December 21st is the day that history tells us the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock – or if not exactly a rock, at least the place and time that the first landing party came ashore from the Mayflower. We would do well to recall with gratitude what a significant event that was, and how it changed the course of human events.
 
Writing about the Pilgrims’ 1620 arrival in the late 18th century, John Adams urged his fellow colonists to remember the trials and sacrifices of those early Americans and why they embarked on their arduous journey to the New World ~
 

Let us read and recollect and impress upon our souls the views and ends or our forefathers, in exchanging their native country for a dreary, inhospitable wilderness…
 
Recollect their amazing fortitude, their bitter sufferings – the hunger, the nakedness, the cold, which they patiently endured – the severe labors of clearing their grounds, building their houses, raising their provisions, amidst dangers from wild beasts and savage men, before they they had time or money or materials for commerce. Recollect the civil and religious principles and hopes and expectations which constantly supported and carried them through all hardships with patience and resignation. Let us recollect it was liberty, the hope of liberty, for themselves and us and ours, which conquered all discouragement, dangers and trials.
~ John Adams – “Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law”

[Source: The American Patriot’s Almanac – Bennett & Cribb]
 

Over four centuries of American history we’ve let mis-education and indifference blind us to the examples of our forbears. We’ve allowed malcontented progressives to twist the facts into angry narratives about genocide and subjugation. But the truth is we owe a great debt of gratitude to these steadfast Pilgrims. Without their faith, courage and perseverance, if we even existed, we certainly wouldn’t be enjoying the freedom and prosperity of 21st century America.
 
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Related:
Our first Thanksgiving
Post Pilgrim America