CELEBRATING AMERICA’S FIRST THANKSGIVING….

A YEAR BEFORE THE PILGRIMS ARRIVED IN AMERICA

In search of the first American Thanksgiving

What do you envision when you think of the first American Thanksgiving?

A jolly group of Plymouth, Massachusetts Pilgrims and Wampanoagan Indians giving thanks over a shared feast of turkey, cranberries, pumpkins and corn?

If so, think again. The Pilgrims hadn’t even arrived in the New World when the first true Thanksgiving took place, not in Massachusetts but in my home state of Virginia.

“It took place right here on the banks of the James River on December 4, 1619,” I was told a number of years ago by Malcolm Jamieson, then owner of Virginia’s historic Berkeley Plantation.

“Captain John Woodlief and his crew of 35 men, who had just arrived from England on board The Good Ship Margaret, fell to their knees near here and followed the written orders they had been given by their patron The London Company,” Mr Jamieson continued, “That was not only to give thanks for their safe arrival in the New World but also to ensure that the event should be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God.”

The Berkeley Plantation House

A Turkey for Thanksgiving

Alas, over the years this sacred event was eclipsed by the Pilgrims’ much more inclusive and flamboyant 1621 celebrations in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Not only did they have a party, they invited the Native Americans who helped them through a starving time and mutually feasted on wild foul (probably not turkey) and deer brought by their guests.

However, my fellow Virginians were not to be slighted. After President John F Kennedy in 1962 paid public homage to his home state of Massachusetts for being the site of the first Thanksgiving, Virginia State Senator John J Wicker, who had long complained that Virginia’s role as the site of the first permanent English colony (Jamestown, 1607)  had been overshadowed by the later (1620) arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers, demanded a correction from the US President which he got the following year. 

A re-enanctment of the 1619 settlers arriving at Berkeley Plantation

Celebratiing Thanksgiving 17th Century Virginia syle

And now Virginia not only has its own festive Thanksgiving celebrations at Berkeley Plantation on November 5, nearly a month earlier than it’s celebrated in Plymouth and elsewhere in the USA, but it includes a historical re-enactment of the first Thanksgiving, dance performances by the state’s Chickahominy tribe, parades, music, jugglers, such culinary delights as smoked turkey legs and kettle corn and tours of the host site’s 1726 plantation house, ancestral home of the Harrison family which included a signer of the Declaration of Independence and two US Presidents.

Chickahominy Dancers at the Berkeley -Thanksgiving Celebrations

A Native American blessing at the Berkeley Plantation Thanksgiving

Mary Moore pictured with two Native Americans in the autumn 2023 issue of Essentially America magazine

And speaking of Native (or First) Americans, the cover story of the autumn 2023 issue of Essentially America, off press 17 November, is Discover Native America. And to learn more about the only UK travel/lifestyle magazine exclusively covering the USA visit www.essentiallyamerica.co.uk, tapping into the Magazine section.

Check out the features in the current issue of Essentially America magazine. To subscribe visit www.essentiallyamerica.co.uk

Meanwhile, check out my new book of travel and lifestyle anecdotes, Goodbye Hoop Skirts – Hello World! The Travels, Triumphs and Tumbles of a Runaway Southern Belle.