By Dean Kalahar
Not so long ago
Americans celebrated Thanksgiving to rejoice at the bounty provided by their
economic way of life. It was a time to reflect and admire what private property
and the free market had accomplished in answering the scarcity question to meet
the insatiable needs of the human condition. It was a holiday to remember the
settlers of Jamestown and the Pilgrims for how they fundamentally formed
America's economic system.
In today's
America, the historic wealth creating and life saving principles called
capitalism have been destroyed by a rapidly expanding state, driven by a
utopian command cronyism model. Sadly, our New American economy is based on the
same flawed collectivist idealism that the colonists first used upon settling
our shores. A model that was also to blame for the "starving time' in
Jamestown and Plymouth.
For the sake of
the Republic, it might be prudent to remember how capitalism was born and why
Thanksgiving had meaning. The history of Jamestown and Plymouth offers the
historical context. Let's begin in Jamestown as described by historians David
Boaz and Ray Harvey.
In 1607, 105 men
and boys, mostly indentured servants who held no private property and were to
work for the "common store," disembarked from three ships and
established the first permanent settlement in America.
By 1609, there
were 500 settlers, including women. And yet within six months fewer than 100
were still alive during what came to be known as "the starving time."
Why? According to a governor of the colony, George Percy, most of the colonists
died of famine, despite the "good and fruitful" soil, the abundant
deer and turkey, and the "strawberries, raspberries and fruits
unknown" growing wild.
And yet people
were desperate. They ate dogs and cats, then rats and mice. They apparently ate
their deceased neighbors. And some said that one man murdered and ate his
pregnant wife. By the spring, they had given up. They abandoned the fort and
boarded ships to return to England. But, miraculously, as they sailed out of
Chesapeake Bay, they encountered three ships with new recruits, so they turned
around and tried to make another go of it. The additional settlers and supplies
kept them alive.
When a new
governor, Thomas Dale, arrived a year after the starving time, he was shocked to
find the settlers bowling in the streets instead of working. Dale's most
important reform was to institute private property. He understood that men who
don't benefit from their hard work tend not to work very hard. As such he
allotted every man three acres of land and freed them to work for themselves.
Not many years
later, in November of 1620, another group of 101 American settlers arrived on
the Mayflower, in Cape Cod, Massachusetts and settled in a place named
Plymouth. The Pilgrims were not unaware of the early Jamestown disaster, the
starvation, the disease, the famine; they were, however, unaware of what had
caused it. Accordingly, they proceeded to make the identical mistake that the
settlers of Jamestown had made, namely collective ownership of land. And the
Pilgrims also paid dearly for their misguided economic choice. Within a few
short months, half were dead.
Over the course
of the next three years, 100 more settlers arrived from England to Plymouth,
all of whom were barely able to feed themselves. As Plymouth Colony Governor
William Bradford detailed in his History of Plymouth Plantation, 1641.
Many [settlers]
sold away their clothes and bed coverings [to the Indians]; others (so base
were they) became servants of the Indians ... and fetch them water for a capful
of corn; others fell to plain stealing, both day and night, from the
Indians.... In the end, they came to that misery that some starved to and died
with cold and hunger. One in gathering shellfish was so weak as he stuck fast
in the mud and was found dead in the place.
William Bradford
would also solve "the ruin and dissolution of his colony," and he
would do it in the exact same way Sir Thomas Dale had saved Jamestown.
After much
debate of things ... [it was decided that the Pilgrims] 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, for present use. 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.
Bradford, like
Dale, came to fully grasp how lack of property rights negates and destroys the
work incentive. He went on to correctly identify the source of the
"disastrous problem" as "that conceit of Plato's," who, in
direct contrast to Aristotle, advocated collectivism and collective ownership
of land, which history has repeatedly proven creates economic inefficiency and
suffering. Bradford even wrote later that those who mistakenly believed that
communal property could make people "happy and flourishing" imagined
themselves "wiser than God."
Private property
and economic freedom saved the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies. A letter by
Edward Winslow describing the first Thanksgiving, dated December 12, 1621,
details the proof of how capitalism saved the colonists.
Our corn [wheat]
did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and
our barley indifferent good, ...Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent
four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together
after we had gathered the fruit of our labors... And although it be not always
so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are
so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.
Another
description by William Bradford offered this account of amazing economic bounty
and thanksgiving.
They began now
to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and
dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and
had all things in good plenty... they had about a peck of meal a week to a
person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion. Which made many
afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England,
which were not feigned but true reports.
Virginia
historian Matthew Page Andrews wrote regarding Jamestown:
As soon as the
settlers were thrown upon their own resources, and each freeman had acquired
the right of owning property, the colonists quickly developed what became the
distinguishing characteristic of Americans-an aptitude for all kinds of
craftsmanship coupled with an innate genius for experimentation and invention.
The Jamestown
and Plymouth colonies became a success, people from all over Europe flocked to
the New World, and life saving capitalism was born in America.
Since we no
longer understand history, nor follow history's leadership, there is no reason
to celebrate a holiday that is based on the principles of free markets and the
miracle of private property.
Freedom
exercised through the natural rights of life, liberty, and happiness - promoted
through an entrepreneurial free market economic system based on private
property - saved us in the beginning years of our nation, and allowed America
to raise the standard of living for the rest of the world. It is to those principles
and history matched against what America has become that explains why
Thanksgiving is no longer a part of America.
We used to give
thanks to system that provided for all. Maybe this Thanksgiving we should be
saying "no thanks" to a New American economic vision intent on
providing suffering and misery to us all.
Dean Kalahar
teaches economics and psychology, and has authored three books, including
Practical Economics.
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