A Brief History of Thanksgiving
At a time of great religious strife and persecution in England, a group of
protestant Christians known as the Puritans decided to flee from Great Britain. They
desired to establish a colony in North America where they could practice their beliefs
without fear of persecution. Therefore, in 1621, this group embarked on a ship called The
Mayflower to voyage across the Atlantic Ocean and establish a colony in northern
Virginia. They arrived in North America successfully; however, instead of landing on
the shore of Virginia they reached the coast of modern day Massachusetts. Here they
established Plymouth, the second British colony in the Americas after Jamestown,
Virginia. The early colonies faced great challenges, however, because of harsh climates,
hostile natives, and ill-prepared settlers such as exemplified by Jamestown in which less
than one-tenth of the original number of settlers survived. Eventually these settlers
signed treaties and traded with peaceful Native American tribes such as the Wampanoag
of Massachusetts. The colonists also received essential and generous aid indeed from
such friendly indigenous peoples.
In celebration of their surviving the first harsh experiences, many colonies started
having annual feasts known as Thanksgiving. The most famous story of the first Puritan
Thanksgiving describes the first three-day feast that the Puritans of Plymouth had in the
company of the nearby Wampanoag chief Massasoit and his tribe, as well as the two
famous English-speaking natives Squanto and Samoset who befriended the settlers early
on and provided them considerable help. This meal consisted most likely of lobster,
goose, turkey, fricassee, pudding, cod, duck, pumpkin, venison, and cheese according to
historical research.
No official record of the first Thanksgiving still exists, but the oldest known
Thanksgiving proclamation still in existence was declared for June 29th, 1676 by the
Charlestown colony in Massachusetts. The Thanksgiving date has changed several times:
The first was set in a 1782 proclamation by the Continental Congress that set the date to
November 28th, followed by President George Washington’s proclamation in 1789 for
November 26th, then President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation for the last
Thursday in November. Every following President thereafter decided the date on a
yearly basis until Franklin Delano Roosevelt became President in 1933. Following
considerable controversy during his term, congress passed a law in 1941 setting the
fourth Thursday of every November as Thanksgiving, which has been the date ever since.
Americans today celebrate the day for various reasons ranging from American football to
religion and family reunions, but with the common reason to give thanks for things that
they appreciate in their lives.