The First Harvest
On March 16th the pilgrims were planting seeds in their new gardens when an Abenaki Sagamore named Samoset walked into the village with a single companion. The settlers wouldn’t have been sure what to expect, but the earlier skirmish would have put them on alert. They must have frozen where they were and watched the two men as they marched in. To everyone’s amazement Samoset said, “Welcome, English!”

The faces of the colonists must have been a real picture.

It turned out that Samoset had learned his English from the fishermen who had been plying the New England coast for years, reaping its rich harvest of cod. But he wasn’t the only one who spoke their language, six days later he returned with another companion, Tisquanto, better known to us as Squanto, who had been kidnapped by an English captain and sold to the Spanish. He had escaped from Spain making his way to England where he lived for two years before he secured his passage home. His English must have been fluent, and he soon became indispensable to the colonists as they tried to improve relations with the local tribes, who were understandably hostile following the kidnappings by earlier European visitors.

Squanto acted as intermediary between the colonists and the local people, the Wampanoag, which culminated in a visit by their leader, Massasoit. The meeting went well and the colonists and the Wampanoag signed a peace treaty that would last for fifty years. Massasoit pointed out the best places to plant their corn (i.e. wheat) and instructed the newcomers in the local produce, including maize.

Thanks in so small part to this help, by fall 1621 the colonists had reaped a plentiful harvest, more than enough to see them through the winter, and felt like having a party. The tradition of harvest-home was strong in England where almost every village and hamlet had its own special harvest festival. It was in this tradition that the colonists decided to hold a three-day feast, inviting Massasoit and his family as honored guests.

Surprisingly, for something that has come to play such a large role in American culture, our knowledge of this event is based on only two very brief accounts, one of which was written twenty years after the event.

The first version is in a letter from Edward Winslow, one of the more affluent settlers, and dated December 12, 1621. Here is what he says:

The second account is by William Bradford, who was governor at the time, in his memoir “History of Plymouth Plantation” which was lost until 1854. It was the rediscovery of this document that led to growing interest in the idea of a First Thanksgiving in the nineteenth century. Here is what he wrote:

Who Were They?
Our image of the Pilgrims has been set in place by countless pictures and stories from kindergarten on down. The staid Puritans with their black and white clothing, tall hats, big buckles and saintly outlook on life. Almost none of that is true—these first settlers were far more interesting than that.

It’s important to remember that more than half of the Mayflower passengers were “strangers,” that is, people recruited by the merchant adventurers who funded the enterprise to help defray some of the cost. These people were probably sympathetic to the views of the Leiden separatists, but were unlikely to have been such religious extremists themselves. The passengers also hired a few people for their specific skills, such as John Alden who was a cooper, and Myles Standish who was a soldier brought along for his military expertise. By the end of the first winter the strangers would have nearly outnumbered the Puritans.

And they weren’t all goody-two-shoes either. Stephen Hopkins, one of the strangers and a man with a large family, had been convicted of mutiny in 1607 and didn’t calm down much in the New World. In 1636 he was fined for assault and battery against John Tisdale, the following year he was fined again for allowing drinking and game-playing in his house on a Sunday and allowing the servants to get drunk, in 1638 he was fined again when three friends got drunk at his house, and the same year was found guilty of price fixing for selling beer and nutmeg above the accepted price limit and for failing to properly provide for one of his maidservants. Finally in 1639 he was hauled up again, this time for selling alcohol without a license. Sounds like a real live wire.

And Hopkins wasn’t the only one. Edward Doty, who had traveled as a servant of Hopkins’, was convicted of dueling with Edward Leister (also one of Hopkins’ servants) and was sentenced to have his head tied to his heels. He then embarked on a lively career that featured one minor offence after another. William Latham was also convicted of minor offences twice in 1638. More serious was John Billington who after a few legal run-ins was found guilty in 1630 of murdering John Newcomen. He was hanged.

As for those black and white clothes, while much of their day to day clothing was probably fairly plain, they did have some colorful items. Probate lists show men with such items as a pair of “green drawers” and red waistcoats, while women had red petticoats and violet waistcoats. Their lives, though hard, would not have been drab.

It’s also important to remember that the first settlers came from all walks of life and their possessions and lifestyles would have reflected this. Although some were undoubtedly simple country folk, most of them could probably read, as the Puritan church placed great weight on the ability of people to interpret the Bible for themselves. Most of them were therefore probably of the new middle class, reasonably educated and with a certain sophistication. By the time of his death in 1644, church elder William Brewster had over 400 books on a variety of subjects, and even professional soldier, Miles Standish, had a good sized library. Music would also have played a role in their lives. In the 17th century it was expected that everyone could play or sing and sight-read music. The settlers certainly had a trumpet with them, and would probably have had other instruments as well.

So when the invitation went out to Massasoit to come to their harvest celebration, it’s hardly surprising that the revered Wampanoag leader showed up with about 90 members of his extended family all ready for a slap-up dinner and a good time. There were only about 50 colonists in the fall of 1620, so it says a great deal about their relationship with the native people that they were apparently perfectly comfortable with this invasion.

From the Wampanoag point of view, the activities of the settlers were somewhat confusing. The name “Wampanoag” has been variously translated as “People of the Dawn,” “Eastern People,” and “People of the First Light.” The name described a number of “tribes,” such as the Pokanoket, Patuxet, and Nauset that were loosely confederated. Each tribe had a leader, known as a sachem, and followed a seasonal life that saw them gathered together at the shore in summer for fishing, and scattered inland during the winter. This seasonal movement explains why the settlers found empty villages on their arrival.

The Wampanoag had seen Europeans come and go since the 16th century, but the fact that these visitors came with their families was a strong indication that they planned to stay. This, combined with the fact that the Wampanoag had suffered a great loss in manpower following a devastating epidemic a few years earlier , led them to seek an alliance with the settlers. Ultimately, the arrival of the Europeans would be catastrophic for the Native Peoples of the New World, but at this stage no-one could know how things would go. By this point, the Wampanoag had seen that while some Europeans were hostile and deceitful, the Plymouth settlers were neither and the Wampanoag treated them with a respect born of trust.

According to Winslow’s account, the Wampanoag joined in all aspects of the three-day celebration, including exercising their arms, by which Winslow probably meant they had shooting contests and the like. The Puritans disapproved of ball games, but enjoyed martial sports and other games. Far from being a bunch of pious people gazing heavenwards and praying, the whole event was probably more like a noisy modern barbecue.

The First Thanksgiving lasted for three days, which would require a prodigious amount of food, even with the five deer that Massasoit brought. Modern celebrations are not so robust, so we’re going to take a look at a single day of the feast and sample the kinds of food that might have been eaten at the end of that first American year.