It's Thanksgiving. Are you getting your eels ready? It's traditional!
The 1st Thanksgiving included a big table full of eels. And it's fitting. Tisquantum brought eels to the starving pilgrims that spring to celebrate their new peace treaty w/ the local Wampanoag tribe. 1/6
The 1st Thanksgiving included a big table full of eels. And it's fitting. Tisquantum brought eels to the starving pilgrims that spring to celebrate their new peace treaty w/ the local Wampanoag tribe. 1/6
You may read elsewhere that the indigenous peoples taught the Pilgrims how to fish eels. This is unlikely. The Pilgrims came from England, w/ it's long-established tradition of eel fishing, & they came by way of Europe's other great eel fishing culture in the Netherlands. 2/6
In fact, the English were well acquainted w/ the method by which the local people fished for eel. William Bradord wrote that Tisquantum "trod them out with his feet"...a means of fishing that Chaucer had written about as common in England several centuries earlier. 3/6
But the Pilgrims may not have known that eels lived in the rivers. They landed in late Dec. of a bitter, killing winter, when the eels were hibernating deep in the mud. The peace was made in mid-March, & the eels would only have just started moving about. 4/6
The Pilgrims would have been relieved that the rivers held such a familiar feast. Bradford recorded the eels were "fat & sweet" & that the people were glad to have them.
In a strange land, they had found a little bit of home. Which is always something to be thankful for. 5/6
In a strange land, they had found a little bit of home. Which is always something to be thankful for. 5/6
If you want to know more about the foods that were actually on the table at the first Thanksgiving, here's an excellent thread.
Enjoy the day, friends! /fin
Enjoy the day, friends! /fin
https://twitter.com/AdroitlyAbsurd/status/1065671639696842753
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