The story of how the Pilgrims arrived at our shores on the Mayflower — and how a friendly Patuxet native named Squanto showed them how to plant corn, using fish as fertilizer — is well-known. But Squanto’s full story is not, as National Geographic’s new Thanksgiving mini-series, Saints & Strangers, shows. That might be because some details of Squanto’s life are in dispute. The important ones are not, however. His story is astonishing, even raising profound questions about God’s role in American history.

Every Thanksgiving we remember that, to escape religious persecution, the Pilgrims sailed to the New World, landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620. But numerous trading ships had visited the area earlier. Around 1608 an English ship dropped anchor off the coast of what is today Plymouth, Mass., ostensibly to trade metal goods for the natives’ beads and pelts. The friendly Patuxets received the crew but soon discovered their dark intentions. A number of the braves were brutally captured, taken to Spain and sold into slavery.

Read the article “The Miracle of Squanto’s Path to Plymouth” on google.com.