Event
Harvest feast of 1621
Three days of feasting at Plymouth in autumn 1621, with Ousamequin and about ninety men; later called the First Thanksgiving.
- Dates
- 1621
Connections 8
involved
- Ousamequin (Massasoit) came “with some 90 men,” per Winslow Primary record 12
- Edward Winslow wrote the only known eyewitness account Scholarship & press 3
- Plymouth Colony hosts Primary record 2
caused by
-
Agreement of 1621 between Plymouth and the Pokanoket
According to Plimoth Patuxet Museums
Scholarship & press
4
The museum says the feast “may have served” to reaffirm the agreement; this is its reading.
led to
-
The story of the First Thanksgiving
According to Plimoth Patuxet Museums
Primary record
15
The story is told as a claim: the National Park Service and the museum describe it; Winslow’s letter has no invitation.
appears in
- You Are the Historian Scholarship & press 3
- Winslow’s letter of 1621 Scholarship & press 1
located in
- Plymouth, Massachusetts Scholarship & press 3
Timeline 1 date
- 1621 Harvest feast of 1621
Proof 5 sources
-
Eye-Witness Account of the 1621 Harvest Celebration (You Are The Historian, Unit 4), Plimoth Patuxet Museums.
Scholarship & press
with some 90 men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer
it is probable that [Ousemequin’s attendance at the celebration] was a political show of force.
Of the 102 Mayflower passengers, about half were alive at the First Thanksgiving: 24 men, five women, and 24 children and teenagers.
Because the passage describing the event resembled the Thanksgiving feasts popular at his time, he annotated it with a footnote
In a letter to a friend in England, “E.W.” (Pilgrim Edward Winslow) wrote the only eye-witness record of the celebration that survives.
-
A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth: Mourt’s Relation (A Relation or Journal of the English Plantation settled at Plymouth, 1622), ed. Dwight B. Heath, Project Gutenberg, from the 1622 original, 1622.
Primary record
At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer
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 the fruit of our labors
-
You Are The Historian, Unit 4: 1621 Harvest Celebration, Plimoth Patuxet Museums.
Scholarship & press
There is only one English eye-witness account of the 1621 harvest feast and no contemporary Wampanoag historical records to suggest their perspective on the event.
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You Are The Historian, Unit 2: Leadership and Diplomacy, Plimoth Patuxet Museums.
Scholarship & press
The celebrations in Plymouth in the fall of 1621 may have served not only to celebrate a successful harvest, but also to reaffirm the agreement between the English and the Pokanoket.
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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.
Page history 1 change
- Add 55 stories, each checked against its sources96e92fe6
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