By Dennis Rupert It seems that every year we are
treated to articles
attempting to disprove the "myth of Thanksgiving."
In these articles we are told that:
- The Pilgrims weren't the first people in America
to hold a Thanksgiving
- That the first thanksgiving had no religious
significance at all, but was merely a harvest
festival
- That our traditional Thanksgiving dinner has
nothing in common with the Pilgrim's meal
Some of these accusations are not a serious concern.
After all, who cares if the Pilgrims served
cranberries or not? But what seems to lie behind
some of these articles is a desire to devalue the
religious nature of our present Thanksgiving
holiday. This is unfortunate since Thanksgiving is
one of the few holidays on the America calendar that
is not swept away with commercialism or mixed with
pagan elements.
So here is "The True Thanksgiving Story." We
have included references to primary sources which
you can read for yourself. After reading I believe
that you will still be able to eat your turkey with
a happy stomach and a grateful heart to God.
Who observed the first Thanksgiving?Okay, it
wasn't the Pilgrims. Of course, native Americans
celebrated many thanksgiving festivals before
Europeans ever arrived in America. For example, the
Wampanoag (Indian allies of the Pilgrims) held six
thanksgiving festivals during the year.
The
first recorded Christian thanksgiving in America
occurred in Texas on May 23, 1541 when Spanish
explorer, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, and his men
held a service of thanksgiving after finding food,
water, and pasture for their animals in the
Panhandle.
Another thanksgiving service
occurred on June 30, 1564 when French Huguenot
colonists celebrated in solemn praise and
thanksgiving in a settlement near what is now
Jacksonville, Florida.
On August 9, 1607
English settlers led by Captain George Popham joined
Abnaki Indians along Maine's Kennebec River for a
harvest feast and prayer meeting. The colonists,
living under the Plymouth Company charter,
established Fort St. George around the same time as
the founding of Virginia's Jamestown colony. Unlike
Jamestown, however, this site was abandoned a year
later.
Two years before the Pilgrims on
December 4, 1619, a group of 38 English settlers
arrived at Berkeley Plantation in what is now
Charles City, Virginia. The group's charter required
that the day of arrival be observed yearly as a day
of thanksgiving to God. Captain John Woodleaf held
the service of thanksgiving. Here is the section of
the Charter of Berkley Plantation which specifies
the thanksgiving service:
"Wee
ordaine that
the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned
for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be
yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of
thanksgiving to Almighty god."
In addition to 1619, the colonists perhaps held
service in 1620 and 1621. The colony was wiped out
in 1622. It was a private event, limited to the
Berkeley settlement.Thus Spanish, French and
British colonists held several Thanksgiving services
in America before the Pilgrim's celebration in 1621.
Most of these early thanksgivings did not involve
feasting. They were religious in nature, i.e.
worship services of thankfulness to
God.
What about the Pilgrim's
Thanksgiving?
In a children's book called The First
Thanksgiving, the author, Jean Craighead
George
says, the Pilgrims left Europe "to seek their
fortune in the New World." (*1) That
would
have come
as news to the Pilgrims themselves. Pilgrim leader
William Bradford wrote in his diary that the voyage
was motivated by "a great hope for advancing
the
kingdom of Christ."The Pilgrims set
aground at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620.
Their
first winter was devastating. Weakened by the
seven-week crossing and the need to establish
housing, they came down with pneumonia and
consumption. They began to die -- one per day, then
two, and sometimes three. They dug the graves at
night, so that the Indians would not see how their
numbers were dwindling. At one point, there were
only seven persons able to fetch wood, make fires,
and care for the sick. By the spring, they had lost
46 of the original 102 who sailed on the
Mayflower.(*2)
The Pilgrims obviously
needed help and it came from an English-speaking
member of the Wampanoag nation, Squanto. Squanto
decided to stay with the Pilgrims for the next few
months and teach them how to survive. He brought
them food and skins, taught them how to cultivate
new vegetables and how to build Indian-style houses.
He educated the Pilgrims on poisonous plants,
medicine, how to get sap from the maple trees, use
fish for fertilizer, and dozens of other skills
needed for their survival.
The harvest of 1621
was a bountiful one and the remaining colonists
decided to celebrate with a feast. The author of
The
First Thanksgiving states, "This was
not a day of
Pilgrim thanksgiving." Instead,
she
writes,
"This
was pure celebration." (*3) This is
the type
of subtle
statement that often occurs in reading about the
Pilgrim's first thanksgiving. It is not based on
factual history, however. One can only guess at the
motives of people who write such things, but
statements like this appear to be motivated by a
desire to rob the event of any religious meaning.
It is quite true that the word "thanksgiving" is
not used in referring to the feast. Much is made of
this by secular authors who attempt to reinterpret
the Pilgrim thanksgiving. But the only
letter that we have telling us about the first
Thanksgiving praises God for the harvest, makes
reference to the "goodness of God" in
providing for
them, and says that the feast was held so that they
"might after a special manner rejoice
together." (*4) That
sounds like a
Thanksgiving feast to me!The event occurred
between September 21 and November 11, 1621, with the
most likely time being around Michaelmas (September
29), the traditional time for English harvest homes.
The settlers asked Squanto and the leader of the
Wampanoags, Massasoit, to bring their immediate
family and to dine with them. The English had no
idea how large Indian families could be and Squanto
and Massasoit arrived accompanied by 90 relatives.
The feast lasted three days. The Pilgrims and
Indians ate outdoors at large tables and competed
together in tests of skill and strength.(*5)
Governor William Bradford sent "four men
fowling" after wild ducks, geese, and
turkey.6 The warriors brought five deer. The feast
probably consisted of the following items
(constructed from original sources and historical
research by the Plimoth Plantation):
- Seethed [boiled] Lobster
- Roasted Goose
- Boiled Turkey
- Fricase of Coney
-
Pudding of Indian Corn Meal with dried Whortleberries
- Seethed Cod
- Roasted Duck
- Stewed Pumpkin
- Roasted Venison with Mustard Sauce
- Savory Pudding of Hominy with
Fruit and Holland Cheese
Were there other thanksgiving feasts held
by the Pilgrims?
The Pilgrim's first
thanksgiving feast was not repeated the following
year. In the third year, when many of them had
become preoccupied with cultivating more land, and
building on to their houses, and planting extra corn
for trading with the Indians, they were stricken by
a prolonged drought. Week followed week with no
rain, until even the Indians had no recollection of
such a thing ever happening before. The sun-blasted
corn withered on its stalks and became tinder dry,
and beneath it the ground cracked open and was so
powdery that any normal rain would be of little use.
And still the heavens were as brass.
Finally,
in July, Governor Bradford called a council of the
chief men. It was obvious that God was withholding
the rain for a reason, and they had better find out
why. Bradford declared a day of fasting, humiliation
and prayer, and they gathered in their blockhouse
church and began to search their hearts. It turned
out that even these 'saints', had things to repent
for -- spiritual pride, jealousy, vindictiveness,
and greed, as well as a number of broken
relationships. One after another, as they became
convicted, they asked God's forgiveness and that of
their fellow Pilgrims.
A tender, peaceful
spirit grew among them and was enhanced as each hour
passed. Late in the afternoon, as they emerged from
the blockhouse, the sky which that morning had been
hard and clear (as it had been every morning for
nearly two months), was now covered with clouds all
around them. The following morning, it began to rain
-- a gentle rain that continued on and off for
fourteen days straight. Writing of it, Bradford
said:
"It came, without either wind, or thunder, or any
violence, and by degreese in yt abundance, as that
ye earth was thorowly wete and soked therwith. Which
did so apparently revive & quicken ye decayed corne
& other fruits, as was wonderfull to see, and made
ye Indeans astonished to behold; and afterwards the
Lord sent them shuch seasonable showers, with
enterchange of faire warme weather, as, through his
blessing, caused a fruitfull & liberall harvest, to
their no small comforte and rejoycing."
Their harvest that fall, was so abundant that they
ended up with a surplus -- to the benefit of Indians
to the north who had not had a good growing season.
To everyone's delight, the Governor "sett
aparte a day of thanksgiveing" and
apparently once again invited Chief Massasoit and
his braves to eat with them.(*7)A
generation later, after the balance of power had
shifted to the English settlers, the Indian and
White children of that first Thanksgiving were
striving to kill each other in the conflict known as
King Philip's War. The settlers prevailed and in
June of 1676 another Day of Thanksgiving was
proclaimed. The governing council of Charlestown,
Massachusetts, held a meeting to determine how best
to express thanks for the victories in "Warr
with the Heathen Natives of this land." By
unanimous vote they instructed Edward Rawson, the
clerk, to proclaim June 29 as a day of thanksgiving.
The following is part of that
proclamation:
"The Council has thought
meet to appoint and set apart the 29th day of this
instant June, as a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and
praise to God for such his Goodness and Favour, many
Particulars of which mercy might be Instanced, but
we doubt not those who are sensible of God's
Afflictions, have been as diligent to espy him
returning to us; and that the Lord may behold us as
a People offering Praise and thereby glorifying Him;
the Council doth commend it to the Respective
Ministers, Elders and people of this Jurisdiction;
Solemnly and seriously to keep the same Beseeching
that being persuaded by the mercies of God we may
all, even this whole people offer up our bodies and
souls as a living and acceptable Service unto God by
Jesus Christ."
Was Thanksgiving
practiced during the early days of the United
States?
December 18, 1777 marked the first time that all 13
colonies joined in a thanksgiving celebration. It
commemorated the patriotic victory over the British
at Saratoga:
"It is therefore recommended by
Congress, that Thursday the 18th. day of December
next be set apart for Solemn Thanksgiving and
Praise; that at one time, and with one voice, the
good people may express the grateful feelings of
their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the
service of their divine benefactor; and that,
together with their sincere acknowledgements and
offerings they may join the penitent confession of
their sins; and supplications for such further
blessings as they stand in need
of."
President George Washington
proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving for
November 26, 1789 to honor the formation of the
United States government. His
proclamation called
for a day of prayer and giving thanks to God. It was
to be celebrated by all religious denominations, but
discord among the colonies prevented it from being
practiced by all the states. Washington wrote in his
November 26th diary entry: "Being the day
appointed for a thanksgiving I went to St. Paul's
Chapel though it was most inclement and stormy--but
few people at Church." President Washington
later provided money, food, and beer to debtors
spending the holiday in a New York City
jail.
Thanksgiving failed to become an annual
tradition at this time. Only Presidents Washington,
Adams, and Madison declared national days of thanks
in their terms. Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy
Adams considered the practice to infringe upon the
separation of church and state. During the War of
1812, President Madison proclaimed three days of
fasting and prayer in response to Congressional
requests (August 20, 1812, September 9, 1813, and
January 12, 1815). He was the last president to call
for a national thanksgiving until Abraham Lincoln in
1863. Governors, on the other hand--particularly in
the New England states, regularly issued
proclamations of thanksgiving.
How did
Thanksgiving become a yearly national
practice?
It was Sarah Josepha Hale, a
magazine editor, whose efforts eventually led to
what we recognize as Thanksgiving. Hale wrote many
editorials championing her cause in her Boston
Ladies' Magazine, and later, in Godey's
Lady's Book. She was fired with the
determination of having the whole nation join
together in setting apart a national day for giving
thanks "unto Him from who all blessings
flow."
In 1830, New York proclaimed an
official state "Thanksgiving Day." Other states soon
followed its example. The Territory of Minnesota
celebrated its first Thanksgiving Day on December
26, 1850. The whole territory, including all of what
is now the State of Minnesota plus the Dakotas as
far west as the Missouri River, contained
approximately 6,000 settlers but the book, The
Frontier Holiday, describes a spirited
celebration. Territory Governor, Alexander Ramsey,
proclaimed the day of thanks:
"Young in
years as a community, we have come into the
wilderness, in the midst of savage men and
uncultivated nature to found a new empire in aid of
our pursuit of happiness, and to extend the area of
enlightened republican Liberty . . . . Let us in the
public temple of religion, by the fireside and
family altar, on the prairie and in the forest, join
in the expression of our gratitude, of our devotion
to the God who brought our fathers safely through
the perils of an early revolution, and who thus
continues his favors to the remotest colonies of his
sons."
By 1852, Hale's campaign
succeeded in uniting 29 states in marking the last
Thursday of November as "Thanksgiving
Day."
Finally, after a 40-year campaign of
writing editorials and letters to governors and
presidents, Hale's passion became a reality. On
September 28, 1863, Sarah Josepha Hale wrote a
letter to President Lincoln and urged him to have
the "day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National
and fixed Union Festival." On October 3, 1863,
President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in
November as a national day "of Thanksgiving and
Praise to our beneficent Father." Here is the text
of Lincoln's proclamation:
By the President
of the United States of America.
A
Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been
filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and
healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so
constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the
source from which they come, others have been added,
which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they
cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart
which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful
providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil
war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has
sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to
provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved
with all nations, order has been maintained, the
laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has
prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of
military conflict; while that theatre has been
greatly contracted by the advancing armies and
navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth
and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry
to the national defence, have not arrested the
plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has
enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the
mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious
metals, have yielded even more abundantly than
heretofore. Population has steadily increased,
notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the
camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the
country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented
strength and vigor, is permitted to expect
continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal
hand worked out these great things. They are the
gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while
dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath
nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me
fit and proper that they should be solemnly,
reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one
heart and one voice by the whole American People. I
do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part
of the United States, and also those who are at sea
and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to
set apart and observe the last Thursday of November
next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our
beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I
recommend to them that while offering up the
ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular
deliverances and blessings, they do also, with
humble penitence for our national perverseness and
disobedience, commend to His tender care all those
who have become widows, orphans, mourners or
sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we
are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the
interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the
wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as
may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the
full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and
Union.(*8)
Lincoln issued a similar proclamation in 1864. U.S.
presidents maintained the holiday on the last
Thursday of November for 75 years (with the
exception of Andrew Johnson designating the first
Thursday in December as Thanksgiving Day 1865 and
Ulysses Grant choosing the third Thursday for
Thanksgiving Day 1869).In 1939, President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt declare the next-to-last
Thursday of the month (November 23rd) to be
Thanksgiving Day. This break with tradition was
prompted by requests from the National Retail Dry
Goods Association. Since 1939 had five Thursdays in
November, this would create a longer Christmas
shopping season. While governors usually followed
the president's lead with state proclamations for
the same day, on this year, twenty-three states
observed Thanksgiving Day on November 23rd, the
"Democratic" Thanksgiving. Twenty-three states
celebrated on November 30th, Lincoln's "Republican"
Thanksgiving. Texas and Colorado declared both
Thursdays to be holidays.
After two years of
public outcry and confusion, Congress introduced the
legislation to ensure that future presidential
proclamations could not impact the scheduling of the
holiday.. They established Thanksgiving Day as the
fourth Thursday in November. The legislation took
effect in 1942. Their plan to designate the fourth
Thursday of the month allowed Thanksgiving Day to
fall on the last Thursday five out of seven years.
Thanksgiving and
Christians
There are those who want to
remove any thought of God from our Thanksgiving
celebrations. They wish to secularize the holiday
and they reinvent history to attempt to prove their
point. But it is evident from reading primary
sources that Thanksgiving in America was always
about giving thanks to God.
It is a Christian
command and privilege to be grateful for the
blessings of God (Deuteronomy 8:10; Psalm 107:19,21;
Colossians 1:12-14; Philippians 1:3). Our
Thanksgiving celebration is a wonderful reminder to
"give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love
endures forever" (1 Chronicles 16:34).
The
Rev. Benjamin Arnett was a prominent African
American cleric in the Ohio AME Church. He preached
a Thanksgiving sermon during the centennial of our
nation on November 30, 1876. His sermon is a
beautiful expression of gratitude to God for
national blessings and a call to continue to pursue
righteousness for ourselves and our nation (Proverbs
14:34):
Following the tracks of righteousness throughout the
centuries and along the way of nations, we are
prepared to recommend it to all and assert without a
shadow of doubt, that 'Righteousness exalted a
nation'; but on the other hand following the
foot-prints of sin amid the ruins of Empires and
remains of cities, we will say that 'sin is a
reproach to any people.' But we call on all American
citizens to love their country, and look not on the
sins of the past, but arming ourselves for the
conflict of the future, girding ourselves in the
habiliments of Righteousness, march forth with the
courage of a Numidian lion and with the confidence
of a Roman Gladiator, and meet the demands of the
age, and satisfy the duties of the hour. Let us
be encouraged in our work, for we have found the
moccasin track of Righteousness all along the shore
of the stream of life, constantly advancing holding
humanity with a firm hand. We have seen it 'through'
all the confusion of rising and falling States, of
battle, siege and slaughter, of victory and defeat;
through the varying fortunes and ultimate
extinctions of Monarchies, Republics and Empires;
through barbaric irruption and desolation, feudal
isolation, spiritual supremacy, the heroic rush and
conflict of the Cross and Crescent; amid the busy
hum of industry, through the marts of trade and
behind the gliding keels of commerce.
And in
America, the battle-field of modern thought, we can
trace the foot-prints of the one and the tracks of
the other. So let us use all of our available
forces, and especially our young men, and throw them
into the conflict of the Right against the Wrong.
Then let the grand Centennial Thanksgiving
song be heard and sung in every house of God; and in
every home may thanksgiving sounds be heard, for our
race has been emancipated, enfranchised and are now
educating, and have the gospel preached to them!
Footnotes:
- Jean Craighead George, The First Thanksgiving,
(New York: Philomel Books, 1993).
- Of Plimoth Plantation by William Bradford,
original manuscript, written 1647, (1901 Edition).
- Jean Craighead George, The First Thanksgiving.,
(New York: Philomel Books, 1993).
- Edward
Winslow's letter, written December 11,
1621
- Edward
Winslow's letter, written December 11,
1621.
- .William Bradford's comments about the harvest
from Of Plimoth Plantation by William Bradford.
- Of Plimoth Plantation by William Bradford,
original manuscript, written 1647, (1901 Edition).
- The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited
by Roy P. Basler.
See also:
