Here it is Thanksgiving again. It’s become kind of a tradition that I write something about Thanksgiving every year. Of course, it’s hard to come up with something different to write about every year — Thanksgiving is a fairly narrow subject.
I’ve written about the first Thanksgiving before, but I got to thinking about the second Thanksgiving — that doesn’t seem to get much press.
Just about everybody knows the story of the first Thanksgiving — the terrible winter of 1621, in which almost half of the Plymouth Bay Colony died. and how with the help of the Native Americans, the colonists planted crops the following spring, and by fall they harvested a great bounty. After all that, Governor William Bradford called for a celebratory feast, and they lived happily ever after….except they didn’t.
Colonists struggled throughout the next year. The colony, facing potential starvation, abandoned their communal system and each family was given their own land on which they could keep everything they grew for themselves. The change brought dramatic results — more land was cleared, and more crops were planted. Everything was going good until summer arrived. The summer of 1623 was unusually hot with no rain for weeks.
In 1623, the Pilgrims at Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts, held another day of Thanksgiving. The drought was destroying their drops, so the colonists prayed and fasted for relief. The rains came a few days later and not long after, Captain Miles Standish arrived with staples and news that a Dutch supply ship was on its way. Because of this good fortune, colonists held a day of Thanksgiving and prayer on June 30. This festival, in 1623, is likely the origin of our Thanksgiving Day because it combined a religious and social celebration.
Actually, the first Thanksgiving service known to have been held by Europeans in North America occurred on May 27, 1578, in Newfoundland. In fact, British colonists held several Thanksgiving services in American before the Pilgrim’s celebration in 1621. During that 1621 celebration, the Pilgrims rejected public religious display, so they held a non-religious Thanksgiving feast — except that they did say grace. The three day celebration was really used for feasting, playing games and drinking liquor. So the 1623 (second) Thanksgiving is the one that set the tone for today’s Thanksgiving get-togethers.
So what I remember learning in school about Thanksgiving was probably a little sugar-coated. I remember being taught that friendly Indians (unidentified by tribe) welcomed the Pilgrims to America, and taught them how to live in this new place, sat down to dinner with them and then disappeared. It was kind of implied that the Indians handed off America to the white people so they could create a great nation dedicated to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Naturally, that’s not the way it happened — it’d be nice if it did, but it wasn’t bloodless with the Native people conceding to colonialism. Wonder how our nation would have turned out if the history books had been true.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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