Thanksgiving is the day we give “Thanks.” In 1629, exiled Pilgrims from the shores of England landed on Plymouth Rock for one thing: helping the starving Indians and spreading the word of the Lord for salvation.
Most of us do not think of it as more than “Turkey Day,” when families gather around the dining room table, thank the Lord for their meal, and feast on the largest dinner of the year. A 28 lbs turkey, stuffing, southern-style mashed potatoes with southern-style gravy, fresh cranberry sauce, buttered corn-on-the-cob, grandma’s old-fashioned pumpkin pie for desert, and a pitcher of apple cider. Little do we know of the history behind this tradition.
After landing on Plymouth Rock in the cold October of 1629, English Pilgrims immediately erected villages along the coast of the Northeast. Native American threat was inevitable however. After subduing early encounters with the Wampanaog, a Northeastern Native American tribe, with advanced weaponry and civilized warfare tactics, some historians have concluded that the Pilgrims’ religious morals and values gave in to the needs of the Indians. The defeated Indians suffered from the brutal Massachusetts frost as did their planted crops. In fact, it is said the Wampanaog were actually completely wiped out the following year from starvation and disease.
Sensing a brotherhood among the Pilgrims and the less civilized Native Americans, Nathaniel Berkley, a Pilgrim councilman, suggested the people look deep into their hearts, do as the Lord would, and open their arms to the Wampanaog. Through Berkley’s advice, the Pilgrims invited hundreds of Indians to a Thanksgiving Feast, where they shared their hunted wild-turkeys, mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkins, and corn. It is said that through this day of thanks, the Wampanaog and nearby tribes survived the ill-fated winter and were taught the advanced planting, farming, and hunting techniques of the Europeans the following spring.
To this day, we all share thanks for our meals and collective help, for it were not for the English Pilgrims, November 22nd would have been just another workday for us, and a devastating end to the Wampanoag in the 1620s.