Our Thanksgiving history can be traced back to the exciting adventures of the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony. It began with a voyage to the New World in search of religious freedom. They endured great hardship in crossing the North Atlantic in winter.

The Pilgrims landed in December, 1620, upon the cold, barren shores of New England with little food and no shelter save for the hold of their ship, the Mayflower.

The spirit and origin of Thanksgiving Day lies in the Pilgrims' story of perseverance against great odds.

The original Pilgrims left England to escape the strict, state-controlled religious practices of the Anglican Church of England. They wished to practice their own simple style of religious worship, interpreted from their study of the New Testament of the Bible. They were known as separatists, who preferred to leave their homeland in favor of starting over in a new country.

The separatists, or Pilgrims, were lovers of freedom of choice and believed in sharing points of view. Their religious leader, Pastor Richard Clyfton, encouraged decision-making through majority rule.

It was this respect for individual rights plus acceptance of the majority view which was the basis for America's democratic principles of government. Their sense of generosity toward others allowed the Pilgrims to cultivate friendships with their Indian neighbors, a relationship which proved crucial to their survival in the New World.

Beginning in 1608, small groups of separatists emigrated to Holland, a society more tolerant of religious freedoms than England. But life in Hlland proved difficult and crowded, with only meager and back-breaking means of earning a livelihood.

During their years in Holland, the devoutly religious separatists observed also that their children were being drawn to the loose and carefree attitude of the Dutch toward religion. And that could not be permitted.

Finally, the most devout of the separatists became committed to leaving Europe for a new start in America, the beginning of Thanksgiving history.

September 16, 1620. The 66-day Atlantic crossing was cold and rough for the Pilgrims. The voyage was worrisome, too, for skipper Christopher Jones and his crew of thirty because crossing the North Atlantic during the winter meant facing stormy weather and dangerous seas.

The Pilgrims had no choice but to leave that autumn. After innumerable planning delays and negotiating the terms and cost of passage, their money was nearly gone.

On board the Mayflower there were no passenger cabins. The Pilgrims set about making bunks and cots, arranged with their household goods to provide privacy for family groups.

With them they brought the bare necessities: tables, trunks, beds and bedding, cooking pots and utensils, lamps and candles, tools for woodworking, tools and seeds for farming, rifles, gun power and lead.

In spite of crude and crowded conditions, of the 70 adults and 32 children who began the journey in England, only one died of illness. Two children were born during the drip, which was surely a good omen in Thanksgiving history.

Of the 102 passengers, 41 were Pilgrims from the religious separatist group in Holland. The others were servants and non-Pilgrims wishing to make a new life in America.

On November 21, 1620, as the Mayflower approached the east coast of the New World, the men aboard the Mayflower agreed to and signed a document called The Mayflower Compact. It provided for a form of governance among them in which each man agreed to abide by rules which are drafted by the majority. This was the beginning of the noval American concept of democracy.

With the Mayflower anchored in the bay near the tip of Cape Cod, the Pilgrims began exploring. Along the coast they found sand dunes sporting saltwater grasses and shrubs, scrubby windswept trees, and ponds of fresh, good water. They noticed that some of the sand dunes appeared to be freshly disturbed. Investigating, they discovered buried stores of corn. The Pilgrims took away as much corn as they could carry back to the Mayflower.

Further inland there were wooded hills and valleys, and a freshwater spring. They discovered they were on a narrow finger of land, not the mainland. More than once they glimpsed Indians observing them from a distance. When approached, the Indians melted back into the woods.

Once, the Pilgrims were attacked by Indians shooting arrows. They fired at the attackers and drove them away. No one was injured.

Continuing along the west coast of Cape Cod, they gathered wood for cooking and replenished their stores of drinking water. They rounded the southern end of the bay and followed the coastline northward along the mainland.

When they explored the area known today as Plymouth Harbor, they found a suitable home site rich in the resources they would need to build a settlement: an abundance of trees, rich soil, fresh water, the promise of game animals from the forests and fish from the seas, and high ground on which to set a gun platform to protect themselves against attackers. The settlement would be known as the Plymouth Colony.

The date was December 31, 1620, well into the New England winter. The Pilgrims set about building a communal house and sheds in which to store their supplies. At about this time, a "great sickness" began to spread among the Pilgrims. By spring, almost half the Pilgrims and half the crew of the Mayflower had sickened and died from the plague.

By winter's end, the survivors were exhausted from the work of building, and malnourshed from the limited quantity and quality of food remaining in the Mayflower's original store of provisions.

The Wampanoag Indians

The Wampanoag Indians of Massachusetts and Rhode Island were proficient farmers and fishers. Over many generations, they cleared and planted thousands of acres of crops: many varieties of corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes and gourds, tobacco, melons, strawberries, and edible tubers. They dried and preserved corn and other vegetables for winter use.

They were efficient at harvesting fish, clams, eels, oysters, and crabs. From the woodlands and meadows they hunted and trapped deer, bear, rabbits, beavers, ducks, geese, turkeys, partridges and swans. Meats and fish were dried and preserved for winter.

The Indian tribes of Maine and the New England states had been well aware of Europeans for at least a hundred years before the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620. Their shores had been visited periodically since the early 1500's by explorers from Portugal, Spain, France, Holland, and England.

Most of these encounters had been friendly, and there was occasional trade and an exchange of knowledge which was of mutual benefit. But there were also instances when Indians were taken captive, both by force and by guile, taken back to Europe to be pressed into service as Christian converts and emissaries, or sold into slavery.

As a result, the Indians became less welcoming to Europeans in general, and on at least two occasions they murdered or captured shipwrecked Europeans.

Beginning around 1616 in Maine, an epidemic of the "great sickness," possibly smallpox, swept through the tribes. The plague spread southward over the next three years, decimating the populations of all the New England tribes.

The loss of life was so great that entire settlements disappeared, warring tribes stopped fighting, and new alliances between tribes were formed to provide safety in greater numbers.

By the time the Pilgrims arrived in the winter of 1620, the Wampanoag Indians of the area were content to watch from a distance as the settlement took shape, and defer judgment as to the character and intentions of the newcomers.

Squanto

Squanto was a Patuxet Indian from the Plymouth region of Massachusetts. In 1605, he was captured along with five other Indians by Captain George Weymouth and taken to England. The Indians were presented to Captain Weymouth's superior, Sir Ferdinando Gorges. It seems the Indians were treated well, and several of them were returned to New England during the next two years.

It is not clear whether Squanto remained in England between 1605 and 1614, or whether he journeyed back and forth on expeditions to America. But it appears he was trained to be a guide and interpreter for the English captains who were exploring the New England coast.

In 1614, Squanto left England with Captains John Smith and Thomas Hunt in a two-ship fleet. He had been promised a return to his tribe at Patuxet. The purpose of the expedition was to trade with the Indians in fish and furs, and hopefully, gold.

When they arrived, Squanto was landed at his home in Patuxet/Plymouth, but he remained with the English to act as interpreter. Local boats were secured for fishing and manned with crew from the two vessels.

During this time, Captain Smith went north in pursuit of additonal trade, and Captain Hunt stayed in Cape Cod Harbor to supervise the curing of fish. He was to depart for England as soon as he had compiled his cargo of fish and traded it to the Indians for beaver pelts.

When he was ready to leave Cape Cod Harbor, Captain Hunt lured a group of Indians aboard the vessel on pretext of trade, and bound and kidnapped them. Squanto was tied along with the others.

Captain Hunt took the captives to Spain, where he tried to sell them as slaves. When local monks learned what was happening, they confiscated the remaining Indians to "instruct them in the Christian faith."

Squanto lived in Spain with the monks for several years, then chanced to meet an Englishman on his way to London. Squanto accompanied him.

In London he met a merchant who enlisted him in an expedition to Newfoundland where Squanto met an old acquaintance, Captain Thomas Dermer. When Capt. Dermer returned to England, Squanto was with him ... it is unclear whether Squanto went willingly.

In 1619, Squanto accompanied Captain Dermer on an expedition to New England. They went to Maine, where the Indian Samoset joined them. They sailed south to Plymouth, where Squanto learned that every member of his Patuxet tribe had perished in the "great sickness" four years before. He was the last surviving member of his tribe.

After he and Captain Dermer fulfilled the expedition's mission of mapping sections of the New England coast, Squanto decided to stay on with the Pokanoket people in Rhode Island, as he had no people of his own. This tribe was part of the Wampanoag Federation.

The following year, a ship called the Mayflower arrived, and Pilgrims began building a new settlement upon the site of Squanto's ancestral home.

As soon as winter weather eased in early March of 1621, the colonists busied themselves completing their individual cabins and breaking ground to plant the garden seeds they had brought with them.

Although they had been aware from the beginning of the Indians' distant presence, the sightings were becoming more frequent and closer to the settlement. The men became anxious, not knowing the Indians' intent.

Fretful of their vulnerability, they decided to fetch one of the heavy guns from the Mayflower and set it up on the gun platform. They armed themselves with several small pieces of ordnance from the Mayflower, and convened a meeting to consider military tactics.

Suddenly, they were startled by the appearance of an Indian who strode confidently into the settlement and greeted them in English, "Hello, welcome!"

In his broken English, Samoset introduced himself and explained he had been visiting the Wampanoags since his arrival with Captain Dermer the previous year. He told the Pilgrims about the nearest tribes ... the Nemasket and Nauset tribes, and about the Patuxets who formerly lived on the site of the Pilgrims' settlement.

He told them about the plagues, the kidnappings, the English vessels and captains he had met, the fishing station near his home at Monhegan Island, Maine.

Samoset stayed the night in the cabin of one of the Pilgrims, and left the next morning. He returned in a few days with five more Indians who brought furs to trade. As it was Sunday and the Pilgrims were prohibited from conducting business on the Sabbath, they asked the Indians to return another day.

The next day Samoset returned, bringing a visitor who was to become the Pilgrims' most valuable ally in the New World.

Image of Squanto showing the Pilgrims how to plant a hill of corn.

The Indians planted corn in "hills" of 3-5 corn kernels each, spaced about 3 feet apart. Each hill was fertilized with a fish placed at the bottom of the planting hole.

When the corn sprouts were several inches tall, beans were planted at their base. In this way the cornstalks provided support for the growing bean vines.

Squashes and pumpkins could be grown in the spaces between the corn hills.

When Samoset brought Squanto to meet the colonists, they were amazed at Squanto's near-perfect usage of the English language.

They were even more grateful when he willingly shared Indian farming methods to plant and grow corn, beans, and squash.

The Pilgrims' own garden seeds did not flourish in the soil of New England, and they understood that survival in the New World depended upon learning the Indian ways. That first year, they planted 20 acres of corn and 6 acres of barley and peas.

Squanto showed them how to fish, how to find clams, crabs and eels. He taught them how to trap deer, hunt fowl and bear. He imparted new, life-sustaining sklls desperately needed by the Pilgrims.

For his part, Squanto benefited from his close ties to the Pilgrims. As interpreter and guide to them, he was respected by other Indians as an authority on the white man. They sought his advice and counsel on trade and other dealings with the colonists.

Squanto went so far as to tell the Indians that the colonists had the power to unleash plague upon them if displeased, as they had barrels of it buried among their stores.

The highlight of Squanto's diplomatic skills came on April 1, 1621 when, with Samoset's help in negotiating with the Indians, the Wampanoag/Pilgrim Peace Treaty was signed. The parties to the treaty were John Carver, first Governor of Plymouth Colony and Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribes.

Squanto remained with the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony until his death two years later of a mysterious fever.

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The colonists' health and vigor rebounded over the warm, mild summer months of 1621. By fall, they were harvesting their first modest corn crop.

Some of their party were good at fishing, and had taken good stores of cod and bass which were shared by everyone. Fowl of all types was abundant in late summer, and the Pilgrims became skilled at taking ducks, geese, swans, partridges, and turkeys.

A deep sense of relief, satisfaction, and thankfulness settled over them.

When the corn harvest had been gathered and put away for winter, Governor Carver declared a feast of thanks to celebrate their good fortunes.

He sent four men on a hunt for fowl ... they returned with an abundance of ducks, geese, and wild turkeys. Others gathered clams, fish, eels, nuts, and wild fruits. From their food stores they prepared sweet porridge, bread made of cornmeal, and wine made from native wild grapes.

Chief Massasoit and ninety of his men joined in the celebration. They hunted and contributed five fresh deer to the feast.

The festivities continued for three full days and included much recreation and sport. The colonists put on a display of arms, there were contests of marksmanship between musketeers and archers. There were games of endurance and speed in running, strength and agility in wrestling and jumping. There was singing, dancing, much camaraderie and eating.

Massasoit remained a faithful, lifelong friend to the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony until his death forty years later.

Prayer

Saying a short prayer of thanks before meals is a favorite tradition in Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, as well as Native American religions.

In addition to expressing appreciation for the food about to be eaten, the prayers include thanks for other good things, events, and people in the lives of the diners.

The Pilgrims in 1621 were thankful for their good crop of corn, their survival of the "great sickness," and the peaceful relations they had cultivated with their close Indian neighbors.

Thanksgiving Dinner

The American tradition of a formal Thanksgiving dinner is based on the Pilgrims' three-day feast with the Wampanoag Indians in 1621.

But the harvest feast, of which the Pilgrims' thanksgiving is an example, has been a part of every culture since the advent of agriculture almost 10,000 years ago. It is celebrated when the main food staple of a region, usually one of the cereal grains or root crops, is harvested and preserved for the winter.

The feast represents the well-deserved fruits of careful planning, hard work, and a little luck or divine intervention during the growing months. The reward is, in some cases quite literally, survival for another year.

Some of the food staple crops of the Americas are maize (corn), beans, cassava, potato, and sweet potato.

Rice is the most imortant staple in China, Japan, Indonesia, and India. Rye, wheat, beans and peas are staple foods in Central Asia.

In the Mediterranean, wheat, oats, olives and beans are grown. And in Africa, the important staple foods are millet, wheat, yams, and sorghum.

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The wild turkey, a relative of the pheasant, is native to Mexico and eastern North America. The turkey has a long history of appreciation by the Mayans and Aztecs in South America, who had domesticated it by the early 1500s.

The Spaniards learned of the birds from the Aztecs, and imported large numbers to Spain.

Turkeys were an abundant food source for northern Indian tribes, too, including the Wampanoags of New England who trapped or hunted the large birds with bows and arrows.

It is likely that turkeys were on the Pilgrims' menu during the summer and fall months of 1621, and very possibly they were served at the first Thanksgiving feast with the Indians.

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Cranberries

Cranberry vines are native to swampy areas of the northeastern United States.

They were well known to Native Indian tribes who gathered the berries for food, medicinal uses, and as red dye for decoration.

It is likely the Pilgrims learned from the Indians to harvest and use the berries.

The primary growing areas are still located in New England and Maine, but since their active cultivation by farmers beginning in the early 1800s, cranberry production has spread westward to the upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest.

Stuffing

Stuffing is a mixture of grains or breads, vegetables, aromatic herbs, occasionally nuts, fruits, or morsels of shellfish, all moistened with rich broth, eggs, and oils, then placed in the cavity of fowl or fish to be baked or roasted.

With many variations in ingredients and cooking styles, stuffing has been served at least since the early Roman Empire, and all through the Middle Ages.

There is no account of the Pilgrims enjoying stuffed fowl or fish at the first Thanksgiving feast, but certainly in later years they had the necessary ingredients to make stuffing: bread made of cornmeal, wild leeks, onions and garlic, eggs and broth of wild fowl.

Sweet Potatoes

The firm, white variety of sweet potatoes is native to tropical South America, where they are a staple food.

The soft, orange varieties are native to Africa and Asia, and are often called yams in the southern United States. These are an important part of the diet in Indonesia, Indochina, and several African countries.

The yam has become a favorite side dish to accompany the Thanksgiving ham or turkey. A favorite southern recipe ... candied yams ... calls for them to be baked with molasses or brown sugar and cinnamon, and topped with marshmallows

Sweet potatoes did not play a part in Thanksgiving history. They were not known to Native Indians in the northeastern part of the country at the time of the Pilgrims.

Pumpkins, squashes, gourds, melons and cucumbers are all members of the cucurbitaceae family. They are annual vines, native to Central and South America.

Long before Europeans visited the Americas, the edible varieties of curcurbits were a staple food of Native Tribes, and had been carried to all parts of North America.

By the time of the Pilgrims, the Wampanoag Indians had been cultivating squashes, gourds, and pumpkins for many generations. Their use in a pie, though, came later when sweeteners and milk became available.

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