Concept

The story of the First Thanksgiving

The popular story that the Pilgrims invited the Wampanoag to a thanksgiving feast in 1621.

4 links, 1 backed by primary records

How each side tells it

Connections 4

Harvest feast of 1621 According to Plimoth Patuxet Museums Primary record 1 2
The story is told as a claim: the National Park Service and the museum describe it; Winslow’s letter has no invitation.
Day of thanksgiving in Massachusetts churches, 1637 According to United American Indians of New England Self-published 3
UAINE calls this the “first official Day of Thanksgiving.” No saved source ties the 1637 day to the 1621 feast or to the holiday of 1863.

Proof 4 sources

Lincoln and Thanksgiving, Lincoln Home National Historic Site, National Park Service. Primary record
To celebrate their first harvest they held a feast; inviting the Wampanoag Indians, who had helped them adapt and survive, to join them.
Eye-Witness Account of the 1621 Harvest Celebration (You Are The Historian, Unit 4), Plimoth Patuxet Museums. Scholarship & press
Because the passage describing the event resembled the Thanksgiving feasts popular at his time, he annotated it with a footnote
In 1841, Unitarian minister and antiquarian Alexander Young published a compendium of source excerpts about Plymouth Colony
Background Information, United American Indians of New England. Self-published
The first official "Day of Thanksgiving" was proclaimed in 1637 by Governor Winthrop. He did so to celebrate the safe return of men from Massachusetts who had gone to Mystic, Connecticut to participate in the massacre of over 700 Pequot women, children, and men.
You Are The Historian, Unit 5: Giving Thanks, Plimoth Patuxet Museums. Scholarship & press
In the 19th century, advocates such as Sarah Josepha Hale linked the 1621 harvest celebration, the Pilgrims, and the Wampanoag with a long-standing New England harvest tradition making them the founders of the holiday in generations of popular imagination.

Page history 1 change