The Story of Thanksgiving

By Mia Carrero

Thanksgiving was brought about when a ship, by the name of the Mayflower, journeyed to a new land with in search of religious freedom. These people who traveled on the ship are now known to us as the pilgrims, from England to America in September of 1620. It took them 66 uncomfortable days to reach America. When they finally did reach America, they anchored close to the tip of Cape Cod.

One month later, the pilgrims crossed the Massachusetts bay. In the Mayflower, they began to build a village at Plymouth. After a rough winter, most of it spent abroad the Mayflower, those who survived moved ashore. Unbeknownst to the pilgrims, but America was already inhabited by the Native Americans. When the the pilgrims moved ashore, they were greeted by a Abenaki Indian.

Several days later, the Abenaki Indian returned with another Native American man by the name of Squanto. Squanto had been previously kidnapped by English sailors, and then sold him into slavery somewhere in London, where he was able to escape and returned to his homeland. Squanto then taught the pilgrims how to hunt for food and cultivate their fields. Squanto who also responsible for helping the pilgrims create an alliance with the tribe in the area called the Wampanoag, which would last for more than 50 years.

When the pilgrims had first successful Harvest, Governor William Bradford, invited the Wampanoag tribe to celebrate their success. The celebration lasted three days. Thanksgiving was first coined a national holiday by George Washington, which lasted for several days. In his Thanksgiving proclamation he called for Americans to show their gratitude for the country's independence.

Later, Abraham Lincoln following a request by Joseph Hale, who was an author and then created the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, told Americans at the height of the Civil War to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” He then made it so that Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the final Thursday of November. Then in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the Thanksgiving celebration up a week in hopes of pushing retail sales during the Great Depression, but then reluctantly signed a bill making Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.

Works Cited

History.com, A&E Television Networks, 27 Oct. 2009, www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/history-of-thanksgiving.

Where image was found from

https://www.theholidayspot.com/thanksgiving/