When Was the First Thanksgiving?
The first Thanksgiving is said to have taken place in 1621, when the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth, in present-day Massachusetts, shared a harvest feast with the Wampanoag people. The colonists had arrived in December 1620, and the first winter was especially difficult. About half of the original group died from disease and starvation. Likely to promote a political alliance, the local Wampanoag decided to help the colonists, teaching them how to hunt and grow crops. That fall the harvest was good, and the colonists had a gathering to celebrate. A few went out “fowling,” possibly for turkeys but more probably for the easier prey of geese and ducks, since they “in one day killed as much as…served the company almost a week.” About 90 Wampanoag arrived unexpectedly at the settlement’s gate—they possibly heard celebratory gunfire and feared an attack—and were invited to join the 50 or so colonists. Over the next few days the two groups socialized without incident.
The Wampanoag contributed venison to the feast, which included the fowl and probably fish, eels, shellfish, stews, vegetables, and beer. Since Plymouth had few buildings and manufactured goods, most people ate outside while sitting on the ground or on barrels with plates on their laps. The men fired guns, ran races, and drank liquor, struggling to communicate in broken English and Wampanoag. Although a rather disorderly affair, it sealed a treaty between the two groups that lasted until King Philip’s War (1675–76), in which hundreds of colonists and thousands of Native Americans lost their lives.
