2008 Woodie Awards
Gobble Gobble: The History of Thanksgiving
Kay Traester
Issue date: 11/19/04 Section: Arts & Features
"Pass the deer and eel please!" Are these the words you would expect to hear around your Thanksgiving dinner table? Probably not.
When most people think of a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner, they often think of turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy and maybe even apple or pumpkin pie. The food that these early Americans shared at the original Thanksgiving dinner in 1621, however, was not what most people would expect.
Before we discuss what was probably served at that table, we must first understand the origins of this feast. Although Thanksgiving did not become an official holiday until 1863, most Americans consider the Plymouth feast the first Thanksgiving. The true source of the bountiful harvest celebrated by Thanksgiving - the shift from communal farming to private farming, where the people in the Plymouth Colony got to keep the benefits of their own efforts instead of sharing in a communal effort - has not been widely publicized.
Before traveling to America, for these Pilgrims, failure to conform to the Church of England was a capital crime. King James I (1603-1625) of England declared that all dissenters must conform to England's worship and submit to England's bishops, or "I will harry them out of the land, or else worse." "Worse" clearly meant "death." Still, to conform was impossible for a group of men and women. This group, which came to be called the Puritans, wanted to rid the Church of England of its historic Catholic connection and let the New Testament determine church order and worship.
In 1607, the group fled to Holland, where its members could worship in a manner that did no violence to their consciences. After some years, however, they found that solution unsatisfactory. After all, their children, burdened with difficult labor, were growing up Dutch, not English. Being "knit together as a body in a most strict and sacred bond and covenant of the Lord," the group of about 100 sailed from Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620. Two months later, the Mayflower arrived near Cape Cod, where these settlers soon established their own Plymouth.
When most people think of a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner, they often think of turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy and maybe even apple or pumpkin pie. The food that these early Americans shared at the original Thanksgiving dinner in 1621, however, was not what most people would expect.
Before we discuss what was probably served at that table, we must first understand the origins of this feast. Although Thanksgiving did not become an official holiday until 1863, most Americans consider the Plymouth feast the first Thanksgiving. The true source of the bountiful harvest celebrated by Thanksgiving - the shift from communal farming to private farming, where the people in the Plymouth Colony got to keep the benefits of their own efforts instead of sharing in a communal effort - has not been widely publicized.
Before traveling to America, for these Pilgrims, failure to conform to the Church of England was a capital crime. King James I (1603-1625) of England declared that all dissenters must conform to England's worship and submit to England's bishops, or "I will harry them out of the land, or else worse." "Worse" clearly meant "death." Still, to conform was impossible for a group of men and women. This group, which came to be called the Puritans, wanted to rid the Church of England of its historic Catholic connection and let the New Testament determine church order and worship.
In 1607, the group fled to Holland, where its members could worship in a manner that did no violence to their consciences. After some years, however, they found that solution unsatisfactory. After all, their children, burdened with difficult labor, were growing up Dutch, not English. Being "knit together as a body in a most strict and sacred bond and covenant of the Lord," the group of about 100 sailed from Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620. Two months later, the Mayflower arrived near Cape Cod, where these settlers soon established their own Plymouth.