun-up to sun-down, and produced a large share of crops.  Other families recognized that, since everyone shared equally in the settlement’s “common stock,” they could lie in bed until late morning, generate just a small share of crops, and place the fruits of their minimal effort into the “common stock” while generously taking what they needed.

This system removed the necessary incentive to work hard and maximize one’s talents and skills.  Thus, as some families labored, and others freeloaded, the Pilgrims dealt with many shortages.  The “common stock” did not contain enough food for everyone.  Colonists bickered and quarreled over the small supply of food.  Working families resented lazy families.  Envy quickly set in.  Socialist economics had run its course.

In 1623, Bradford acknowledged that their common stock-centered system was a failure.  “The experience that was had in this common course and condition,” he wrote (from an excerpt from The Mayflower Papers: Selected Writings of Colonial New England), “may well evince the vanity of that conceit . . . that the taking away of property and bringing in community into a commonwealth would make them happy and flourishing . . . . For this community . . . was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment.”

The Real Thanksgiving Story: Free Market Economics

With these thoughts in mind, Bradford met with the other colonists and instituted a much better plan.  He gave each family a plot of land.  He told each of them to do what they wanted with their land.  Whatever they produced, they kept.  If there was any excess, they could try to trade it for something else they desired.

The results of this primitive free market produced an abundant supply of food and enormous prosperity and wealth.  “They had very good success,” wrote Bradford.  “[F]or it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.  The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn . . . . By this time harvest was come, and instead of famine, now God gave them plenty.” 

Bradford had tapped into an unbeatable and universal economic principle: placing ownership of the means of production in the hands of private persons aroused the profit-seeking motives of individuals and stimulated them to invest, produce, and distribute their fruits of production at prices determined by the natural give-and-take of the market. 

Sloth, laziness, and idleness gave way to labor, innovation, and mobility.  America’s first socialist experiment had collapsed, and Bradford had pioneered a long-lasting, free market economy.  The settlement flourished and prospered.

Free Markets Give Way To The First Thanksgiving

Because of their newfound abundance and prosperity, the Pilgrims had more than they could trade amongst themselves, and so they traded with their neighboring Indians.  This collaboration resulted in a grand feast with their neighbors in November of 1623.  They prepared the food, and they thanked God for giving them a bountiful crop that season.

And so the Thanksgiving holiday was born.  But we have more to be thankful for than just the food on our table and the family and friends that surround us.  The real Thanksgiving story illustrates that we should also give thanks for the foundation Bradford laid for the economic and financial systems that have helped Americans prosper more than any civilization on Earth.

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