The History of The First Thanksgiving in The United States

Today , I would like to tell you about an important event in U.S. history: The First Thanksgiving.

I chose this topic because I really enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday and I was interested in it’s history.

In 1620, the Pilgrims left England because the king said that everyone had to pray in the Church of England. The Pilgrims wanted religious freedom and have their own church. They sailed to North America in their ship: The Mayflower. The trip was long and difficult for them because the weather was very cold and stormy. Many Pilgrims became sick and died.

When they arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the weather was getting colder each day. For this reason they couldn’t plant any crops. They also didn’t know how to hunt. They had very little food to eat and they didn’t have time to build houses before the cold winter and many Pilgrims died. Finally in the Spring of 1621, they met the Native Americans who lived near Plymouth. Native Americans shared with the Pilgrims their knowledge of hunting, fishing and plant crops. The Pilgrims learned how to survive in their new land. In November of 1621, the Native Americans helped the Pilgrims pick the crops they had planted in the Spring. The Pilgrims were very grateful for their help. The Pilgrims organized a giant feast with the Native Americans to celebrate their first harvest. The celebration lasted for 3 days, they ate corn, barley, turkey, duck and deer meat.

It wasn’t until 1863 that Thanksgiving became a National Holiday. President Abraham Lincoln declared the fourth Thursday of every November, was a Thanksgiving Holiday. In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt changed the annual Thanksgiving Holiday to the third Thursday of November, but was so much opposition to the change instead. Two years later, he changed it back to the fourth Thursday of November.

Today, that on Thanksgiving day each year, Americans give thanks for all blessings.

We remember the struggles of the Pilgrims to start a new life on a new continent. We also remember the importance of giving thanks for the good thing in our lives.

I am really looking forward to celebrating my very first Thanksgiving Holiday in the U.S. this coming November. Especially now I understand the significance of the first Thanksgiving in the history of this country.

Works Cited

1. Deetz, J. (1996). The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth Colony. W.H. Freeman.
2. Philbrick, N. (2007). Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. Penguin Books.
3. Winslow, E. (2000). Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Applewood Books.
4. Bunker, N. C. (2015). Making Haste from Babylon: The Mayflower Pilgrims and Their World: A New History. Vintage.
5. Heath, D. B. (2018). A Prehistory of Thanksgiving: Native Americans, Europeans, and the First American Festival of Thanks. University of Nebraska Press.
6. Loewen, J. W. (2010). Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. The New Press.
7. Bradford, W. (2019). Of Plymouth Plantation. Yale University Press.
8. Dolan, R. E. (2008). Thanksgiving: The True Story. Simon & Schuster.
9. Drake, S. (2000). The Plymouth Colony Archive Project. Retrieved from http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/plymouth/
10. Wood, G. (2009). The American Revolution: A History. Random House.