http://mises.org/daily/1678


Mises Daily: Thursday, November 25, 2004 by Gary Galles


At Thanksgiving, Americans reflect on their blessings and
hope for uplifting family gatherings of togetherness and
unity, with the Pilgrims used as examples of peace, harmony,
and thankfulness. However, while the Pilgrims' 1623 "way of
thanksgiving" represents what we wish to infuse in
Thanksgiving, Plymouth Colony before 1623 was closer to a
Thanksgiving host's worst fears—resentments surface, harsh
words are spoken, and people turn angry and unhappy with one
another.
The Pilgrims' unhappiness was caused by their system of
common property (not adopted, as often asserted, from their
religious convictions, but required against their will by
the colony's sponsors). The fruits of each person's efforts
went to the community, and each received a share from the
common wealth. This caused severe strains among the members,
as Colony Governor William Bradford recorded:

" . . . the young men . . . did repine that they should
spend their time and strength to work for other men's wives
and children without any recompense. The strong . . . had
not more in division . . . than he that was weak and not
able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought
injustice. The aged and graver men to be ranked and
equalized in labors and victuals, clothes, etc . . . thought
it some indignity and disrespect unto them. And the men's
wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as
dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc., they
deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands
well brook it."


Bradford summarized the effects of their common property
system:

"For this community of property (so far as it went) was
found to breed much confusion and discontentment and retard
much employment that would have been to their benefit and
comfort . . . all being to have alike, and all to do alike .
.. . if it did not cut off those relations that God hath set
amongst men, yet it did at least much diminish and take off
the mutual respects that should be preserved amongst them."


How did the Pilgrims move from this dysfunctional system to
the situation we try to emulate in our family gatherings? In
the spring of 1623, they decided to let people produce for
their own benefit:
"All their victuals were spent . . . no supply was heard of,
neither knew they when they might expect any. So they began
to think how they might raise as much corn as they could,
and obtain a better crop than they had done, that they might
not still thus languish in misery. At length . . . the
Governor (with the advice of the chiefest among them) gave
way that they should set corn every man for his own
particular, and in that regard trust to themselves. . . .
And so assigned to every family a parcel of land . . . "

The results were dramatic:

"This had very good success, for it made all hands very
industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise
would have been by any means the Governor or any other could
use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far
better content. The women now went willingly into the field,
and took their little ones with them to set corn, which
before would allege weakness and inability, whom to have
compelled would have been thought great tyranny and
oppression."
That was quite a change from their previous situation, where
severe whippings had been resorted to as an inducement to
more labor effort, with little success other than in
creating discontent.
Despite the Pilgrims' increased efforts in 1623, a summer
drought threatened their crops. Following their beliefs,
they offered contrition for their sins. Then the drought
broke, which led to the Thanksgiving we still try to
emulate. And as historian Russell Kirk reported, "never
again were the Pilgrims short of food." It is appropriate to
remember the Pilgrims as Americans celebrate Thanksgiving.
Though we have incomparably more than they did, we can learn
much from their "way of thanksgiving."


But we should also remember that our material blessings are
the fruits of America's system of private property rights,
whose power for peaceful and productive cooperation the
Pilgrims began to prove by experiment almost four centuries
ago, because those rights, and the freedoms and prosperity
they entail, are under constant assault today.
------
Gary M. Galles is a professor of economics at Pepperdine
University. Send him MAIL, and see his Mises.org Daily
Articles Archive. See also Murray Rothbard's 4-volume
history of Colonial America and the American Revolution:
Conceived in Liberty. Discuss this article on the blog.
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"In the capitalist society there is a place and bread for
all. Its ability to expand provides sustenance for every
worker. Permanent unemployment is not a feature of free
capitalism."
— Ludwig von Mises, in Socialism

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