The Story Of Thanksgiving

We celebrate a holiday called Thanksgiving every year in November, but how did Thanksgiving start, and when did it first happen? The story starts with British History in the early 1600s and ends with the beginning of American history, so why not dive in?

A young twelve-year-old called William Bradford lived in a peaceful village called Austerfield, Yorkshire. Queen Elizabeth I had been ruling over England for over 40 years, and had the Church of England under her control.

But inside the church here was trouble. Some people knew that the church used to be completely Catholic, and knew some Catholic traditions still remained. They wanted to “Purify” the church so no more Catholic traditions remained. They became known as “Puritans.”

Of course, William found out, and began to study the Puritans. He studied and studied, and began to think that, maybe, just maybe, they were right. Of course, William’s relatives thought he was crazy.

But, still, William thought it might be a good thing to visit a Puritan church, and after hearing about the “All Saints’ Church,” he decided to visit that very church. He loved the meetings so much, he went the next week too, even though his relatives were very angry at him.

Then one day William heard the terrible news that Queen Elizabeth I had died in her sleep, and King James I would take her place. Everyone knows Queen Elizabeth II just died in September of 2022, but did you ever realize how long ago Queen Elizabeth II ruled?

Meanwhile, William Bradford met William Brewster, who was 24 years older than him!

Trouble brewed in the Church of England. William and his group of friends now had to meet in secret, as well as many other Puritans across the British Isles. They became known as Separatists. The Puritans still existed, even though many decided to become Separatists. All Saints’ Church had fallen apart on account of the Church of England’s new staunch laws made by King James I. William started attending the Scrooby Separatists group.

William found himself in jail in the fall of 1607. His group had only tried to escape from England, but he was caught. Finally, he was allowed to return home. Well, his friends tried to escape to Holland, once more. All went well until some men, including William decided to board the ship early. No sooner had they boarded the ship, than soldiers showed up. The captain was so scared, he took off without a second thought. Some men and all of the Separatist women and children in the group were left behind.

Finally they arrived in Holland. Many men went back to England to rescue their wives and children.

William, now an adult, settled down and got married. The Bradfords, Brewsters, and other friends settled down in the community of Leiden.

Life wasn’t easy in Holland. The children of many Separatists learned how to speak Dutch and forgot how to speak English. Not to mention the ones who were born in Holland never knew English.

You can probably guess by now, everybody was desperate for a different solution. They thought up a plan. They decided that North America, specifically Virginia would be the perfect plan. Of course, some people disagreed and would stay in Leiden, but most decided to go.

They looked and looked for a company that would make an agreement with them, but it was hard work. Finally, they made an agreement with “The Merchant Adventurers”, who worked back in England.

The businessmen gave them a ship called the Mayflower. In return the Leyden Separatists had to make an agreement to work for the businessman for seven years. It was a bit of a hassle, but they would have to work for their freedom.

William was able to buy a second ship, because they would need more room. The Speedwell, had some problems, but hopefully it would last them the journey.

The Mayflower was a cargo ship; it wasn’t made to carry people. Most ships of the day weren’t, but with the Speedwell they would get to the new world with maximum space.

The two ships had began their voyage from England together on August 5, 1620. But the Speedwell began to leak and had to go back to shore. Well, that was the end of the Speedwell.

Some of the passengers from the Speedwell went back to England, but the others decided to pack the Mayflower into full capacity. This made conditions worse, given that The Merchant Adventurers had decided to pack 50 more people onto the ship before it left!

On November 9, 1620, they saw a beach, trees, and bushes! Land, but NOT Virginia, where they were supposed to land and make their home. The wind had driven them off course! Where were they?

They had reached Cape Cod, in what is now Massachusetts, U.S.A. There was no one there except the Native Americans, of course.

But what tribe lived in that area at that time? Well, the Wampanoag did, but how did they live?

The Wampanoag people were farmers, So every year, they moved to their summer villages, were each family grew their own crops, called the “Three sisters crops” — corn, squash, and beans.

Most of the year the Wampanoag lived in villages near the sea. Each family had a small round house, and this simple hut was called a wetu (pronounced we-too.) A hole was cut in the ceiling so the smoke from their fire could be let out. Oh, and Wampanoag houses were warm and dry, even in rainstorms.

After the fall harvest, everyone moved back into their winter village where they lived in a long house with their families. Almost everyone wore a breechcloth. It was a long, narrow piece of deer skin.

The Wampanoag were great fisherman. They fished in the ocean, streams, and ponds. They even used fish as fertilizers in growing crops.

They also made traps for catching bears, turkeys, deer, and other animals that were a staple in their diets.

Back to the Separatists, or by now called Pilgrims.

The Pilgrims began building their town, Plymouth, which was going to be a sort of city-state, but not really. Of course, it had an element that was like a city-state, but it also had an element that wasn’t. In America, we call that a colony. (If you don’t know what a city-state is, it’s like a very small kingdom with leader(s), which basically rule the town.)

In this case, William Bradford and William Brewster were the “governors,” ruling the colony, and acting as pastors.

The men started to build the houses, while the women washed clothes and the children played. They were making good progress when winter struck. It was much more brutal than anything in England or The Netherlands (Holland).

Even though some houses were built, some people still had to stay on the boat. This caused issues. A terrible sickness killed many people. William Bradford’s wife fell out of the Mayflower and drowned.

By spring, about half of the Pilgrims and sailors were dead. The ones who were left were devastated. Unfortunately, three whole families died during the winter. I must note William Bradford got remarried in May 1621.

They had to plant crops, but they didn’t know how. Then, Squanto, a Patuxet boy who was kidnapped in 1614 by sailors, showed up to help the Pilgrims. After his kidnapping, his captors had taken him to Spain and sold him as a slave.

One day he decided to escape to England, were he lived with a family, and learned how to speak English.

When Squanto finally found a ship to take him home, he had been gone for 5 years. He sailed all the way from England, all the way down to the New England Coast, and when he got there, he was horrified. Nobody ran to meet him, nobody came out of their huts to see who had come, and all he saw were broken down villages and fields full of weeds.

When he reached a neighboring Wampanoag village he found out that his family and everyone in his village were dead from a great sickness.

But, what was this sickness that Squanto’s people died from?

Recently, we went through a pandemic, called COVID-19. In Squanto’s people’s case, it was much like COVID-19, except it was an epidemic.

If you were a Native American in that time, or even before that time, you could imagine what it would be like, or even live through it your self.

Imagine if a strange sickness came to your very own town and killed almost everyone you knew— somewhat like COVID-19. Often so many died, there was nobody left to bury the bodies, and worse, nobody knew what the great sickness was.

As the great sickness was spreading down the coast, village after village lay empty. Only those living farther inland were spared.

Poor Squanto! He was so sad. The only thing he could do was live with the Wampanoag people. Then one day in the spring of 1621, Squanto decided to go back to his old village, Patuxet. When he arrived, he gasped. English people! What? How did this happen? He was definitely going to have to investigate more.

Of course, by now the pilgrims had finished building their town, Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Squanto began to talk to them. He told them how he had learned English, and they told them how they came to America.

Squanto helped them plant crops and by the fall, they were ready to have a huge and bountiful harvest. Then they decided to have a feast.

Thanksgiving was not in November back then; it was probably in the middle of October, after everyone had harvested the crops.

When you think of Thanksgiving, do you think of turkey and cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie?

They had all sorts of meat and seafood and crops they harvested, but believe it or not, no pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce! All that food took three days to eat! Wow!

Even though the first thanksgiving took place in October 1621, it took awhile for it to become an every year tradition. It took over 200 years for that to happen! Sarah Hale had big ideas for thanksgiving, but the problem was nobody really listened to her. Until, she wrote a letter to president Abraham Lincoln. The fact is, she had been writing letters to many presidents before Abraham Lincoln himself, but none of the said, “Of course! Thanksgiving should be a holiday!” Abraham Lincoln was deferent. He said yes! He made it a national holiday for every fourth Thursday in the month of November, and so that’s how Thanksgiving was saved.

God all meant it for good; And that’s the story of thanksgiving. ~Lynnie

Sources:

William Bradford: Plymouth’s Rock by Janet and Geoff Benge

If you Lived at the Time of Squanto by Anne Kamma

If you Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern

Thank you, Sarah! The woman who saved thanksgiving by Laurie Halse Anderson

Note: The passages from these books are not directly quoted in most places, but merely the ideas are taken from the books, and my head, lol (a.k.a stuff I already knew).