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Keep The Holiday Fires Burning
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The History of The Pilgrims
Part 6: The First Thanksgiving By the fall of 1621, the little colony had recovered from the hardships of the previous winter. They had planted nearly 30 acres of crops, and had built homes, a meetinghouse, and storerooms. And, as the harvest approached, they decided to hold a celebration. Edward Winslow wrote: We set last spring some twenty acres of Indian corn, and sowed some six acres of barley and peas. According to the manner of the Indians we manured our ground with herrings (alewives) which we have in great abundance and take with great ease at our doors. Our corn did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase in Indian corn. Our barley did indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering. We feared they were too late sown. They came up very well and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom. 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 in the fruits of our labors. They four in one day killed as many fowl as with little help besides, served the Company for almost a week, at which time, amongst our recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their great king the Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted. They went out and killed five deer, which they brought in to the Plantation, and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others. This, of course, is the event that we today recognize as the first Thanksgiving. But it is unlikely that the Pilgrims considered it as such. For the Separatists, days of Thanksgiving were a sacrament, and not a harvest festival. Still the feast - prepared by the nine surviving Pilgrim women - did much to boost their spirits. Their optimism, however, was unfounded. The harvest was not as good as they had thought, and they had badly misjudged their supplies. Strict rationing was going to be necessary to make it through the winter of 1621 - 1622. To make matters worse, a ship called The Fortune arrived with 35 more settlers - including three women. The new arrivals were poorly supplied and immediately became a burden. A month later, The Fortune returned to England, taking more of their precious supplies with it. That winter, the Pilgrims were once again faced with the prospect of starvation, and the next summer’s harvest was no better. There was no harvest feast that year. In 1623, the region was faced with a long drought that threatened yet another year’s crops. Desperate, the Pilgrims gathered in July for a day of humiliation and prayer. The next morning, it began to rain. Praising God, the Pilgrims declared a day of Thanksgiving. Near the end of July, two ships called the Anne and Little James arrived with 60 new settlers, and a good supply of provisions. The colony was saved, and they never starved again. |