By: Treshawn Ross

Origins of Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving originally began in Plymouth, Massachusetts in the year 1621. Around  90 Native Americans from the Wampanoag tribe attended the celebration with 52 English people or “pilgrims”. This celebration was to mark a successful harvest and is remembered historically as the first Thanksgiving. No one in 1621 called this feast Thanksgiving despite modern thoughts around the event.

Native perspective

Many Native Americans today view Thanksgiving as a reminder of the heinous crimes committed by the pilgrims and the generations that came after them. Quite soon after the first Thanksgiving, a war ignited between the pilgrims and the Wampanoag people and this heavily weakened the Wampanoag politically and militarily. Thus, the Wampanoag became one of the first Native American nations to be victimized by the pilgrims.

After the Plymouth harvest

Different states of the early U.S. and eventually the federal government proclaimed days of thanksgiving at different times in a very non-centralized way. These days were more solemn and somber rather than fun and feasting as many Americans now know it. After many years of advocating for a national Thanksgiving holiday, magazine editor Sarah Hale got her wish. America had a new holiday with storied roots.

A Presidential decree

Thanksgiving got its date partly during one of the bloodiest conflicts in U.S. history, the Civil War. On October 3rd, 1863, President Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving proclamation to help heal the spirit of the broken nation. This decree set the standard of when Thanksgiving would be celebrated, “[O]bserve the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving”. This would last for decades until in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s when President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the date to the second to last Thursday of November. 16 states refused to follow this proclamation which led to intense confusion. In 1941 congress passed a law establishing the fourth Thursday in November as the national holiday known as Thanksgiving.

For more information, please visit:

• https://visit.archives.gov/whats-on/explore-exhibits/thanksgiving-historical-perspectives