So I'm sharing a series of history quizzes leading up to the launch of my new series HISTORY SMASHERS next week. Yesterday I asked you to finish this sentence:

In July of 1620, the Pilgrims sold off most of their possessions and boarded a ship. That ship was called...

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Of the 440+ Twitter friends who answered that question, 57% chose the Mayflower.

2% chose the Nina or the Pinta (one of those tweeted to let me know she clicked the wrong thing by accident)

And 41% figured I was being sneaky; it was none of the above. (They were right!)

They boarded a ship called The Speedwell. But it was kind of a sad excuse for a ship. They had to keep turning back because it was so leaky. And finally they realized they couldn't sail the thing across the ocean. So....

That's when they piled onto another ship full of Separatists who'd left from England. That ship was the one we all learned about in elementary school -- the Mayflower. But an awful of what we learned about that ship, and the people who traveled on it, just wasn't true.

Despite what you might see in famous paintings, no Native people welcomed the Mayflower when the Pilgrims arrived. And that story about landing at the famous Plymouth Rock? Totally not the real deal.

But the most damaging lies kids were (and are) taught about 1620 are about the Pilgrims' relationship with the Wampanoag people. And that includes all those beloved stories about the so-called "First Thanksgiving."

It's essential that we teach kids honest history about colonization and the impact it had on Native people.

So while there's a lot of fun stuff in History Smashers: Mayflower, there are also some uncomfortable truths. I hope you'll share it with your kids and talk about it.

I'll end this thread with one of the happier illustrations from @dmeconis.

If you want signed copies of the HISTORY SMASHERS books, you can order from my local indie, @bookstoreplus!

Mayflower: https://www.thebookstoreplus.com/book/9780593120316
Women's Right to Vote: https://www.thebookstoreplus.com/book/9780593120347