As the leaves fall and Thanksgiving draws near, it’s time for America to reflect on its roots with a story not as sweetly simple as a pumpkin pie recipe. This iconic holiday wasn’t about pumpkin-spice lattes and turkey envy but about the triumph of grit in the face of adversity. Forget the school textbooks’ simplified history and welcome back to William Bradford’s Plymouth Colony, where hardship gave way to hard work and real gratitude.

In the early 1600s, Bradford and his group of pilgrims, took a leap of faith and set sail for what is now our great country. They were determined to worship freely. Let’s remember that next time someone tries to tell you religious freedom and prosperity don’t go hand in hand.

Arriving in winter, the pilgrims found nothing but endless wilderness and a reality harsher than they had imagined. Help came from the local Indigenous peoples, who taught them the art of corn-planting and fishing—a helpful crossover episode if ever there was one. Despite this cooperation, prosperity was still distant. Initially, under the Mayflower Compact, communal labor and resources sharing was attempted, an idea common in many societies hoping to work together for survival.

Bradford’s solution was to shift from this communal system to one that allowed families to work on individual plots of land. With this change, productivity improved as families were incentivized by the fruits of their own labor. Families could now focus on their own survival and trade what they could spare, with each harvest marking a step away from hunger.

Thanks in part to this change and the help of Indigenous peoples, what was once a settlement that struggled to even feed itself slowly became a thriving community. The pilgrims’ successes drew more settlers during the Great Puritan Migration. So, as you pass the gravy this Thanksgiving, remember the faith and determination of America’s founders. It was faith, cooperation with Native Americans, trade, and the beginnings of self-reliance that sealed the feast and fortitude of their survival. Give thanks to the pilgrims—and perhaps remember Bradford’s leadership—because we owe a great deal more than our waistline to their perseverance and spirit of gratitude.