In the book “A Voyage Long and Strange” the author goes into many different stories as to why the history that many children and even adults are taught is either mostly made up or, in some cases, a complete fabrication. Three of the many misconceptions that he goes in to are: that Columbus was the first to reach North America, that Plymouth Rock was the where the first “pilgrims” landed, and that Jamestown was the first English Colony in the new world. Another main point that he wants to get across is that, in his research around the country, he found that the myths or legends were more important to the people than what actually happened.
The common idea of the first european to set foot on North America is that it was Columbus. This is far from the truth. The group that holds that title are the Vikings. They arrived in what is modern day “Newfoundland”. They also arrived half a millenium before any other europeans reached North America. Now, the settlement wasn’t a beacon of its time as it was just a farm settlement but, it was there long before Columbus’s great grandparents were even alive. The reason why American’s choose not to acknowledge this or flat out do not know about this is likely due to the fact that the Vikings didn’t land in modern day “USA”. The fantasy that Plymouth rock was where the first english settlers landed and that thanksgiving was eaten on it and all the indians were invited and that it was all perfect is just that, a fantasy. First of all, Roanoke was the first english settlement. Second, the Indians were not invited to Thanksgiving. The reason why the myth of Plymouth is so perpetuated throughout American history is because, as the author is told, “No one wants to build a national story around a man killing and eating his pregnant wife, or colonists too lazy to grow their own food.”. That was in reference to what happened in Jamestown but, as it stands, that is still enough proof that Plymouth was far from the first place that the English Landed.
As previously mentioned Jamestown was not the first english settlement in the new world. It may have been the first “successful” english settlement, however, Roanoke claims the prize for the first english settlement. In the first year at Roanoke only 4 of the 108 men died. This is actually a remarkable feat for a new colony. It’s downfall is due to the fact that the settlers were of noble upbringing so they either didn’t know how to grow their own food or they didn’t want to. The settlers resorted to stealing from the natives. Eventually they beheaded an Indian chief. This caused the head of the settlement to be very anxious of an attack on them by the natives. So, when a ship came from England all the settlers got on it and left, leaving only 18 men behind. It is no surprise that Roanoke is not taught to children in schools.
The overarching idea in this book is “Why do we want myths more than actual factual history?”. There are many reasons as to why this could be. It is my opinion that the main reason is due to the fact that we choose what we want to believe and remember. The old saying “history is written by the victors” comes to mind. As sad as it is people want to tell stories of us sharing our Thanksgiving feast with the Indians, rather than saying that we didn’t invite them and we eventually killed most of them and took all their land away. We would also rather say that Jamestown was the first settlement rather than say that our first settlement failed because the settlers were too lazy to farm for their own food. Plymouth Rock is more of an idea than an actual place. It is the idea that “civilization” landed into the new world and everything went well and it was a peaceful time. People believe this because it is about the fact that after all those things we did end up ok(relatively). Jamestown was eventually successful and in turn was held in higher regard than Roanoke. Thanksgiving is more of a symbol of our idea that we were the ones that helped the natives. It all comes down to the fact that we would rather remember and pass down positive stories than negative ones. This is why we are taught what we are taught in schools.