The first Thanksgiving rests on one short passage in a letter. Colonist Edward Winslow wrote it in December 1621, and nearly everything else people “know” comes from 19th-century paintings and school plays, not from anyone who was there. This page reads the passage the way you would read any source: what it says, what it leaves out, and how a harvest feast became a holiday. These are the facts behind our Thanksgiving trivia.
What the letter says
Winslow’s account describes:
- The colonists going out to hunt fowl after the harvest.
- About 90 Wampanoag men arriving with their leader, Massasoit.
- The Wampanoag going out and killing five deer, which they gave to the colonists’ leaders.
- Eating and “recreations” lasting three days.
What it does not say
Winslow doesn’t use the word “Thanksgiving,” and he doesn’t say exactly why the Wampanoag came. Some historians think they may have heard the colonists firing guns in celebration and come to check under the terms of their treaty. He doesn’t mention pumpkin pie, either, and the menu is the part most often wrong.
| Food | Likely at the 1621 feast? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Venison | Yes | Winslow mentions five deer |
| Wildfowl | Yes | Winslow mentions fowl; it may have included ducks, geese or wild turkey |
| Corn | Very likely | The colonists' main crop that year, probably eaten as bread or porridge |
| Seafood | Likely | Shellfish and eels were plentiful in the area |
| Pumpkin pie | No | The colonists had no ovens for pies and almost no sugar |
| Mashed potatoes | No | White potatoes weren't yet grown in New England |
Who was at the table
The Mayflower arrived off Cape Cod in November 1620 carrying about 100 passengers. They settled at Plymouth, on land where the Patuxet people had lived until an epidemic a few years earlier, and about half of the colonists died during the first winter.
The land was part of the homeland of the Wampanoag, a confederation of communities in what is now southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In March 1621, the Wampanoag leader Massasoit (whose personal name was Ousamequin) made a treaty of mutual protection with the colonists.
Two Native men are central to the story. Samoset, an Abenaki man, walked into the settlement and greeted the colonists in English. Tisquantum (Squanto), a Patuxet man who had been kidnapped and taken to Europe years earlier, spoke English and taught the colonists to plant corn.
From one feast to a national holiday
For two centuries, days of thanksgiving were declared locally and irregularly. George Washington proclaimed a one-time national day of thanksgiving in 1789.
The modern holiday owes most to Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, who campaigned for 17 years and wrote to five presidents. She is also credited with the poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” In 1863, during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November a national day of thanksgiving, and presidents have proclaimed it every year since.
In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt moved it a week earlier to lengthen the Christmas shopping season during the Depression, a change critics called “Franksgiving.” The confusion led Congress in 1941 to fix Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains.
Traditions that came later
- The Macy’s parade began in 1924. Giant balloons first appeared in 1927.
- Football: the Detroit Lions have hosted a Thanksgiving game since 1934 (apart from a break during World War II), and the Dallas Cowboys since 1966.
- The turkey pardon became a formal annual White House event under George H. W. Bush in 1989.
Remembering the whole story
Since 1970, some Native people and supporters have gathered at Plymouth on Thanksgiving for a National Day of Mourning, recalling the losses that followed colonization. Telling the 1621 story with the Wampanoag at its center, as the sources do, is both more accurate and more interesting.