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Thanksgiving — a note on the story

Comparison

⚠ A WARNING ROW. The 1621 harvest gathering at Plymouth is attested in two brief contemporary accounts. What they actually record: about ninety Wampanoag men present, deer brought by them, and wildfowl. ⚠ THEY DO NOT MENTION TURKEY, CRANBERRY SAUCE, PIE OR POTATOES, and potatoes had not reached New England. It was not called Thanksgiving, was not repeated as an annual observance, and the Wampanoag presence followed a mutual-defence agreement made by a people who had just lost a majority of their population to an epidemic. The modern holiday is a NINETEENTH-CENTURY CONSTRUCTION — Sarah Josepha Hale campaigned for it for decades and Lincoln proclaimed it in 1863, as a Union nation-building measure during the Civil War — and its menu is Victorian. ⚠ THE SCHOOLROOM VERSION IS RECORDED AS MYTHOLOGY, the two accounts as evidence, and the Day of Mourning as the response of the people whose ancestors were there.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

  • Wampanoag community documented

Languages: Wampanoag, English

What is recorded

  • The 1621 Plymouth harvest gathering is attested in two brief contemporary accounts, which record approximately ninety Wampanoag men present, deer brought by them, and wildfowl. They do not mention turkey, cranberry sauce, pie or potatoes, and potatoes had not reached New England. The event was not termed Thanksgiving and was not repeated annually. The modern national holiday is documented as a nineteenth-century construction, campaigned for by Sarah Josepha Hale and proclaimed by Lincoln in 1863 during the Civil War. The Wampanoag observe a National Day of Mourning on that date. The schoolroom narrative is recorded as mythology and not as history. documented
  • The Plymouth harvest gathering attested in two brief accounts: about ninety Wampanoag men, deer brought by them, and wildfowl. No turkey, cranberry sauce, pie or potatoes are mentioned. documented
  • Lincoln proclaims a national Thanksgiving after decades of campaigning by Sarah Josepha Hale — a Civil War nation-building measure, and the origin of the modern holiday. documented

Recipes

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