Thanksgiving’s Origin as a National Holiday - Paul Craig Roberts

 As a national holiday, Thanksgiving originated as war propaganda.

It was Abe Lincoln in November 1863 who made Thanksgiving a national holiday.  The Union Army under Grant had finally won a battle at Shiloh, and the victory called for celebration......

.....The invasion of the Confederate States of America by the Union has been incorrectly labeled a “civil war” by court historians.  It is completely clear that there was no civil war.  A civil war is when contesting sides fight for the control of the government.  The Confederacy had its own government in Richmond and no interest in the one in Washington.  It was the North that invaded the South by sending an army into Virginia where the Union army was defeated at the Battle of Bull Run.

I have often wondered how corrupt historians got away with calling a war that began with an invasion of one country by another a “civil war.”

I have also wondered how the same corrupt historians got away with falsely claiming that the war was fought for the purpose of freeing black people from slavery when Abe Lincoln made it completely clear that he initiated the war in order to preserve the union.

I have also wondered how the liberal/left and black studies departments in universities got away with demonizing white Americans for slavery when the greatest casualties in American history were the consequence of a four year war allegedly fought to free black slaves. Altogether 594,000 white men died in a war allegedly fought to free the slaves.  Where, then, does the charge of white racism come from?

I have also wondered why the Union preferred one people of color over another.  Allegedly, the Union suffered 642,427 dead and wounded in a four year effort to free the black slaves, and then immediately on the cessation of the war began with merciless attacks a war on the Plains Indians......

Full text: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2025/11/26/thanksgivings-origin-as-a-national-holiday/ 

....The facts are so clear and simple.  Yet they are denied.  Slavery existed for thousands of years prior to the colonization of the New World.  The South did not create slavery.  The South inherited slavery as the agricultural labor force.  The black slaves in America were enslaved by the black king of Dahomey who sold the excess as slaves.  It was the main business of his kingdom.

All races and ethnicities suffered enslavement.  It was President Thomas Jefferson who had to send the US Marines to the Shores of Tripoli in order to stop North Africans from enslaving US citizens.

When one looks at the total mess historians have made of the War of Northern Invasion and slavery, one cannot help being sympathetic with Henry Ford’s dictum that “history is bunk.”