
By- Angela Padrón
In the early 1600s, the Pilgrims sailed to New England to begin colonies in the New World. However, the extremely cold winters, combined with malnutrition, illness, and the lack of knowledge of the land and how to cultivate it, caused almost half of the settlers to die. Those that remained befriended the Native Americans, including Squanto from the Pawtuxet tribe. Squanto taught the settlers how to plant corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish, and distinguish between poisonous plants and safe ones. The Pilgrims also befriended the Wampanoag Native Americans, with whom they shared a feast organized in 1621 by Governor William Bradford to celebrate the Pilgrims’ planting of a successful corn harvest. The celebration lasted for three days.
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