THE IMIGRANTS OF THANKSGIVING DAY

We can be thankful for the Christians who wanted religious freedom and left England to come to this land to gain the liberty. In a way, we can also be thankful for the Church of England which was then repressing them. Were it not for this grouping of churchmen who had grown used to their organization of ecclesiastical power, the other groups – the Pilgrims and Puritans – would not have sought freedom from them. And we can be thankful the emigrating groups were not dominated by those whose sole purpose was to gain riches, control, and power.