The First Thanksgiving

As Americans, it is important that we give thanks to God for His abundance of mercy and grace in our lives and upon our land. It is also pertinent to thank Him for the rich history we have, including that which surrounds the first Thanksgiving.

The First Thanksgiving

On November 21, 1620, the Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact and began their Plymouth Colony. Of the 102 Pilgrims, only 51 survived till Spring. At one point, only a half dozen were healthy enough to care for the rest.

In the Spring of 1621, the Indian Squanto came among them, and showed them how to catch fish, plant corn, trap beaver, and was their interpreter with the other Indian tribes. Governor William Bradford described Squanto as:

A special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation.

Bradford added:

The settlers ... began to plant their corn, in which service Squanto stood them in good stead, showing them how to plant it and cultivate it. He also told them that unless they got fish to manure this exhausted old soil, it would come to nothing … In the middle of April plenty of fish would come up the brook ... and he taught them how to catch it.

The 1621 Harvest Celebration

Pilgrim Edward Winslow recorded in Mourt's Relation that in the Fall of 1621:

God be praised we had a good increase … 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 fruit 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 among 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... By the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

Bradford described the same event:

And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc. Besides, they had about a peck a meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.

Thanksgiving Traditions in Holland

The idea of a Fall day of thanksgiving may have come to the Pilgrims after they moved to Leiden, Holland, in 1609. Dutch citizens there annually gave thanks to God for William of Orange, in 1574, ending the Spanish Furies.

Historian Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs, Ph.D., documented that Jan Orlers, a friend of Pilgrim elder William Brewster, wrote of Leiden’s annual Thanksgiving:

Every year throughout the city a General Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving … held and celebrated on the Third of October, to thank and praise God Almighty that he so mercifully had saved the city from her enemies.

Leiden also had a community of persecuted Jews. Pilgrims would have observed the annual Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, Sukkot, in September–October. Pilgrims identified with the Israelites fleeing Pharaoh, seeing themselves as fleeing the English king in search of their promised land.

The Hebrew Influence

The Hebrew Republic (Israel’s self-government for 400 years) deeply influenced Puritan and Pilgrim views of liberty. Protestant scholars who studied the Hebrew Republic were called Christian Hebraists. When Harvard and Yale were founded, Hebrew was taught at both.

Bangs explained:

Our knowledge of the 1621 Thanksgiving comes from Winslow and Bradford. Winslow’s choice of words ... implies that the Pilgrims gave thanks to God for their preservation and for the plenty that gave hope for the future … It is a history with potent symbolism.

He added that Winslow’s language alluded to John 4:36 and Psalm 33:

And he that reapeth, receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth, and he that reapeth, might rejoice together.

The Hard Winter and the Second Thanksgiving

On November 9, 1621, thirty-seven new Pilgrims arrived on the Fortune. They brought no food or supplies, causing a second “starving time,” with rations as low as five kernels of corn per day.

The Pilgrims attempted to repay their creditors by sending 500 pounds of furs on the Fortune, but the ship was captured by French pirates. In 1622, Chief Massasoit became ill. Edward Winslow visited and doctored him, and he recovered—preserving a peace that lasted more than 50 years.

In 1623, a drought struck. Winslow recorded in Chronicles of the Pilgrims:

Drought and the like considerations moved ... every good man ... to humiliation before Him ... to humble ourselves together before the Lord by Fasting and Prayer.

Their pattern was:

After their fast, Bradford wrote:

Afterwards the Lord sent them such seasonable showers ... caused a fruitful and liberal harvest, to their no small comfort and rejoicing... Instead of famine now God gave them plenty, for which they blessed God.

Later Thanksgiving Proclamations

Charlestown, Massachusetts (June 20, 1676):

The Council has thought to appoint ... a day of solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God … that being persuaded by the mercies of God we may all ... offer up our bodies and souls as a living and acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ.

Benjamin Franklin’s Reflection

Ben Franklin wrote in The Completed Autobiography:

The first settlers met with many difficulties ... Being piously disposed, they sought relief from heaven by ... fasting and prayer... At length ... a farmer of plain sense ... thought it would be more becoming ... if instead of a fast they should proclaim a thanksgiving.

His advice was taken ... and from that day to this ... they have in every year observed circumstances of public felicity sufficient to furnish employment for a Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving Day… Everyday

Thanksgiving and American history go hand-in-hand. As Christians, called to be salt in light in this world and in our nation, we must lead in of gratitude, giving thanks to God for all He has done for us and for our nation. And our example of gratitude must be evident throughout the year. Thanksgiving Day is special, for sure, but for followers of Christ, everyday ought to be a day of thanksgiving.