Many of us learned a few basic facts about the first Thanksgiving in school. Those tidbits of knowledge sometimes surface in our minds when we see a turkey in a pilgrim hat or some other Thanksgiving image that somehow manages to squeeze into our line of vision between the relentless marketing of Halloween and Christmas.
What’s interesting about the Thanksgiving facts is that many of them are wrong. So let’s see how much we really know about those settlors who inspired the gluttonous feast we celebrate today.
False Fact #1 – The Pilgrims Were Puritans
The people Americans refer to as “The Pilgrims” were from Nottinghamshire in England. They wanted to leave England because they disagreed with the religious practices of the Church of England. Although the Church of England was independent from the control of the Pope in Rome, the practices were still pretty similar to Roman Catholicism, and the Pilgrims wanted something much different. They didn’t just want to purify the Church of England like the Puritans did – they wanted to separate and form their own congregation outside the official church. They were Separatists and that made them even more radical than the Puritans.
Their aims were illegal in the early 1600s. Those who weren’t officially supporting the Church of England (monetarily as well as ecclesiastically) could be fined and even imprisoned. At the very least, they were subject to harassment that made life very unpleasant. So, they wanted to go someplace where they could be free to worship as they wished.
False Fact #2 – The Pilgrims Sailed from England to America in 1620
This false fact is sandwiched in among some true ones. The Pilgrims did sail from England but it was earlier than 1620 and a lot happened before they actually made it to North America. William Brewster and John Robinson led the group to Amsterdam in 1608, but more relaxed attitude toward religion caused as many problems as it solved. On the one hand, the English group worried that the worldly society would entice their children away from a pious life. On the other hand, their obsession with the finer points of living the pious life put them in theological conflict without other Separatist groups. Many of the English group moved from Amsterdam to the Dutch textile town of Leiden. After about ten years in Leiden, the tough economic conditions, continued concerns about Dutch culture, and the threat that Holland would go to war with Spain prompted the English group to try establish a settlement in the new colony of Virginia.
False Fact #2 – The Pilgrims Bought the Mayflower to Sail to America
To make the transatlantic journey, the Pilgrims purchased a ship, but it wasn’t the Mayflower. The vessel was the Speedwell. And it was neither speedy nor well.
The planned venture in America required more capital than the Pilgrims had, especially after nearly 12 years of scraping by doing odd jobs in Holland. They teamed up with financial investors in London who supplied tools and supplies for the journey and the settlement. The Pilgrims were expected to send resources such as fur and timber back to England to make the venture profitable.
So, the Pilgrims boarded the Speedwell and sailed to London where they met up with up with other colonists the investors had signed up to work for them. The investors rented a ship called the Mayflower to hold their additional colonists. Then the two ships set out together on their epic journey.
They didn’t get far. The Speedwell started sinking, so they turned back to England for repairs before setting off again. And their second attempt was also a disaster, so they tried additional repairs before realizing the ship was too damaged to use. Some of the Pilgrims were able to crowd onto the Mayflower with the commercial colonists. Others had to stay behind.
False Fact #3 – Our Founding Fathers Came to America Seeking Religious Freedom
Most of the colonists who came to North America from Europe were seeking to make their fortune rather than establish as religious haven. This includes the group on the Mayflower. Of the 102 passengers, only 37 were part of the separatist congregation. The vast majority were financially-motivated, although the desire to escape the restrictions of the Church of England could certainly have been a factor in their decision to emigrate.
The word “pilgrim” is usually applied to someone who undertakes a long journey for religious fulfillment or personal growth. Many of the group on the Mayflower were not actually pilgrims. But as the stories were told hundreds of years later, everyone in the settlement became referred to as The Pilgrims.
False Fact #4 – The Pilgrims Celebrated with Native Foods Like Sweet Potatoes and Cranberries
We picture the first Thanksgiving feast with a table laden with turkey, potatoes, pies, and other foods that we assume were traditional with the English as well as the Native Americans in the region of the Plimoth colony where the Pilgrims settled. But after the first hard year of disease and harsh weather, any pie-making supplies such as sugar and flour were long gone. While we know the Pilgrims celebrated a feast, the only items historians have been able to confirm on the menu were venison, corn, and wild birds which may have included turkeys. But goose or duck would have been preferred by the colonists and the most common birds shot down for food at the time were passenger pigeons.
Historians also believe the meal probably included eels and shellfish, which are not commonly on the menu for the holiday these days. But the Pilgrims’ meal would not have included either white potatoes or sweet potatoes, which were common in South America and the Caribbean but not North America. European settlers had brought white potatoes to Europe, but they weren’t popular enough for the colonists to bring with them. Cranberries also were not popular until at least half a century later. The feast might have included stewed pumpkin—without any crust or sugar, of course.
The first Thanksgiving was not called Thanksgiving either. It was referred to as a harvest celebration. All the stories of the Thanksgiving traditions as we know them now evolved in the mid-1800s when Americans started to get nostalgic for the colonial days.
Fact That is Not False – Being Thankful is Still a Good Idea
During their harvest celebration in 1621, the Pilgrims were grateful for surviving a very difficult year in which more than half the group died. They were grateful that the natives showed them how to grow food and catch seafood, because they were woefully unprepared to survive in a different climate without the trappings of established society.
They were thankful to the God who created them and sustained them.
Regardless of what we eat and who we gather with this year, that tradition of being thankful is one worth continuing. Happy Thanksgiving!
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Some of the information in this article came from:
https://www.mayflower400uk.org/education/the-mayflower-story/
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/91317/holland-first-stop-for-the-pilgrims#:~:text=Before%20ever%20setting%20foot%20in,by%20the%20Church%20of%20England.
https://www.mayflower400uk.org/education/mayflower-passengers-list-an-interactive-guide/#:~:text=There%20were%20102%20passengers%20on,with%20the%20non%2Dseparatist%20passengers.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-food-was-served-at-the-first-thanksgiving-in-1621-511554/
https://plimoth.org/for-students/homework-help/who-were-the-pilgrims
https://katedolan.com/gourd-n-plenty-why-our-images-of-the-first-thanksgiving-are-dead-wrong/
https://katedolan.com/native-american-cooking-techniques-i-will-not-be-using-this-thanksgiving/
Some of the first books I wrote, Langley’s Choice and Avery’s Treasure, are set in the American colonies less than 100 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims. I enjoyed learning about and imagining the reactions of Europeans dealing with the “less civilized” American colonies.