(5 minute read)

American Myth Making

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(From previous post): “Our lives today are saturated with myth, its symbols, language, and content, all of which are the common heritage as human beings. Fables, fairy tales, literature, epics, tales told around the campfire, and the scriptures of great religions are all packages of myth that transcend time, place, and culture …[helping] us to recognize the beauty of the unity in human diversity: We share something with all other peoples in all other times.”

BIERLEIN

We may think that we are a more sophisticated society that no longer relies on the use of myth.

We would be wrong.

Given the history of the human race and all its subsequent contemporary nations readily use myths for creating their identity.

I am not an expert in other cultures, but I can confidently tackle myths specific to this country.

One may wonder how myth can still be relevant today. It is the art of storytelling to convey values and truths to a particular culture. The obvious and ready American “audience” for myths has dwindled over the decades.

According to a survey in early 2023, the Public Religion Research Institute reported a decline. Only 16% of Americans said that “religion was important in their lives.” This is down from 20% a decade before.

(In a later post I will make the case equating religion with myth. It is not a stretch)

Despite this fact, the threads of myth in the U.S. have continued since its beginning.

Examples of American myth include:

• Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of America
• The legend of Pocahontas at Jamestown
• The Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock
• George Washington and the cherry tree (“I cannot tell a lie”)
• Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech
• Betsy Ross and the first U.S. flag
• Frontier myths including Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, Daniel Boone, Davey Crocket

The list is not exhaustive. Many of the myths were created when America broke with Europe. At that time, America needed their own sense of identity. Early myths were a very convenient mode of giving a sense of nationalistic pride. Of course each of the American myths (and more) give a way to highlight values for a new nation.

• Never mind that Columbus didn’t discover America, the myth provided a connect with a culture while maintaining the nations autonomy
• That Pocahontas dramatically saved John Smith from capital punishment is unlikely …a tale told at first to help Smith’s reputation and later romanticized in children’s books and movies
• Washington as a child chopping down a cherry tree? An invented tale written by Mason Weems in 1918 to bolster the virtue of truthful and trustworthy Washington …and the tale reads like a Hallmark Channel movie script …

“When George, …was about six years old, he was made the wealthy master of a hatchet of which, like most little boys, he was immoderately fond, and was constantly going about chopping everything that came in his way.

One day, in the garden, where he often amused himself hacking his mother’s pea-sticks, he unluckily tried the edge of his hatchet on the body of a beautiful young English cherry-tree, which he barked so terribly, that I don’t believe the tree ever got the better of it.

The next morning the old gentleman, finding out what had befallen his tree, which, by the by, was a great favourite, came into the house; and with much warmth asked for the mischievous author, declaring at the same time, that he would not have taken five guineas for his tree.

Nobody could tell him anything about it.

Presently George and his hatchet made their appearance.

‘George,’ said his father, ‘do you know who killed that beautiful little cherry tree yonder in the garden?’

This was a tough question; and George staggered under it for a moment; but quickly recovered himself: and looking at his father, with the sweet face of youth brightened with the inexpressible charm of all- conquering truth, he bravely cried out,

‘I can’t tell a lie, Pa; you know I can’t tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet.’

‘Run to my arms, you dearest boy,’ cried his father in transports, ‘run to my arms; glad am I, George, that you killed my tree; for you have paid me for it a thousand fold.

Such an act of heroism in my son is more worth than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of purest gold.'”

A History of the Life and Death, Virtues and Exploits of General George Washington, Chapter 2, Mason Locke Weems. Published in Philadelphia by J.B. Lippincott Co. in 1918

• Patrick Henry’s discourse “Give me liberty …” is an embellished dramatization written 42 years later by biographer William Wirt
• The first U.S. flag credited to Betsy Ross? No one really knows who created the first flag. The Ross story comes out of the Centennial Celebration in 1876 and remains a myth for the next 100 years

The virtues depicted in each of the myths are clear; truthfulness, bravery, and egalitarianism to name just a few.

Before we start to label the biographers and historians noted above as liars and cancel them understand something important. The way we look at history now is very different than they did.

There is an old saying in the southern United States. It suggests that when a story is short on facts or detail, you should “put some hair on it.” This will make it more entertaining.

These “historians” did that as long as the myth, folklore, and rumors reinforced the topic matter. They used them to paint the topic in a better light. Historians began to alter their way of writing in the late 19th and early 20th century. They started treating their craft as science.

Dates, figures, and facts became the norm.

If the stories told lacked hard evidence, people greeted them with skepticism. This skepticism persisted until such evidence was provided. That’s when the term myth became linked with ideas considered true but are proven false. The concept was adopted by the man on the street.

Anything that remotely approached the status of myth was labeled as such.

In academic circles they maintained and coveted the two meanings.

Progress is slow. In the last quarter of the 20th century, the myths began to fade from the history books.

Better late than never.

Read Myths and Their Impact, Pt. 4