Read an Excerpt

Thanksgiving: The True Story

Henry Holt and Company

The "First" Thanksgiving: Competing Claims

When I decided to write this book, I was curious about other people's experiences with Thanksgiving. So I sent out a survey to teenagers and adults. The first question asked what they had learned in school. One hundred percent of the teenagers and the majority of adults reported that they had learned what I had learned—that the Pilgrims and Indians celebrated the "first" Thanksgiving in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621. But as I did my research, I discovered that there are many competing claims for the "first" Thanksgiving based on events that happened in Texas, Florida, Maine, Virginia, and Massachusetts.

None of the claims, I should point out, were made by the people involved in the events, but by people who lived many years later. Why would anyone make such a claim? There are multiple reasons, including regional pride—it happened in Virginia, not in Massachusetts; ethnic identity—it was Spanish-speaking people, not English-speaking people; religious identity—it was religious, not secular; it was Catholics, not Protestants.

Who Is Right?

So, who is right? To help you think about this question I have made a chart with basic information about each claim (see table 1).

As you look at the chart, you'll see that there are twelve claims: two in Texas, two in Florida, one in Maine, two in Virginia, and five in Massachusetts. You'll also note that all the events had to do with the arrival of something—food, shelter, rain, supplies, or safe arrival at a destination.

In evaluating the claims, I asked this key question: What was the basis for making the claim? The answer, I discovered, is: They are all based on documents or accounts from the original event. Here are three examples of how the claims are connected to a document from the event.

A Florida Claim

First, let's look at the September 8, 1565, claim. Earlier in the year, King Philip II of Spain had sent Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to get rid of French colonists who had established a settlement, La Caroline, on the St. John's River near present-day Jacksonville. In late August 1565, Menéndez and hundreds of soldiers arrived on the coast of Florida, and marched with trumpets blaring and banners flying into a Timucuan Indian village. Menéndez turned one of the Timucuans' longhouses into a fort and named the village St. Augustine. Today, St. Augustine is the oldest permanent European settlement on the North American continent.

On September 8, 1565, Menéndez celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving and invited the Timucuan led by Chief Seloy. After the religious ceremony, they most likely ate hard sea biscuits and cocido—a stew made from salted pork and garbanzo beans laced with garlic. Three weeks later, Menéndez led his soldiers for four days through "marsh, forest tangle, fierce winds, and heavy rainfall." After resting one night, Menéndez and his men massacred most of the French.

In 1965, Michael Gannon, a historian at the University of Florida, wrote a scholarly book, The Cross in the Sand, which included the story of Menéndez's Thanksgiving Mass and feast based on official documents and reports of the event. Twenty years later, a newspaper reporter wrote about Gannon's account of Menéndez's Thanksgiving and generated a "storm of interest," according to Gannon: "I was on the phone for three days straight." The storm subsided, but not before he was labeled by supporters of the Pilgrim and Indian event in Plymouth as "the Grinch who stole Thanksgiving." In 2007, a fifth-grade teacher, Robyn Gioia, who heard about Menéndez in a workshop led by Gannon, was hoping to stir things up again with the publication of her nonfiction picture book America's REAL First Thanksgiving: St. Augustine, Florida, September 8, 1565. "If you want something to be known," says Gioia, "you teach the kids."

Now, let's examine the April 30, 1598, claim. It involves Juan de Oñate, a Spanish explorer, who is credited as the founder of the first European settlements in present-day New Mexico. In January 1598, Oñate set out on a hazardous journey across the Chihuahuan Desert in northern Mexico with more than seven thousand animals and over five hundred men, women, and children, including people from Spain, Greece, Italy, Africa, Cuba, and a few Chichimeca Indian slaves.

After eighty-six harrowing days, the expedition reached the Rio Bravo, now called the Rio Grande River. With the help of Manso Indians, they found a safe place to cross the river near present-day San Elizario, Texas. That's where Oñate ordered his men to build a church, and on April 30, Fray Alfonso Martínez sang a "very solemn Mass" to give thanks to God. After the Mass, they shared a feast with the Manso Indians. We know all this because Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá, a Spanish poet and a member of Oñate's expedition in 1598, published his firsthand account of the expedition in 1610.

Although Villagrá did not label April 30 as the "first Thanksgiving," hundreds of years later other people did. Pauline Chavez Bent quoted Villagrá in an article she wrote in 1999, "The First Thanksgiving (The Pilgrims Missed It)." So did Don Adams and Teresa A. Kendrick in their 2003 article, "Don Juan de Oñate and the First Thanksgiving." In their authors' note, Adams and Kendrick wrote: "We carefully considered, as we understood it, the original document written by a participant in the expedition." Since 1989, the Mission Trail Association of El Paso, Texas, has held reenactments of the 1598 Thanksgiving.

A Virginia Claim

The third example of how a claim is connected to a document from the original event is from 1619. Unlike the other claims, this is said to be the "First Official Thanksgiving Day in America." Here is why: The original document is an order from the proprietors, the financial backers, to the English colonists, known as the Berkeley Hundred, who sailed on board the Margaret to Virginia. The order read (in modern spelling): WE ORDAIN THAT THE DAY OF OUR SHIP'S ARRIVAL ... SHALL BE YEARLY AND PERPETUALLY KEPT HOLY AS A DAY OF THANKSGIVING TO ALMIGHTY GOD. Upon their arrival at the present-day site of Berkeley Plantation, the colonists followed orders and observed a day of thanksgiving and prayer. Most likely, they continued the practice until they were attacked by Native Americans and annihilated in 1622.

The Berkeley Hundred had a historian, John Smyth of Nibley, who remained in England. Among the many documents he kept was a copy of the Thanksgiving order. Hundreds of years later, Smyth's records were sold and ended up in the New York Public Library (NYPL) in New York City. In 1899, the library printed Virginia Papers 1616–1619, which included the Thanksgiving order to the Berkeley Hundred. In the early 1900s, Lyon G. Tyler, a historian, was doing research at the NYPL and stumbled upon the Thanksgiving order and publicized it. In the 1960s, a group of people formed a foundation, the Virginia First Thanksgiving Festival, to assert the 1619 claim as the first official Thanksgiving in America. Since 1970, they have held annual reenactments and a festival on the first Sunday in November.

What about the basis for the nine remaining claims? There are records and firsthand accounts of Coronado's expedition; an account of the 1564 French colony was written by René de Laudonnière, who escaped the massacre; a member of the Popham colony wrote a diary; members of the Jamestown Colony wrote letters and other accounts about the 1610 incident; the 1620 and 1623 events in Massachusetts are based on the journal of William Bradford, the governor of Plymouth Colony for thirty years; the 1630 and 1631 events are based on accounts by John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

As for the familiar 1621 "Pilgrim and Indian" event, here is the story as I now understand it.

Plymouth Colony

Many of the English colonists who established Plymouth Colony were Separatists who were seeking a place to freely practice their religion. (The label "Pilgrims" began to be applied to these colonists in the early 1800s.) They arrived on the Mayflower in November of 1620. In December they started building their settlement on the site of an abandoned village in the middle of the homeland of the Wampanoag people. Several years earlier, a plague had killed the inhabitants of the village, known as Patuxet to the Wampanoag.

Separatists did not celebrate Christmas or Easter. They rejected religious authorities such as the pope and religious symbols such as crosses and stained glass windows. In the Separatists' worldview, God controlled everything—good or bad—that happened. In order to maintain a proper relationship with God, the Separatists observed the weekly Sabbath on Sunday. In particularly bad times, such as a drought or epidemic, they held a Day of Humiliation and Fasting. In particularly good times, such as the end of a drought or epidemic or after a military victory, they observed a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise. Both of those types of days were marked by long religious services and prayers.

In the spring, Tisquantum, also known as Squanto, had shown the English colonists how to grow crops, including maize, the multicolored corn with hard kernels that the English called Indian corn. In the fall, after the crops had been harvested, Governor William Bradford decided that the colonists should "rejoice together." They celebrated with food and games for almost a week. During that time, for three days, they were joined by many Wampanoag, including about ninety Wampanoag men and their sachem, or leader, Massasoit. They ate venison, duck, geese, and perhaps wild turkey. Other foods were probably cod, eel, shellfish, squash, and puddings made from corn, nuts, and dried berries. The colonists demonstrated their skills in marching in formation and shooting. Together, the Wampanoag and colonists played games, including competitive sports. Most likely there was also singing, music making, and perhaps dancing.

Edward Winslow, a Separatist, described the event in a letter he wrote to a friend in England. This letter is the basis for what later became widely known as the first Thanksgiving. In modern spelling, here is what Winslow wrote:

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week, at which time, amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deer, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

After all my research into the various claims, I still favored the 1621 event with the English colonists and Wampanoag as the first Thanksgiving, perhaps in part because of my heritage—my father was from New England. But more than that, because the 1621 event was more like the Thanksgiving that we celebrate today. In 1621, the colonists and the Wampanoag came together in a secular gathering. They had a huge feast and played games, including competitive sports.

But as I continued doing more research, I realized that, in fact, none of these claims led directly to the establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday in the United States. That is not to say that they did not leave a mark on our historical memory. They did. However, the early claims are not the direct antecedents of the Thanksgiving that we celebrate today.

So what are the origins of the Thanksgiving that we celebrate today? What is the true story?

Origins Of Our Thanksgiving: Two Very Old Traditions

The true story of our modern Thanksgiving starts with two very old traditions: celebrating harvest festivals and proclaiming days of thanksgiving for special events.

Harvest Festivals

People in all times and places have held harvest festivals. For most of human history, a good harvest meant the difference between life and death. (This is still true for parts of the world today.) During their spring harvest, the ancient Egyptians held a festival in honor of Min, their god of vegetation and fertility. In honor of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, the ancient Greeks held a harvest festival in the fall. The ancient Romans held a harvest festival in October called Cerelia, after the goddess of grain. In the Old Testament, Moses directs the Israelites to celebrate the Feast of the Tabernacles, also called Sukkoth, after the harvest was gathered. Today Jews still observe Sukkoth in the fall. An ancient harvest festival called Homowo, a word that means "hooting at hunger," is still celebrated by the Ga people in Ghana. The ancient Korean harvest festival, Chusok, is also still celebrated in many places. In fact, while I was writing this book, I attended the Fifth Annual Chusok Festival of Bergen County, New Jersey, held in a park near my house.

Long before European colonists arrived in America, many Native American tribes, including the Wampanoag, celebrated harvest festivals throughout the year. Today the Wampanoag celebrate the harvest of the first wild berries in early spring, the Green Bean Harvest and Green Corn Harvest in midsummer, and the Cranberry Harvest in the fall. All the people join together to offer prayers of thanks to the Creator for providing food and to sing and dance and eat. These harvest festivals are part of the Wampanoags' practice of giving thanks every day. "Every day [is] a day of thanksgiving," says Gladys Widdiss, a contemporary tribal elder. "[We] give thanks to the dawn of the new day, at the end of the day, to the sun, to the moon. ... There [is] always something to be thankful for."

In England, the homeland of the English settlers who came to Plymouth, the very old harvest festival was called harvest home, a time for feasting, singing and dancing, and merrymaking. Harvest home was celebrated when the last sheaf of grain was harvested from the field and brought home, or stored for the winter. Different traditions were followed in various villages. In some, a figure called a corn dolly was made from the last sheaf of whatever grain—wheat, oats, rye, barley—had been harvested. In other villages, the Queen of the Harvest, a young girl dressed in white, and a crowd of people carrying ribbons and flowers accompanied the cart carrying the last harvest. The people who cut and gathered the grain, who were called reapers, and other field-workers followed the loaded cart and sang:

Harvest home, harvest home
We have plowed and we have sowed
We have reaped, we have mowed
We have brought home every load
Hip, hip, hip, harvest home!

The Old World harvest festival traditions were established in the New World by various groups of settlers. People from Germany transplanted their harvest festival, Erntedanktag, to Pennsylvania. Dutch settlers in New Netherland, the area that stretched along the East Coast from New York to Delaware, celebrated harvest festivals there. Immigrants from England celebrated harvest home festivals wherever they settled throughout the colonies.

Days of Thanksgiving for Special Events

The true story of our Thanksgiving is also connected to the very old tradition of both religious and civil authorities proclaiming days of thanksgiving for special events—the end of a drought or an epidemic, the cessation of earthquakes, a military victory, a peace treaty, or safe arrival after a dangerous journey. Emperor Constantine declared days of thanksgiving when he established Constantinople in 330. In 1356, the Archbishop of Canterbury proclaimed eight days of thanksgiving to mark an important military victory won by the Black Prince (Edward of Woodstock, son of the English king Edward III). The English also celebrated a day of thanksgiving on November 5, 1605, the day after Guy Fawkes was caught and his plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament was foiled. The Dutch marked winning their independence from Spain in 1648 with days of thanksgiving.

The English colonists brought this tradition of giving thanks with them, and both religious and civil leaders regularly proclaimed days of thanksgiving for special events. Such special days would continue to be proclaimed until the mid-1800s in America.

An Annual Day of General Thanksgiving

By the 1640s, a new type of thanksgiving proclamation emerged in the Connecticut River Valley farming towns of Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford. Civil leaders began to proclaim an annual day of general thanksgiving in the fall, whether or not there was a special event. On this day, people were to give thanks for the blessings of the past year and for the "fruits of the earth," or the harvest, thus bringing together both of these very old traditions—harvest festivals and days of thanksgiving.

---

Excerpted from Thanksgiving: The True Story by Penny Colman. Copyright © 2008 Penny Colman. Excerpted by permission of Henry Holt and Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---