A special American holiday is just a few weeks ago. This holiday is called Thanksgiving. It's a day to take notice of all the special riches you have in your life.

Now, people may think that riches are money and being very wealthy, but true riches are having a loving and supporting family.

Riches come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You may not notice those riches now, but if you look deep enough, you will understand them.

For instance, Whyville is something to give thanks for. Many people don't have computers where they can even come to Whyville to visit. Millions of people don't even have a nice warm bed to sleep in at night. Thanksgiving is a day to appreciate the riches that you do have.

One day, a long time ago -- November 21, 1620 to be exact -- saw 102 colonists aboard the Mayflower land on Plymouth Rock.

The Mayflower was the ship that carried the Pilgrims, who were hoping to reach the destination of Virginia. You may think the voyage from England to the "New World" was a fancy voyage. Well, it was no Disney Cruise Ship. First of all, the Pilgrims had to deal with food that was rotting and inedible. There was hard biscuits, and foods that were infested with insects. The people aboard the Mayflower would eat with the lights off, so they wouldn't have to see what was in the food they were eating. The Mayflower was also badly cramped. People were practically lying on each other.

You may have already wondered, "I thought the Pilgrims were searching for Plymouth, Massachusetts." Actually, people aren't quite sure why the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth instead of Virginia, which is where they were supposed to go. There are two main theories: One is that stormy weather and navigational errors led them astray. The other theory is that the colonists wanted to go off course and land somewhere supposedly unpopulated so that they could create their own laws and way of life.

At the time of the Mayflower's landing at Plymouth Rock, the London Virginia Company (which had helped to finance the voyage) held the European rights to land from New Jersey to North Carolina. Another company, called the Plymouth Virginia Company, claimed New York and Maine.

On November 21, 1620, the Mayflower sighted Cape Cod and turned south to head for the Hudson, but the stormy seas almost shipwrecked them! Instead, after the ship rounded Cape Cod, it dropped anchor off of what is now Provincetown, Massachusetts. The latitude was right, but the ship was east of where it was supposed to be, which was Virginia. The colonists kept the Mayflower anchored and sent an expedition party ashore to locate a site for their colony. While they were waiting for the search party, the first European was born in this "New World".

The colonists decided not to search for Virginia since they were so far off course. The agreement from the London Company had no control over the colony because they were so far off course.

To prevent an outburst, 41 of the adult male passengers gathered in a room of the Mayflower to make a new agreement. The agreement/contract was supposed to protect their rights as common men, so they wouldn't have to fear a king or queen. (You see that women didn't have rights back then, so they couldn't have made a contract.)

At the end of the meeting, all adult males had to sign the paper, and they all did. The Mayflower Compact is important because it is the first written constitution in the "New World," a.k.a. America. It made a "civil body politic," which means it gave the colonists the power to create laws, and make sure people obey them properly. Everyone had to obey the laws!

The compact stated that the only way laws could be passed was by majority vote, and that still happens today! Pilgrims later faced many trials and tribulations during the difficult winter, and were helped to survive by the Indians. The exact date of their first shared "feast" is not known, but the first Thanksgiving might have lasted for a whole week!

December 21, 1620, the Pilgrims founded Plymouth, which is the first permanent settlement in New England. In the first winter that the Pilgrims experienced, half of the settlement was lost. These people didn't survive, but the others lived on.

Also, some of the Pilgrims grew into separatists, or already were when they arrived. The separatists were fleeing religious persecution in Europe. That mean they were escaping a place that forced one religious belief.

Below are myths about the Pilgrims:

1. It was common for men to wear buckles on their hats, belts, and shoes. Actually, it was not common for men to wear buckles.
2. Both men and women wore black or gray. Actually both men and women wore a variety of colors. They mostly wore black and gray on funerals.
3. When men hunted, they used short-barreled, belly-mouthed guns called a blunderbuss. Men when they hunted used straight-barrel guns. When people were trying to stop fights, they would usually use the blunderbuss.
4. To protect their clothing, women wore a short apron with a stitched-in pocket. The women actually wore long aprons almost down to their feet, and didn't usually have a stitched-in pocket.
5. Turkeys were large and had plenty of meat on them. Corn was eaten right off the husk, as corn on the cob. Children enjoyed popcorn. Turkeys weren't large and fat because they were wild and ran around a lot. Also children couldn't enjoy popcorn because that type of corn wasn't what the Pilgrims had.
6. Women wore hats that looked like a loose fitted prairie bonnet with a large turned black brim. Their hair hung down in the back loosely behind the hat. Well, yes, the women wore those hats, but with their hair pulled back in a tight bun. They would do this because it helped prevent the spread of lice. Also, women always cooked over a fire, and their loose hair could have caught on fire!

I got a lot of this information from my social studies teacher. She taught us a lesson about all of this. We also got a sheet of paper with the contract the Pilgrims used, too. It is written in the old language they spoke. It's English, but doesn't sound quite like the words we use. To give you an idea of what it was like, here are the first couple of sentences:

"In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, Kind James, by the Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith."

Getting ready to make a compact for my parents, so they buy me anything I want!
Snowgrl13

Editor's Note: Wow, actually, that contract sounds simpler than most modern-day contracts in business and law cases!