See other Religion Articles
Title: THE FIRST THANKSGIVING at PLYMOUTH
Source:
pilgrimhall.org
URL Source: http://www.pilgrimhall.org/f_thanks.htm
Published: Nov 24, 2010
Author: Pilgram Hall Museum
Post Date: 2010-11-24 17:20:07 by Itistoolate
Keywords: None
Views: 127
Comments: 3
THE FIRST THANKSGIVING at PLYMOUTH "Our harvest being gotten in , our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice togehter." Edward Winslow In early autumn of 1621, the 53 surviving Pilgrims celebrated their successful harvest, as was the English custom. During this time, "many of the Indians coming... amongst the rest their great king Massasoit, with some ninety men." That 1621 celebration is remembered as the "First Thanksgiving in Plymouth." For more about the "First Thanksgiving," click HERE.( www.pilgrimhall.org/1stthnks.htm ) The Pilgrims did not call this harvest festival a "Thanksgiving," although they did give thanks to God. To them, a Day of Thanksgiving was purely religious. The first recorded religious Day of Thanksgiving was held in 1623 in response to a providential rainfall. LATER SIGNIFICANCE OF THANKSGIVING "The Pilgrim Fathers incorporated ay early thanksgiving day among [their] moral influences... it blessed and beautified he homes it reached." Sarah Josepha Hale, 1865 "Thanksgiving is celebrated at the expense of Native Peoples who had to give up their lands and culture for America to become what it is today." Linda Coombs, Aquinnah Wampanoag, 1997 The religious day of thanksgiving and the harvest festival evolved into a single event: a yearly Thanksgiving, proclaimed by individual governors for a Thursday in November. The custom of an annual Thanksgiving celebrating abundance and family spread across America. Some presidents proclaimed Thanksgivings, others did not. Abraham Lincoln began the tradition of an annual national Thanksgiving in 1863. Thanksgiving is an enduring symbol from which millions of immigrants have learned "Americanism." While not all Native Peoples celebrate the day, the story of the Pilgrims and Wampanoag sharing a harvest celebration remains an inspiration to many. For more about the evolution and significance of the modern Thanksgiving, click here. www.pilgrimhall.org/thanksg.htm
The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth by Brownscombe 
Detail from Brownscombe's
First Thanksgiving at Plymouth
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Itistoolate (#0)
thanks for the great link. I see they quote a Wompanoag Indian living in 1997 say that Thanksgiving has been negative for them. The Wompanoag of the first Thanksgiving were in fact the victims of warfare 2-3 decades after the first thanksgiving. Most of them were killed, simply purged. and the survivors were mostly enslaved and sent to colonies the english had elsewhere where they were worked to death. Very few survived. In Massachusetts they made it legal to kill Indians. This was a very difficult situation because many Indians had been friendly. and many were integrated into the communities of the whites. Indians would be walking down the street and somebody would just up and kill them. and it was legal.
Psalms 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Nice yarmulke! Time to set the record straight. What was providential, was that the Virginia colonists, led by Rev. Hunt for the Christians [mustard seed], arrived before the Pilgrims [leaven], and founded America in the name of Christ [Matthew 13, Luke 13], and furthermore..... The First Thanksgiving was in Virginia Settlers held first Thanksgiving at Berkeley Plantation on December 4, 1619 -- a year before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth. By Charles Miller / Richmond Times-Dispatch Each first Sunday in November a Thanksgiving Festival is held at the Berkeley Plantation in accordance with documentation from 1619. The event fulfills instructions given to the 38 settlers who arrived on the banks of the James River at Berkeley Hundred as documented in the proclamation: "Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God." The settlers set sail in a ship called The Margaret from the Port of Bristol in England, where at the Berkeley Castle funding for the journey was supplied by landowners including Sir Richard Berkeley and William Throckmorton. Agriculture was going through difficult times and many people in the area wanted to start a new life for themselves in America, and so they joined the leaders Sir John Woodleefe, George Thorpe, and John Smyth, who had planned this remarkable and historic voyage. Although they encountered severe weather that delayed their journey, the landing on December 4, 1619, is well documented by the Virginia Company of London. Charles Berkeley from the Berkeley Castle stressed in his speech for the 1994 Virginia First Thanksgiving Festival that "this was the first thanksgiving to be held on American soil but it was not officially recognized until President Kennedy's term of office in the 1960s, as beforehand the Pilgrim Fathers were considered to have been the first American settlers to offer Thanksgiving. The Berkeleys in fact preceded them . . . ." Former Virginia Governor Mills Godwin summarized the setting well in his 1981 remarks: "Berkeley has been a working plantation in Virginia since 1619, and a handsome brick manor house was built here early in the 18th Century. Here was born Benjamin Harrison, V, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a post-Revolutionary Governor of Virginia, and his son, William Henry Harrison, the ninth President of the United States. Today, while privately owned, Berkeley has been magnificently restored and is open to the public as one of America's distinguished historic shrines." Plantation Welcomes Festivities Malcolm and Grace Jamieson purchased the Berkeley Plantation in 1928, and their son Jamie and his family continue the well-known gracious hospitality to the many visitors each year for the re-enactment of the First Thanksgiving. Berkeley is open daily and offers beautiful vistas from its 10 acres of formal terraced boxwood gardens and lawn that extend a quarter-mile from the front door of the mansion to the banks of the James River. Clifford Dowdey depicts Berkeley and other plantations in his book, The Great Plantation, as an entrepreneurial endeavor: "These personal domains were built by men who, whatever their weaknesses of the flesh, contained the same ingredients that have built large successes throughout the ages -- ambition and energy, self-discipline and resourcefulness, and the power to conceive boldly. For the plantation was, above all things, a most bold concept: It was a private principality, a self-contained world that required a unique amalgam of talents of the very first order." Perhaps Dowdey's remarks about Berkeley Plantation's success can be attributed to the leadership of King James I. His plan established the Virginia Company of London and the Plymouth Company, indeed opportunities that offered changes in the economic model for England that led to new world adventures. William J. Carl, III, in his comments at the festival two Sundays ago, alluded to the importance of Berkeley Plantation in our economic heritage and as a place that our Forefathers and Foremothers birthed our great nation. The legacies are innumerable, including a signer of the Declaration of Independence, birthplace and host of Presidents, and the composition of "Taps" by General Daniel Butterfield when he was stationed at Berkeley in 1862 with McClellan's Army of the Potomac. So we honor the past but move forward to the future from this great place of history. A Perpetual Celebration As we express our gratitude at these Thanksgiving events, so we live out our words by offering thanks, remembering the past, and pledging to continue the great legacy of those before us who celebrated perpetually . . . and look forward to a great future in this free nation. One of the attendees at this year's festival, Peggy Alexander, not only praised Carl's remarks but stated that the entire experience of being at Berkeley Plantation to celebrate the very first Thanksgiving was exceptionally enjoyable in an exquisite setting. Another visitor who came from Ohio remained in her seat to enjoy the historical environment long after the Chickahominy Indians ceased their dances. I am a member of the Berkeley family through my mother's lineage and feel the sense of history each time I visit Berkeley Plantation. Indeed, Berkeley Hundred remains a historic treasure in the life of the Commonwealth of Virginia and of the nation. Charles Miller is president of Virginia First Thanksgiving Festival, Inc., the foundation responsible for the re-enactment of Berkeley Plantation's annual Thanksgiving event. Berkeley Plantation First Thanksgiving Festival Celebrate the 1619 landing of the original colonists at Berkeley Plantation. Join us at the site of the First Official Thanksgiving in America, for a day dedicated to history, food, and fun with tours of the 1726 mansion, walks in the colorful autumn gardens and a formal living history program. http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RT D/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1128768243717 Posted by Editor at November 21, 2005 01:55 AM http://www.covenantnews.com/newswire/archives/016435.html ========================== December 4 was First Thanksgiving, in Virginia, not Plymouth Sometimes we do not realize the extent to which our own history has been "revised". This month the entire country will celebrate Thanksgiving, a day set aside to Thank God for Our Many Blessings. But this day of Thanksgiving is a day set aside, not the historical anniversary of the First Thanksgiving as many espouse. We have been taught that the First Thanksgiving was in Plymouth in 1621 and observed by the Pilgrims. This was a very commendable act by the Pilgrims, but it was not the first in our country. Before the Pilgrims even began packing their bags for their trip the First Day of Thanksgiving had already been observed. On December 4, 1619 the first Day of Thanksgiving was observed in Virginia. Every day should be a day to give Thanks for Our Blessings, but Truth is still Truth and the First Thanksgiving was on December 4. The First Thanksgiving Likely Occurred Here, & Not at Plymouth . . . Thursday, November 26, 1998 Ross Mackenzie, Richmond Times-Dispatch It is altogether fitting and proper to conclude that the first Thanksgiving was held here. Berkeley Hundred Now begins the season for giving thanks -- something that more of us could profit from doing more often. As an inevitable consequence, this also is the season for refueling the debate about where the first Thanksgiving occurred. For centuries the New England version went practically unchallenged. Many children know the general story, even in this contemporary culture that so frequently reviles its past. In 1621, at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims held a harvest festival. The colonists were ever so thankful for their safe passage, for their survival of that first awful winter, and for the good offices of the remarkable Indians -- Samoset and Squanto. As William Bradford, governor of the colony, described it: "For summer being done, all things [stood] upon them with a weather beaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage view." They were understandably thankful. But at the risk of sounding chauvinistic, the truth is that the right to claim firstness, like so many other "firsts" attributed to New England, probably belongs to Virginia. Indeed, it is altogether fitting and proper to conclude that the first Thanksgiving was held here. The Virginia version is not widely known -- particularly outside the South. ON SEPTEMBER 16, 1619, a group of 38 English colonists headed by Captain John Woodlief sailed from England aboard the Margaret. They landed at Berkeley Hundred 10 weeks later. The settlers were sent by the London Company; it owned thousands of acres in the area, and settled and supported Berkeley Plantation. Exhibit A in the Virginia claim to firstness is this sentence in the company's instructions to the settlers -- instructions to be opened upon reaching Virginia: We ordaine that the day of our ships arrivall at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God. These settlers held that Thanksgiving at Berkeley Hundred on December 4, 1619 -- a year before the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth. Surely Woodlief and his followers were equally as grateful as the Pilgrims -- equally schooled in adversity, equally determined to renew themselves with roots in the land. Surely they were equally devout and equally thankful. To suggest that they were disobedient and did not give thanks requires a superabundance of credulity and moral pretension. But lest we forget, there were numerous trips to Virginia prior to Woodlief's: the Raleigh expeditions of the 1580s, and the London Company's initial expeditions -- beginning with the one under Christopherr Newport that founded Jamestown in 1607. The London Company's charter of May 23, 1609, was written principally by Sir Edward Sandys with the concurrence of Sir Francis Bacon, the early philosopher of natural right. It was probably the first document to say that government derives its authority from the consent of the governed. It was the closest thing to a constitution and bill of rights that colonists in Virginia had for three years, until refined in 1612. The Sandys charter was written 11 years before the first Pilgrim reached Plymouth. On November 18, 1618, the London Company issued instructions to Sir George Yeardley upon his appointment as Governor of Virginia; those instructions provided for a liberal form of government. At Jamestown, in 1619, Yeardley convened the first legislative assembly in the New World. That was a year before the landing at Plymouth. THOSE WERE firsts of considerable magnitude. They, and the events in Virginia during the 35 years prior to the Plymouth landing, tell us a good deal about the Virginia colonists. They were God-fearing people. Just about every one of their existing documents speaks of their duties and obligations to a God almost always described as "almighty." These also were people of discipline and self-will. Contrary to so many of us today, they were people determined not to tear down the old to make way for the ersatz old. They retained their umbilical ties to the past, as Virginians -- inhabitants of the most English of states -- tend to do still. Their past was England, and central to England were the church and God. Even without the instructions to Woodlief, is it not logical to assume that the colonists in Virginia regularly prayed and gave thanks prior to 1621? Do we not have to overlook too much to believe they did not? In 1962, the evidence proved overwhelming to Harvard historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., then an adviser to President John Kennedy. In December of that year he repented of "an unconquerable New England bias" on the question, and acknowledged that Virginia's claim is "quite right." But despite the evidence, the bias persists. http://spofga.org/flag/2008/nov/first_thanksgiving.php Why? ================= William J. Carl, III, in his comments at the festival two Sundays ago, alluded to the importance of Berkeley Plantation in our economic heritage and as a place that our Forefathers and Foremothers birthed our great nation. That's not quite right either. The country was birthed at Cape Henry, Virginia on April 29, 1607 [April 19 on the Gregorian Calendar?] . http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55421 ============================ The Pilgrim Society & English Speaking Union MEET THE WORLD MONEY POWER and the Pilgrims Society...Copyright December 2004 Charles Savoie On November 24, 1980, the ... wealthy Americans who were in league with the British Empire and its World Money Power =========================== Matthew 10:16 I am sending you out like sheep among wolves ... [Protocols of Sion: "the serpent is the symbol of our people".] Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. ... bible.cc/matthew/7-15.htm Jewish Roots of the American Constitution « The State of America NOAHIDE LAWS AND THE NWO [Noahide Law in America contend that the Noahide Laws are the rock upon which this nation was founded....it outlaws Christianity and allows the government to behead Christians...that is the fruit of the US Constitution evolved from the Pilgrims. Ezekiel 17:7-10/John 15:1-2/Matthew 15:13. What comes next, I'm not sure.] Galatians 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? - Romans 6:14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. - 22For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 23But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. 24Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. 25For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 26But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. 27For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. 28Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. 29But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. 30Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. 31So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. We are two "nations" struggling to be born [see bible.cc/micah/4-10.htm ] Judaism vs Christianity: The War The Lamb Wins. "...as long as there..remain active enemies of the Christian church, we may hope to become Master of the World...the future Jewish King will never reign in the world before Christianity is overthrown - B'nai B'rith speech http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/luther.htm / http://bible.cc/psalms/83-4.htm
"...“Time after time, the kings of England, facing revolution if they refused, were forced to expel the Jews in response to the demands of the working people,” Mullins writes. In October 1290, 16,000 Jews boarded vessels, leaving England to live with their fellow parasites in France, Flanders, Germany and Spain. They were kept out of England for 300 years, and during this period, England became the greatest nation in the world. The Jews finally succeeded in returning by financing a revolution [ that sounds familiar: http://www.sweetliberty.org/pers...e/jewishpersecution18.htm ]. for a fanatic named Oliver Cromwell. With unlimited funds at his disposal, Cromwell hired troops and seized the country. He beheaded the king, Charles I, and began a campaign of ruthless extortion and crime against the people of England. Ostensibly, the Cromwell party was Christian, and it was called the Puritans, but in fact, it was Jewish from its very inception, financed with Jewish money for the purpose of regaining a foothold in England ... [that sounds familiar too: George Washington's lasting gift to generations of Jews ... www.csmonitor.com/2004/0915/p12s01-lire.html ] So cruel was the oppression of Christians by Cromwell and his Jewish group that the English people rebelled and restored King Charles II to the throne. The first thing they demanded was that he expel the Jews, whom Cromwell had brought back to the country. ......" from BTPHoldings site. Pilgrims and Puritans, two wings, same bird of prey.....and leaven [Matthew 13/Luke 13/Matthew 16:6,11] 1. Puritan History, Past, Present and Future. An Introduction to this study. The above from the [sinister toward American Christians] British-Israel site: http://endtimepilgrim.org/puritans.htm
"...as long as there..remain active enemies of the Christian church, we may hope to become Master of the World...the future Jewish King will never reign in the world before Christianity is overthrown - B'nai B'rith speech http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/luther.htm / http://bible.cc/psalms/83-4.htm
#2. To: Itistoolate (#0)
The first recorded religious Day of Thanksgiving was held in 1623 in response to a providential rainfall.
WHAT ABOUT THOSE PILGRIMS? Courtesy of Timothy Aho, the remarks of Hon. J. Thorlkelson, U.S. Congressman from Montana, follow (a speech to the U.S. House of Representatives on ... http://watch.pair.com/pilgrim.html
http://www.silver-investor.com/charlessavoie/cs_dec04.pdf
See, I send you out as sheep among wolves. Be then as wise as serpents, ...
bible.cc/matthew/10-16.htm
Jan 29, 2008 ... But these ideas are Jewish ideas, rooted in the Seven Noahide Laws. B. The Institutions Prescribed by the American Constitution 1. ... thestateofamerica.wordpre...he-american-constitution/ - [sorry; I can't get the full URL] Note the top left corner: "1620-2020 Anno Domini".....Search "Justice 2020"]
... these seven Noahide Laws are nothing more than a clever counterfeit of .... let us examine further Public Law 102-14, which set the Noahide Laws as the ...
http://www.thewatcherfiles.com/noahide_laws.html
-------. Excerpt: .... More, the Rabbi's Talmud-inspired vision of being the rulers over a global ..... Being ever mindful that this 'war' is a Spiritual Battle where the 'father of lies' ...
http://www.fixedearth.com/talmud.html
#3. To: AllTheKings'HorsesWontDoIt (#2)
(Edited)
what about those pilgrims.....
2. John Winthrop and the Puritan dream of a shining 'city upon a hill'.
3. 'Manifest Destiny' is rooted in the Puritan dream of a 'nation under God'.
4. The Puritan belief in a 'Nation Under God' goes back to ancient Israel.
5. Gutenberg, Bibles and the Reformation bring in the Pilgrims and Puritans.
6. The Puritans rise up in the 1600's to dominate English Parliament.
7. The Puritan Army goes to battle against the king in the English Civil War.
8. The Puritan Army wears yellow ribbons and sashes in the English Civil War.
9. The Puritan Religion supports Parliament in the English Civil War.
10. Puritans vs. Pilgrims. Similarities and differences.
11. The Puritans in the New World and the signing of the Mayflower Compact.
12. Puritan belief and the American Revolution vs. the French Revolution.
13. America's Puritans today and the 'Religious Right'
14. The abortion issue and America's Puritans today
15. Today's Puritans and the expansion of America's global peacemaking role.
16. Today's American Puritans and the rise of Dominion Theology
17. Puritan belief and the future history of America.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest