A Brief History of Thanksgiving in America
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On the 4th Thursday of November each year, Americans gather around their tables and with families and friends to commemorate Thanksgiving. This day is one of only two national holidays in the American calendar. The other national holiday is Independence Day or July 4th the day we celebrate our independence from Great Britain, as declared in the Declaration of Independence, the document in which our founding fathers declared that it was a self-evident truth that there was a “Creator” and our rights, duties and liberties, and the American system of law and civil government came from the “Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.”
With the threat of the hangman’s noose for treason over their heads, our Founding Fathers grasped together their hands one with another and declared:
“for the support of this Declaration with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
As for Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim fathers on their way to Northern America or New England, fully recognized the parallel nature of their journey, to that of the Hebrew children. Like the Israelites who also sought independence, theirs from the Egyptians. Just as the Pilgrims traversed the wide Atlantic Ocean, the Israelites in their Exodus realized a great deliverance at the Red Sea, which parted and permitted them go over on dry land and which closed up over Pharaoh and his mighty army and they were destroyed.
Pilgrims who set sail on September 6, 1620 from England for some 60 days completed their journey across the stormy seas at Plymouth Rock, and immediately held a prayer service. The courage, spirit, and faith of these stalwart Christian families was recorded around 1650 in William Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation:
“Being this arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils therefore, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element.”
The Pilgrims stood in the cold chill of the harsh New England winter at the edge of a hostile wilderness, surrounded by hardship but strengthened by their quiet confidence in God as recounted by Bradford’s History:
“This poor people’s present condition… no friends to welcome them, nor inns to entertain or refresh their weatherbeaten bodies, no houses… to repair to… Whichever way they turned their eyes (save upward to the heavens) they could have little solace… For summer being done, all things stand upon them… and thickets, represented a wild and savage hue. If they looked behind them, there was the mighty ocean… What could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and His grace?”
Before any disembarking, the company on the Mayflower drew up The Mayflower Compact, the first document of civil government in the New World, of which it has been observed that this constituted the first time in recorded history when free men had voluntarily covenanted together to formulate their own government. Thus was the precedent for America as a Constitutional Republic set:
“In the name of God, Amen…Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these present, solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the end aforesaid…”
Land had been sighted on November 8, 1620, and it took several days to find good harbor at Plymouth Rock, and then eight days to dispatch all goods and passengers from the Mayflower as it anchored in deep waters. Hardships were only beginning. Future Governor Bradford’s wife fell overboard and drowned. In time, 99 of the original 102 passengers went ashore and commenced to endure a most miserable existence. Before a year had passed, only half of those from the Mayflower were still alive. In the middle of March 1621, a Sagamore Indian had been watching the Pilgrims and walked into their camp. His name was Samoset who had had interaction with other English ships and spoke some English. He provided advice about other Indian tribes and recommended meeting Chief Massosoit and a parlay was arranged. With them was Squanto, the last surviving Patuxet Indian, who spoke excellent English and served as interpreter, and taught the Pilgrims how to farm and survive.
Over a century after Bradford’s record of the Pilgrims’ plight, the first National Thanksgiving occurred in 1777, by order of the Continental Congress. Then 12 years later, another National Thanksgiving was declared, according to the Congressional Record for September 25, 1789, immediately after approving the Bill of Rights:
“Mr. [Elias] Boudinot said he could not think of letting the [congressional] session pass without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining with one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He had poured down upon them. With this view, therefore, he would move the following resolution:
‘Resolved, That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer…’
“Mr. Roger Sherman justified the practiced of thanksgiving, on any single event, not only as a laudable one in itself but also as warranted by a number of precedents in Holy Writ… This example he thought worthy of a Christian imitation on the present occasion.”
The Resolution was delivered to President George Washington, who heartily concurred with the congressional request, declaring:
“Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor…Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November 1789… that we may all then unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation.”
Following Washington’s first Proclamation, other Thanksgiving Proclamations occurred sporadically at the state level for the next several decades. An annual national celebration did not occur until 1863, due to the diligent efforts of Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of Godeyis Ladis Book, who spent over two decades petitioning to President after President for a national Thanksgiving Day. At last, President Abraham Lincoln responded in 1863 by setting aside the last Thursday of November, declaring:
“We are prone to forget the Source from which [the blessings of fruitful years and healthful skies] come… No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God… I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States… to observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father Who dwelleth in the heavens.”
America’s institutions, the official historian named as the Librarian of the Library of Congress, our society, and government often must decide what is important enough to be remembered. Then the national saga and founding must be remembered and must be taught in history and celebrated in annual tradition. America’s celebration of Thanksgiving each year is evidence and testimony to the living fact that our nation is, as a matter of law, fact and history, a “Christian Nation,” as also determined by the U.S. supreme Court on four separate occasions from 1844 to 1931. Please enjoy the day and remember the nation is blessed whose God is the Lord.
Acknowledgement: We are grateful to David Barton, Wallbuilders, Des Griffen of Midnight Messenger, and other historians for the excellent research, which aided our summary.
