historical untruths about first thanksgiving

Arts & Culture History
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Thanksgiving:
the quintessential American holiday in which Americans celebrate the fact that
despite superstorms, unemployment and the
24/7 news cycle, life is pretty darn good for many in these United States. And
oh yeah, something about tipping a tall black hat to the Pilgrims and American
Indians who got this day of eating, drinking and football watching
started some 390-plus years ago.

Just as many Christmas celebrators tear through eggnog and wrapping paper with the vague notion that
the event is somehow related to a Jewish carpenter’s birthday, so, too, do
turkey day revelers heap on the cranberry sauce and gravy, sensing that this all
has something to do with the native people and settlers who inhabited the land
centuries before, but are not exactly sure what.

Perhaps the disconnect should be no surprise, given that modern Thanksgiving
observances barely resemble the festivities of the “first” version of the
holiday. Read on as we debunk some of the most notable mistruths concerning the
original American day of thanks.

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Re: historical untruths about first thanksgiving

Mention Thanksgiving, and the first thing that comes to mind for most folks is turkey. Christmas is all about buying and giving stuff, but Americans dedicate the November holiday mostly to stuffing themselves.

It didn't start this way, however. Puritan settlers in New England originally
celebrated days of "thanksgiving" in prayer, thanking the good Lord for various
successes in the New World.

The feasting associated with the modern American
holiday, on the other hand, is tied to a specific event in the fall of 1621.
Pilgrims (not to be confused with Puritans) who were
religious settlers from England, came to America via the Netherlands after
breaking away from the Church of England. They celebrated what's considered the
first Thanksgiving in Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. The newcomers celebrated
the event with members of the Wampanoag tribe, with whom they had recently
signed a treaty of mutual protection

This original Thanksgiving was held to mark the Pilgrims' first bountiful
harvest. The settlers were particularly grateful for the successful crop, as the
harvest followed what had been a long and difficult year, rife with sickness and
a limited food supply. Indeed, it was unclear whether the colony would survive in
these early days and the good harvest was something of a light at the end of a
rather bleak tunnel

Yet these partying Pilgrims and Indians weren't the first to toast a successful
harvest. The practice of celebrating a good haul was popular throughout Europe
long before the Mayflower touched down on Plymouth Rock. North American Indians,
like the Wampanoag, often held similar events come harvest time

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Re: historical untruths about first thanksgiving

Sure, Thanksgiving
may seem like it goes on for days – even weeks, once Uncle Johnny gets into the
Wild Turkey and Aunt June takes out her dentures to slurp down some pumpkin pie
– but the first celebration actually lasted for three whole days.

While the event was indeed intended to toast the successful harvest, it also
marked solidified relations among the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag
Indians. Earlier that year the two sides signed a mutual protection pact,
providing that both peoples would leave each other be and act as allies in
defending against any attack on either group

Squanto, a Patuxet Indian who was captured and shipped to England as a slave
before returning to North America and taking up with the Wampanoag, helped the
Pilgrims endure their first year in New England by teaching them survival
skills. He also negotiated the treaty on behalf of the tribe. Plymouth Colony
governor William Bradford and Wampanoag Chief Massasoit eventually sealed the
deal in March of 1621

Most of what is known about the first Thanksgiving celebration comes from a
letter Edward Winslow, an early Pilgrim leader, later wrote to a friend
describing the event. As Winslow explains it, “for three days we entertained and
feasted.” Experts believe they probably also sang, danced and played games

This fun and games didn’t last forever though. After decades of peace, relations
between the Wampanoag and English settlers eventually deteriorated, culminating
in a war between the tribe and colonial forces in 1675

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Re: historical untruths about first thanksgiving

Like 'em or not, most of us wind up spending turkey day with our families.
Or, for those who draw the short end of the stick, with in-laws.

It remains unclear whether the first Thanksgiving
was a family affair. Certainly, the group of 101 English Pilgrims who journeyed
from Amsterdam across the Atlantic on the Mayflower, landing in New England in
1620, included women and children [source: Plimoth
Plantation].

Yet Winslow’s letter references only men and the
event is believed to have been a political affair strengthening the newly minted
bond between the colonists and the Wampanoag. This, of course, was long before
the days of Margaret
Thatcher, Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice. Political wrangling of any
sort would have been left to the men [source: Krulwich].

Some historians believe colonial women were likely
involved to some extent, however. Someone – likely several someones – had to
cook that glorious Thanksgiving feast [sources: Krulwich,
Gambino].
And, it’s unlikely everyone gathered around a table or tables in a house; the
meal was probably held outdoors with folks perched on whatever tree stump or log
they could find.

So what exactly was on the menu in 1621? Read on to find out.

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Re: historical untruths about first thanksgiving

No turkey. No cranberries. Not even any pumpkin pie.

Although wild turkey (the animal, not Uncle
Johnny’s whiskey) was available to hunters in the American northeast in the
early 17th century, many historians say it wasn’t likely to have been on the
table for the first Thanksgiving
meal. According to Edward Winslow’s account, Governor Bradford sent four men on
a fowling expedition and they later returned with enough bird to feed the colony
for almost a week. This feathered fare likely consisted of ducks and geese,
experts say, maybe with some swan and pigeons [source: Gambino].

For their part, the Wampanoag guests brought along
five deer. Of course, there was also corn, since the Native
Americans – Squanto in particular – had recently shown their new neighbors
how to grown the local crop [source: Gambino].

Meanwhile, the sweet delicious cranberry sauce
that many of us look forward to come Thanksgiving would have required sugar,
which wasn’t generally available until 50 years later. And while pies weren’t
unknown at this time, these early European settlers had no access to butter or
wheat flour to make a flaky crust [sources: Krulwich,
Gambino].

Sobaheg, a Wampanoag dish
consisting of stewed corn, roots, beans, squash and meat, may have been served.
Other locally available foods, such as clams, lobsters, cod, eel, onions,
carrots, turnips and various greens may also have been among the original
Thanksgiving dishes [sources: Krulwich,
Gambino].

Sarah Josepha Hale wasn’t present at that first
celebration, but she had a lot to say about the foods we have come to associate
with the holiday. The editor of a popular early-19th century women’s magazine,
Hale printed Thanksgiving menus and recipes in her publication that we now
consider traditional Thanksgiving fare, like roast turkey and mashed potatoes
[sources: Krulwich,
Gambino

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Re: historical untruths about first thanksgiving

Everyone knows Thanksgiving
goes down on the fourth Thursday of November. Americans plan for it; schools
close; many people get a day off from work and airlines
raise rates about 300 percent.

Yet the first celebration probably happened
somewhere between Sept. 21 and Nov. 11, likely not even on a Thursday. English
harvest festivals on which the event was partly based occurred around Sept. 29
in those days [source: Mach].

While the celebration was commemorated in the
years following the first Thanksgiving – scaled down to a one-day affair –
Thanksgiving did not become a national holiday until 1863. That year, President
Abraham Lincoln declared two national days of Thanksgiving: one on Aug. 6 to
mark the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg, and the other on the last Thursday in
November to commemorate the 1621 event. Magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale is
largely credited with lobbying Lincoln to establish the holiday, arguing that it
would be a good way to unite a country torn apart by the ravages of war [source:
Plimoth
Plantation].

Succeeding presidents made Thanksgiving a
once-a-year holiday each November, customarily falling on the last Thursday in
November. In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the date up a week,
setting Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November to lengthen the
Christmas shopping season. In 1941, Congress made it an official holiday, no
longer requiring an annual presidential decree [source: Plimoth
Plantation].

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Re: historical untruths about first thanksgiving

Needless to say, the Pilgrims get a lot of
attention when it comes to telling the story of the first Thanksgiving.
They held the feast and it was designed to celebrate their triumph in surviving
the first year in the New World, as well as that all-important harvest score.
After a perilous journey that landed them in New England in December 1620, the
101 Pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower had shrunk to just 53 men,
women and children by the time of the original harvest festival. Those remaining
certainly had a lot for which to be thankful [sources: Plimoth
Plantation, Shenkman].

These Pilgrims were a distinct group of settlers
from the Puritans who came over from England and with whom they are often
confused. Also known as “separatists,” the Pilgrims were Brits who crossed the
Atlantic and established Plymouth Colony after completely separating from the
Church of England. While many sought religious freedom, others came in search of
riches, adventure or simply a new life [sources: Plimoth
Plantation, Shenkman].

Puritans, on the other hand, settled in Boston a
decade later, having traveled to North America with the sole purpose of
practicing their religion – still an offshoot of the Church of England – in
their own way. Unlike the Pilgrims, the Puritans felt that their homeland’s
religion could still be reformed [sources: Plimoth
Plantation, Shenkman].

With that point settled, it is important to note
that the Pilgrims were not the only ones who partook in the early Thanksgiving
festivities. With 90 men in tow, the Wampanoags present at the first turkey day
outnumbered their new allies almost two to one. That’s not to mention the role
they had in ensuring that the event even happened. If not for the help of Squanto
and others, that harvest celebrated in 1621 may not have been. The European
seeds the Pilgrims planted died but the corn supplied by Chief Massasoit thrived
[sources: Plimoth
Plantation, Shenkman, Armstrong].

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Re: historical untruths about first thanksgiving

A small, but vocal group of historians and state
tourism officials claim that the first Thanksgiving
didn’t happen in Massachusetts and wasn’t orchestrated by the Pilgrims. There
are other contenders for the prize of “first Thanksgiving.”

In Texas, some say the first Thanksgiving was held
in the city of San Elizario, near El Paso on the Mexican border. Each year,
residents commemorate a huge thanksgiving feast celebrated by Spanish explorers
marking their arrival on the banks of the Rio Grande River in April 1598. That
would have been about 23 years before the Pilgrim-Wampanoag shindig in Plymouth,
for those counting. The story goes that Juan de Oñate’s 500-person expedition
marched from southern Chihuahua for 50 days, almost dying from hunger and thirst
in the process. Upon reaching the river, they rested for another 10 days and
celebrated their new digs with a feast [sources: Shenkman, Kingston].

Others say the first Thanksgiving happened in the
Old Dominion. Supporters of this version of the holiday’s history point to
Virginia’s Berkeley Plantation as the birthplace of American Thanksgiving. Here,
in 1619, 38 English settlers sponsored by the London Company supposedly toasted
the arrival of their ship, the Margaret,on dry land [source: Shenkman].

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Re: historical untruths about first thanksgiving

The American patriot that many people most
identify with Thanksgiving
Day activities is neither Pilgrim, Native American, nor president. He’s a football
commentator named John Madden.

Narrating one of two annual NFL football games
held every Turkey Day throughout the '90s – and spending much of each broadcast
discussing the size, shape and succulence of the game day bird, as well as
popularizing the chicken-within-a-duck-within-a-turkey dish known simply as
“turducken” – Madden became synonymous with Thanksgiving football for scores of
fans. He also was famous for handing out turkey legs to the game’s MVPs [source:
Perman].

Of course, there was no Madden, no NFL and no TV
when the English settlers and Wampanoags broke bread back in 1621. They didn’t
even throw the pigskin around in the backyard. (American football had not been
invented yet.) Instead these early revelers did something even more American:
They shot guns. “Among other recreations, we exercised our arms,” Edward Winslow
later recollected [source: Armstrong]. And
he did not mean his biceps.

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Re: historical untruths about first thanksgiving

We’ve all seen the various depictions of the
first Thanksgiving
supper, Indians in their feathered headdresses and loincloths and Pilgrims in
the black-and-white costumes that we’ve come to believe that they wore. From
television and film, to the local elementary school’s Thanksgiving pageant,
re-enactments of the original holiday celebration have ingrained in our heads
the vision of Pilgrims in tall hats and lots of big buckles.

But historians say these fashions, including the
black-and-white kit, didn’t come into vogue among settlers until many years
after that first holiday. In fact, the early Pilgrims typically reserved
black-and-white clothing for Sundays and formal occasions. Otherwise, they are
believed to have donned a more colorful wardrobe, including red, green, brown,
blue, violet, and gray [sources: Large,
History].

In 1621, anyone rocking a steeple hat and black
breeches along with white squared cuffs and collars was more likely a Puritan in
Boston than a Pilgrim in Plymouth. Women likely wore solid-colored, full-length
skirts along with bonnets and aprons. Men decked themselves in long-sleeved
button down shirts, baggy, colored breeches and stockings. Hats would have been
of the floppy, felt variety, instead of the tall, narrow types often associated
with Pilgrims [source: Heinsohn].

As for the Wampanoag, one historian writes, “It’s
likely that the Indians
were fully clothed to ward off the chill of autumn in New England. Who would
wear only a loincloth in Massachusetts in November?” source: [Walch].

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Re: historical untruths about first thanksgiving

New England, Texas, Virginia…we may not all
agree on where the first Thanksgiving
took place, but many of us assume that Thanksgiving Day is solely an American
holiday. This may be the biggest myth of them all.

The world is a big place. Its inhabitants recognize a whole host of
thanksgiving-type celebrations with wide variety of foods, drinks and events
reflecting their own culture and history.

As we mentioned earlier, the English settlers
were familiar with the practice of celebrating a thanksgiving; in the Middle
Ages, Anglo-Saxons commemorated Lammas Day, a precursor to other harvest
festivals [sources: Project
Britain]. Also in England, the Pearly Kings and Queens, renowned for their
pearl-button bedecked outfits, celebrate the harvest with a festival, church
service and parade to raise funds for charity, as they have for more than 100
years.

Canadians celebrate that country’s Thanksgiving
holiday on the first Monday of October, coincidentally, the same day as American
Columbus Day. The Canadian version of the holiday honors a 1578 feast held by
English explorer Martin Frobisher, marking the end of his journey to
Newfoundland. Surprisingly, however, Newfoundland is one of a few places across
the country where the holiday is not officially recognized. Those who do
celebrate the day do it a lot like their U.S. neighbors: with turkey, parades
and (Canadian) football [source:
HUI].

Meanwhile in western Africa, Liberian
Thanksgiving is a national holiday, celebrated since 1883 [source: Government
of the Republic of Liberia].

Finally, on the island of Grenada, the publicly
recognized Thanksgiving holiday marks the anniversary of an invasion by U.S. and
Caribbean forces in 1983. Known as Operation Urgent Fury, the invasion overthrew
the communist government which had recently seized power [source: Military.com].

If you aren’t stuffed with new facts about Thanksgiving and American history,
pass the yams and check out the links on the next page.

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Re: historical untruths about first thanksgiving

source : HowStuffWorks “10 Historical Untruths About the First Thanksgiving”