Fifty Years Later

Using the speech by Wamsutta Frank James (see p. 28), have students analyze his central argument and reasoning and assess how his argument relates to the last 50 years of Massachusetts history and how we should receive his message today. Point out to students that, while James’s words were dismissed as wrong or mistaken at the time, and was subjected to censorship by asking him to emphasize the Thanksgiving myth. Has anything changed? What work remains as we commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival and beyond?