Thanksgiving is one of the most popular holidays celebrated in the U.S.. Americans are familiar with the classic turkey dinner and family gathered around the table. However, there’s more to the story of how Thanksgiving came to be than that.
The first Thanksgiving was a 1621 harvest appreciation festival among Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts. At this point, Harvest Festivals were already being celebrated globally.
But many “first thanksgivings” have been observed within our nation. These include a celebration by French Huguenot colonists on June 30, 1564 near what is present-day Jacksonville, Florida, and a celebration of harvest and prayer meeting between the local Abenaki peoples at Fort George with George Popham and his settlers on August 9, 1607 on Maine’s Kennebec River.
So, if there were so many “first Thanksgivings,” why do we celebrate one inspired by the Pilgrims on the fourth Thursday of November? Thanksgiving days were usually declared by Governors (traditionally in New England states) to celebrate military victories. They were so widely enjoyed that even George Washington called for a “thanksgiving and prayer” to be held on November 26, yet it failed to become a national holiday.
Public interest in the holiday rose in the mid-nineteenth century when first-hand recordings of the Plymouth Thanksgiving were rediscovered and published. William Bradford’s 1650 manuscript Of Plymouth Plantation and Edward Winslow’s Mourt’s Relation (1622) reignited the spark of curiosity in the Plymouth colony and its “first thanksgiving.”
After a series of editorials and letters published by Sarah Josepha Hale from 1827-1846, the public, politicians, and then-President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November to be celebrated as Thanksgiving. In 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed legislation declaring the fourth Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving, starting in 1942.
Yet, in recent decades, a harsh light has been shone upon the Plymouth Thanksgiving. Led by historians, critics, the American Indian Movement, and other indigenous organizations, a new movement to recognize the devastating impact of European settlement on indigenous people began. Thanksgiving was recognized as a National Day of Mourning in 1970. In 1972, a flag honoring the Wampanoag nation flew over the US Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., due to recognition efforts by indigenous groups.
Perhaps this Thanksgiving, when you and your family are gathered around the table, remember the hardships indigenous people endured during the colonization of America.
Source: “Thanksgiving.” Gale In Context Online Collection, Gale, 2019. Gale In Context: High School, link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ2181500035/SUIC?u=appleton&sid=bookmark-SUIC& xid=5d07347f. Accessed 1 Nov. 2024.
