The first Thanksgiving?
We are accustomed to thinking of the Pilgrims at Plymouth and the neighboring Wampanoag tribe of Massachusetts as the first to celebrate Thanksgiving, but some scholars say that isn’t accurate. Here’s the case for other possibilities.
The Thanksgiving traditions started by the Pilgrims in Massachusetts in 1621 are what most Americans follow. But history shows a celebration to give thanks occurred in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. Not only that, 56 years earlier than the Puritan Pilgrims’ gathering, 800 Spanish settlers who founded the city of St. Augustine celebrated a Mass of thanksgiving along with members of the Seloy tribe.
What would’ve been for dinner?
In St. Augustine, according to the National Park Service, it could have been cocido, a stew made with salted pork, garbanzo beans and garlic seasoning, accompanied by hard sea biscuits and red wine. If the Seloy contributed to the meal from their food stores, the menu could have included turkey, venison, gopher tortoise, mullet, drum, sea catfish, corn, beans and squash.
There are other accounts of thanksgiving celebrations predating the Pilgrims by the French settlers in Florida. An early French account dates to 1564, when persecuted Huguenot settlers celebrated in Northern Florida. A year later the French settlement was wiped out by the Spanish.
The first giving of thanks by the English
When the first settlers arrived in Jamestown in April 1607 and raised a cross at Cape Henry, claiming the land for England, they may have had a thanksgiving predating their first known observance in 1619. In that year, Berkeley Hundred was settled, one of a number of plantations granted by the Virginia Co. of London to its stockholders.
Prior to leaving England in September 1619, ship Capt. John Woodlief received instructions from investors that included these words: “That the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty god.” On Dec. 4, 1619, Woodlief’s ship checked in at Jamestown, the colony’s capital, where a mostly religious thanksgiving ceremony was held, after which the ship sailed up the James River about 30 miles.
The Berkeley Hundred plantation was not around long after a growing number of native Powhatan tribal members went to war and drove the settlers out in March 1622.
Compare and contrast
Jamestown: Traveling aboard the ships Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, 104 men landed in Virginia in 1607 at a place they named Jamestown. It was the first permanent English settlement in the New World.
Plymouth: Thirteen years later, 102 settlers aboard the Mayflower landed in Massachusetts at a place they named Plymouth.
Reasons for the colonies
Jamestown: Economic motives prompted colonization in Virginia. The Virginia Co., organized in 1606, sponsored the Virginia Colony. Organizers of the company wanted to expand English trade and obtain a wider market for English manufactured goods. They naturally hoped for profit from their investment in shares of company stock.
Plymouth: Freedom from religious persecution motivated the Pilgrims to leave England and settle in Holland, where there was more religious freedom. However, after a number of years the Pilgrims felt that their children were being corrupted by the liberal Dutch lifestyle and were losing their English heritage. News of the English colony in Virginia motivated them to leave Holland and settle in the New World.
Early setbacks
Jamestown: Inexperience, unwillingness to work and a lack of wilderness survival skills led to bickering, disagreements and inaction at Jamestown. Poor relations with tribes, disease and the initial absence of the family unit compounded the problems.
Plymouth: Cooperation and hard work were part of the Pilgrims’ lifestyle. Nevertheless, they too were plagued with hunger, disease and environmental hazards.
Religious differences
Jamestown: The settlers were members of the Church of England.
Plymouth: The Pilgrims were dissenters from the Church of England and established the Puritan or Congregational Church.
Government
In 1619, the first representative legislative assembly in the New World met at the Jamestown church. Since New England was outside the jurisdiction of Virginia’s government, the Pilgrims established a self-governing agreement of their own, the Mayflower Compact.
Thanksgiving
Jamestown: On Dec. 4, 1619, settlers stepped ashore at Berkeley Hundred along the James River and, in accordance with company investors’ instructions, celebrated their first official thanksgiving.
Plymouth: In the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims held a celebration to give thanks to God for his bounty and blessings. This occasion was the origin of the traditional Thanksgiving as we know it.
You can find an interactive map of Historic Jamestown on the National Park Service site here.
Sources: National Park Service, Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation