By Carolann Fisher-Linn-
Happy Thanksgiving in The New World – 1620
Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday – 1863
So often, when we imagine the 1620 voyage the Pilgrims took to The New World, we forget that this land was inhabited by diverse people thousands of years before the English set foot on our soil. History.com informs us that the difference between the people who came on the Mayflower to the first explorers, is that they knew where they were going and had reasons different than we believe. They did not come here for religious freedom. Many of those on the Mayflower had already left England in 1608, finding sanctuary in the Dutch city of Leiden which allowed the religious freedom they sought. “The Pilgrims actually had no reason to leave the Dutch Republic in order to go to America to seek religious toleration—because they already had it,” says Simon Targett, co-author of New World, Inc.: The Making of America by England’s Merchant Adventurers. While living there, economic opportunities worsened for them, and they recoiled over their children’s morals being corrupted by the Dutch way of life. Also, the Pilgrims wanted their children to be English, not Dutch. They couldn’t return to England to stay for religious reasons, but they did return long enough to arrange for ships to take them to the New World to begin business enterprises fronted by merchants in England. Looking to Virginia Company’s Jamestown model of developing outposts, the plan was to make money for themselves and their investors to whom they were indebted for seven years. Part B of the plan was to convert “heathens.”
102 passengers boarded two ships, but one took on water and they had to return, and all boarded the Mayflower. Of the 102 passengers and 37 crew members on board, 45 died in the winter of 1620-21. Lacking the means to create proper shelter, they lived on board ship and were exposed to bitter cold, scurvy, and other diseases. Of the 19 women who boarded, 5 survived that cold New England winter. In the fall of 1621, they finally grew crops, built proper dwellings, and saw some progress.
To celebrate, they had a three-day feast, although they didn’t call it ‘Thanksgiving”. From a Time article by Melissa Chan-Nov. 2016, “at least 140 people gathered to eat and partake in games, historians say. No one knows exactly what prompted the two groups to dine together, but there were at least 90 native men and 50 Englishmen present, according to Kathleen Wall, a colonial foodways culinarian at Plim̃oth Plantation. They most likely ran races and shot at marks as forms of entertainment”, Wall said.
The natives were Wampanoag. They had lived on his land for thousands of years and were important reasons why the colonists survived. Then Governor Bradford wrote that there was a “great store of wild turkeys” to be eaten, as well as ducks and geese, along with the five deer contributed by Massasoit, the Wampanoag leader. (No pumpkin pies.) Although another feast of this nature was not held for at least ten years, it is said that it laid the groundwork for our traditional fall gathering. It showed “two communities that are diplomatically connected coming together,” said Richard Pickering, Plim̃oth Plantation’s deputy executive director. (https://plimoth.org)
Unfortunately, the peaceful co-existence did not to last. Up to 25,000 Englishmen arrived ten years later. A plague cut the Native population by half. Land fights ensued when the original leaders died off, leading to war between the parties. Even today, many Native Americans mark Thanksgiving not as a day of gratitude but as a holy day of remembrance.
Today, more than 30 million people can trace their ancestry to those 102 passengers and 37 crew members aboard the Mayflower when it landed in Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts. Clint Eastwood, Hugh Hefner, and Christopher Reeve are descendants of William Bradford; Bing Crosby, Katherine Hepburn and Richard Gere descended from William Brewster; Franklin D. Roosevelt descended from Isaac Allerton, and shares kinship with George H W. Bush through their mutual ancestors, Francis Cooke and John Howland; and President James Garfield descended from passengers John and Eleanor Billington. This final connection provides Ellicottville with a connection to the Mayflower (there may be more than one) through native daughter, Jenna Rogan Garfield. Imagine!