SAN ANTONIO – Plymouth Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians had a three-day feast sometime between Sept. 21 and Nov. 9, 1621. This is considered the first Thanksgiving, though at the time, it was more of a secular harvest festival.
Squanto, a Patuxet Indian, was at the first Thanksgiving. He had survived slavery in England and was able to understand and speak the English language. Squanto acted as a translator for the pilgrims and negotiated a peace treaty between pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians.
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Religious zealots, known as Puritans, began arriving to the New World when word of the bountiful land spread to England. They considered the land to be public and staked their claim, seizing land from Indians and selling them into slavery.
In 1637, more than 700 Pequot Indians were massacred by the Puritans the day after the Indians’ Green Corn Festival. The Puritans celebrated the murders by throwing a “day of Thanksgiving” festival.
For years, the churches would announce “Thanksgiving” festivals following successful Indian raids. George Washington suggested one day of Thanksgiving be celebrated per year.
In 1827, Sarah Josepha Hale, author of the popular nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” started campaigning for a national Thanksgiving holiday after reading a Pilgrim diary. She was inspired by the Pilgrims’ harvest and celebration with the Indians.
Photo below: The Plimoth Plantation is a recreation of the original Plymouth Colony as it would have appeared in 1627, six years after the puritan colonists and their Indian neighbors observed the first Thanksgiving. (Photo by Michael Springer/Getty Images).
Abraham Lincoln declared in 1863 that Thanksgiving Day would be a national holiday on the last Thursday in November. He also ordered troops to march against Sioux Indians.
Over the years, Thanksgiving began to evolve into a day of thanks and celebration and the start of the Christmas/holiday shopping season. Sales during this time of year boosted the American economy so much that in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday to the third Thursday in November to extend the shopping season.
In 1941, Congress officially declared that the national holiday of Thanksgiving would be the fourth Thursday in the month of November.
The pilgrims are sometimes confused with the Puritans. It is important to note that the first harvest is different from the Thanksgiving that followed the Pequot massacre. These two separate events involved different groups of people and different Indian tribes.