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The True Story Of Thanksgiving, Smallpox And Native Genocide
History is full of missing pieces, fragments, and half-truths... The tale of our beloved Thanksgiving is no exception.
We know the story of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags that taught them how to harvest the land. We celebrate Thanksgiving each year to commemorate their friendly interaction through feasts of our own.
But the stories we know of the happy gathering in 1621 aren’t all that they seem.
Amongst the feasting and budding relationships were genocide, disease, and atrocities too great to include around the dinner table.
Legacies worthy of being told are shared. The violence following the giddy union is brought to light. The genocide of the native peoples of America is uncovered. The True Story of Thanksgiving, Smallpox, and Native Genocide amplifies the voices muffled by historians to reveal the true history of the holiday.
Join William Blatch in his first book in the History as We Never Knew It series and learn how to
look at history with a critical eye.
unravel the false truths of well-known stories and tales.
examine the bigger picture behind retellings of history.
see the full truth in all its depth and color.
History is written by the winners... but not in its entirety. Read now to see all sides of the story and determine for yourself what truths should be told!
We know the story of the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags that taught them how to harvest the land. We celebrate Thanksgiving each year to commemorate their friendly interaction through feasts of our own.
But the stories we know of the happy gathering in 1621 aren’t all that they seem.
Amongst the feasting and budding relationships were genocide, disease, and atrocities too great to include around the dinner table.
Legacies worthy of being told are shared. The violence following the giddy union is brought to light. The genocide of the native peoples of America is uncovered. The True Story of Thanksgiving, Smallpox, and Native Genocide amplifies the voices muffled by historians to reveal the true history of the holiday.
Join William Blatch in his first book in the History as We Never Knew It series and learn how to
look at history with a critical eye.
unravel the false truths of well-known stories and tales.
examine the bigger picture behind retellings of history.
see the full truth in all its depth and color.
History is written by the winners... but not in its entirety. Read now to see all sides of the story and determine for yourself what truths should be told!
- GenresHistory
125 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 19, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 28, 2025
Good info. Listened to audiobook. I’ll keep it in mind to revisit this, possibly in a book or ebook format.
September 12, 2023
3.75 ⭐️
Sometimes dry, at times enlightening, on the whole probably not the best book about Indigenous people, but it has its merits. It was interesting the way the author traced the colonists we now know as the “pilgrims” and their history.
It’s a common story most of us were told as children in school: they escaped Europe because they weren’t free to practice their religion. In reality they imposed their strict religious beliefs on the Indigenous people whom they believed didn’t have valid religious beliefs or culture. We were given a warped version of the actual reasons colonists traveled here and this book delves into how it became a cherished and inspirational “story”.
It does highlight why I’ve never been fond of thanksgiving as a holiday. It feels wrong to celebrate colonizers grossly mistreating Indigenous people. Especially knowing an early iteration of what they called a thanksgiving was celebrating a massacre of Indigenous people… and knowing that from there, it was going to get a whole lot worse for them. Such heartbreaking atrocities must be examined truthfully and fully, telling fluffy little lies does no good for anyone.
The epilogue has a very excellent summary of why literature like this is so important, and what’s at risk if we ban books about uncomfortable truths or edit past atrocities. The stakes are high and books like this must continue to be written and read.
***Wikipedia contributors as a source for information is an odd choice. It’s not a reliable source but it was used as a reference for some of the information in this book.***
Sometimes dry, at times enlightening, on the whole probably not the best book about Indigenous people, but it has its merits. It was interesting the way the author traced the colonists we now know as the “pilgrims” and their history.
It’s a common story most of us were told as children in school: they escaped Europe because they weren’t free to practice their religion. In reality they imposed their strict religious beliefs on the Indigenous people whom they believed didn’t have valid religious beliefs or culture. We were given a warped version of the actual reasons colonists traveled here and this book delves into how it became a cherished and inspirational “story”.
It does highlight why I’ve never been fond of thanksgiving as a holiday. It feels wrong to celebrate colonizers grossly mistreating Indigenous people. Especially knowing an early iteration of what they called a thanksgiving was celebrating a massacre of Indigenous people… and knowing that from there, it was going to get a whole lot worse for them. Such heartbreaking atrocities must be examined truthfully and fully, telling fluffy little lies does no good for anyone.
The epilogue has a very excellent summary of why literature like this is so important, and what’s at risk if we ban books about uncomfortable truths or edit past atrocities. The stakes are high and books like this must continue to be written and read.
***Wikipedia contributors as a source for information is an odd choice. It’s not a reliable source but it was used as a reference for some of the information in this book.***
February 7, 2026
It’s an okay book, it has a lot of settlers colonial language where the writer tried to white washed many historical events blaming the victims like blaming natives defending themselves against the colonial carnage. Using “ conflict “ describing colonialism where it doesn’t apply , a technique that has been historically used by settlers to downplay their genocide against native such as the Irish , Palestinians, indigenous of Australia and Africa. Also he blamed the potato as the reason why Irish got starved to death !! Go figure
It does have a lot of good information but definitely not a solid source . If you’re interested in such topics I would highly recommended American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World
Book by David Stannard which has way better historical credible sources
It does have a lot of good information but definitely not a solid source . If you’re interested in such topics I would highly recommended American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World
Book by David Stannard which has way better historical credible sources
December 7, 2023
The book is very informative, however I also feel there was a lot of just google or Wikipedia searches placed into the book. I would have hoped there would have been historian interviews etc rather than internet searches.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews