What You Think You Know About America’s First Thanksgiving Is Probably Wrong Whether we feast on turkey, seafood, or barbecue, may Thanksgiving 2019 enable us to count our blessings today, give thanks for the good in our past, and strengthen us for tomorrow.
Where was the first Thanksgiving? Like centuries of Americans, I grew up hearing that America’s first Thanksgiving took place in New England with the Pilgrims.
“Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together,” Pilgrim Edward Winslow wrote in December 1621 of a Thanksgiving feast, which one might call “friendsgiving” today.
Earlier that year, in April 1621, after suspicious surveillance of each other, the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag had entered a peace treaty that prevented war. The Wampanoag had lost as much as 90 percent of their tribe to a plague in the preceding years brought unknown by Europeans. The Pilgrims had lost 45 of the 102 Mayflower passengers. Both sides were highly motivated to survive at the time, and their treaty staved off war for 54 years.
“[M]any of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted,” Winslow also wrote of their 1621 feast, crediting the goodness of God for their bounty.
Giving thanks was a top reason for celebrations among the Wampanoag and other native people of North America. Also contributing to that first joint feast, the Wampanoag “went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others,” Winslow noted in 1621.
Virginia’s Claim to the First Thanksgiving
After moving to Virginia, I discovered that Virginia also has a claim to Thanksgiving fame. “We ordain that this day of our ship’s arrival … in the land of Virginia, shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God,” prayed Capt. John Woodlief upon landing 38 Britons on Dec. 4, 1619, two years before the Pilgrims’ first feast.
The following lists the names and relations ships of my ancestors who were among the 102 who arrived here on the Mayflower.
Giles Hopkins 8th Great Grandfather ▼ Mayflower Stephen Hopkins 9th Great Grandfather ▼ Mayflower John Cooke 10th Great Grandfather ▼ Mayflower Constance Hopkins 9th Great Aunt ▼ Mayflower Francis Cooke 11th Great Grandfather ▼ Mayflower John Billington 11th Great Grandfather ▼ Mayflower Richard Warren 11th Great Grandfather ▼ Mayflower Edward Fuller 11th Great Uncle ▼ Mayflower Samuel Fuller 11th Great Uncle ▼ Mayflower Samuel Fuller 1st Cousin 11 times removed ▼ Mayflower Henry Samson 1st Cousin 12 times removed ▼ Mayflower Richard More 3rd Cousin 9 times removed ▼ Mayflower Elizabeth Tilley 4th Cousin 8 times removed ▼ Mayflower John Tilley 3rd Cousin 12 times removed ▼ Mayflower Peter Browne 3rd Cousin 12 times removed ▼ Mayflower Thomas Mathew Fitz Rogers 6th Cousin 8 times removed ▼ Mayflower William Mullins 6th Cousin 8 times removed ▼ Mayflower Priscilla Mullins 7th Cousin 7 times removed ▼ Mayflower
And because of them, I have people who participated in every major, and most minor events, that have occurred in America since. It's really hard for me to think of them when I see what we have allowed to happen to what they suffered so much to give us.
We will never again be truly FREE people for so long as we continue to abide the Marxist Income Tax Code and the IRS!
Quote: EdJames wrote in post #6Wow!! I find that amazing!! I had no idea that your people have been part of the populace of this nation for SO MANY years!!
Since the very beginning as the story is told but, of course we know that there were others before them in truth.
I love the piece you posted @EdJames and believe it to be factual.
We will never again be truly FREE people for so long as we continue to abide the Marxist Income Tax Code and the IRS!