October 2, 2025 • 39 mins
Episode Two: The First Thanksgiving, Fact versus Myth dismantles the beloved story of Pilgrims and Indians sharing a peaceful feast by examining the scant historical evidence that actually exists. With only two brief primary sources mentioning the sixteen twenty-one gathering, this episode reveals how almost everything Americans believe about the First Thanksgiving is speculation or invention. From debunking the modern menu of turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie to exposing the power dynamics and diplomatic calculations behind the three-day event, the episode centers Wampanoag perspectives that have been systematically erased. It traces how this ordinary harvest celebration was transformed into a founding myth two centuries later and examines the devastating aftermath of King Philip's War that betrayed the alliance formed at that original gathering.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to Thanksgiving, where we peel back the layers
of America's most food centric holiday to discover what's really
simmering beneath the surface. I'm Claire Delish, your digital culinary historian,
and today we're diving fork first into episode two, the
First Thanksgiving Fact versus myth. We're going to carve into
what actually happened at that sixteen twenty one gathering in Plymouth,
(00:23):
who was really there, what they actually ate, And most importantly,
we're going to carve into what actually happened at that
sixteen twenty one gathering in Plymouth, who was really there,
what they actually ate, And most importantly, more critically, we're
going to examine how the wampanoid perspective has been systematically
erased from the Thanksgiving narrative, and what happens when we
(00:45):
center indigenous voices in telling this story. Let me start
by saying something that might surprise you. The people who
gathered in Plymouth in the autumn of sixteen twenty one
had absolutely no idea they were participating in what would
later be called the First thanks Giving. They weren't consciously
creating an American tradition or founding a holiday that would
(01:05):
be celebrated centuries later. They were simply marking a successful
harvest in a way that made sense within their respective
cultural frameworks. The English colonists were drawing on their memories
of English harvest home celebrations. The Wampanogu were participating in
what was for them a fairly typical harvest gathering and
diplomatic feast. The English colonists were drawing on their memories
(01:27):
of English harvest home celebrations. The wampanogue were participating in
what was for them a fairly typical harvest gathering and
diplomatic feast. When it did happen, it would tell us
more about nineteenth century America's need for unifying narratives than
about what actually occurred in sixteen twenty one. So what
do we actually know about the sixteen twenty one gathering?
(01:49):
Frustratingly little when you get right down to it. We
have exactly two primary source documents that mentioned the event,
and neither one is particularly detailed. The first is letter
written by Edward Winslow, one of the Plymouth colonists, in
December of sixteen twenty one. This letter was published in
London in sixteen twenty two, as part of a promotional
(02:10):
tract encouraging further English settlement in New England. Winslow's letter
is maddeningly brief on details, but it's worth discussing the
relevant passage because this is essentially the entire contemporary account
we have from the English side. Winslow's letter is maddeningly
brief on details, but it's worth discussing the relevant passage
because this is essentially the entire contemporary account we have
(02:32):
from the English side. He noted that these hunters killed
enough fowl to serve the company for almost a week.
He said that many of the Wampanoa came among them,
including their greatest king, Massasoid, with some ninety men, who
remained with the colonists for three days. He added that
the Wampanog went out and killed five deer, which they
brought to the plantation and bestowed upon the colonists. That's it.
(02:55):
That's the entire contemporary English account of what would later
be mythologized as the First Thanksgiving. Winslow doesn't call it
a thanksgiving, he doesn't describe it as particularly significant. He
doesn't detail what was eaten beyond mentioning foul and deer.
He doesn't describe any prayers or religious services. He doesn't
wax poetic about friendship between the colonists and the Wampanoague.
(03:19):
It's a brief, matter of fact note about a harvest
celebration mentioned almost in passing in a letter primarily concerned
with describing the climate, the fertility of the soil, and
the availability of natural resources, all information calculated to encourage
further English settlement. The second primary source is even less detailed.
William Bradford, who served as governor of Plymouth Colony for
(03:41):
much of its early history, wrote a historical account of
the colony that covered events from sixteen twenty to sixteen
forty seven. Bradford's manuscript wasn't published during his lifetime. It
sat in a library in England for many years before
being rediscovered and finally published in the mid nineteenth century.
Bradford's account of the sixth teen twenty one harvest mentions
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only that after the harvest was gathered in, the colonists
had a good store of foul venison and other things.
He doesn't describe any specific celebration or feast. The passage
is even briefer than Winso's letter. And adds almost nothing
to our understanding of the event. These two fragmentary sources
are the entire foundation upon which the elaborate mythology of
(04:22):
the First Thanksgiving has been constructed. Everything else, all the
details that seem so vivid and specific in children's books
and holiday pageants, is speculation, extrapolation, or outright invention. We
don't know the exact date the celebration occurred, though it
was some time between late September and early November based
on when the harvest would have been completed. We don't
(04:43):
know the exact date the celebration occurred, though it was
probably most or all of the roughly fifty colonists who
had survived the brutal first winter. We don't know which
Wampanog men accompanied Massasoi, though ninety men represents a significant
delegation that would have included important leaders, warriors, and probably
some of Massasoit's close relatives. We don't know which Wampanoag
(05:04):
men accompanied Massasoit, though ninety men represents a significant delegation
that would have included important leaders, warriors, and probably some
of Massasoit's close relatives. We don't know if there were
any formal speeches, prayers, or ceremonies, though given the diplomatic
importance of the gathering there almost certainly were. We don't
know if there were any formal speeches, prayers, or ceremonies,
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though given the diplomatic importance of the gathering there almost
certainly were. We don't know what languages were spoken or
how communication was facilitated, though Tis Quantum and possibly others
would have served as interpreters. We don't know what the
weather was like, where exactly people gathered, how the food
was prepared and served, or countless other details that would
bring the event to life. What we can say with
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confidence is that this was a three day gathering that
brought together the Plymouth colonists and a large Wampinaud delegation
in the autumn of sixteen twenty one. It involves significant
amounts of food, including foul and venison. It was connected
to the successful completion of the harvest, and it was
important enough for both groups to invest considerable time and resources.
(06:10):
Beyond these basic facts were largely in the realm of
inference and speculation. That hasn't stopped generations of Americans from
confidently describing the First Thanksgiving as if they had personally attended.
Let's talk about some of the most persistent myths about
the First Thanksgiving that hasn't stopped generations of Americans from
confidently describing the First Thanksgiving as if they had personally attended.
(06:32):
One of the most common misconceptions is that the sixteen
twenty one gathering was consciously understood by the participants as
the first Thanksgiving, as if the colonist and Wampanogue knew
they were establishing a tradition that would be celebrated annually thereafter.
This is completely false. The colonists didn't call this event
a Thanksgiving, they didn't record it as particularly significant at
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the time, and they didn't repeat it annually. The Puritan
concept of Thanksgiving days was quite different from harvest celebrations.
Thanksgiving days were solemn religious occasions, proclaimed for specific reasons,
and not tied to the calendar. The Plymouth colonists observed
various Thanksgiving Days over the years, but these were days
of prayer and fasting, not feasting, and were unrelated to
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the sixteen twenty one harvest celebration. Another pervasive myth is
that the gathering was initiated by the colonists who invited
the Wampanoague to join them in celebration as a gesture
of friendship and gratitude. The historical evidence actually suggests something
quite different. The Wampanog delegation was large, about ninety men
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compared to roughly fifty English colonists, including women and children.
They brought significant contributions to the feast in the form
of five deer. This wasn't the behavior of guests politely
invited to dinner, but rather the behavior of participants in
a diplomatic exchange. Some historians have suggested that the Wampanog
may have actually shown up uninvited, hearing the noise of
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the colonists must get fired during their celebrations and coming
to investigate whether there was danger or conflict maso. So
it may have decided that this was an opportunity to
formalize the alliance between the Wampanogue and the English, and
to demonstrate Wampanog's strength and generosity by contributing substantially to
the feast. The power dynamics of this situation are worth
considering carefully. The Plymouth colonists were not in a position
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of strength in sixteen twenty one. They had barely survived
their first winter, losing half their number to disease and starvation.
They were dependent on the wampanoag for knowledge about how
to survive in this environment. They were vastly outnumbered by
the indigenous population of the region. They were disconnected from
their home country by thousands of miles of ocean, with
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no guarantee that supply ships would arrive when needed. The
wampanoau Ogg, on the other hand, were on their own territory.
They were disconnected from their home country by thousands of
miles of ocean, with no guarantee that supply ships would
arrive when needed. The Wampanogu, on the other hand, were
on their own territory. The notion that this gathering was
primarily about the colonists generously including the Wampanogue in their
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celebration gets the power dynamics almost exactly backward. The mythology
around what was eaten at the first Thanksgiving is particularly
rich with inventions and anachronisms. The mythology around what was
eaten at the first Thanksgiving is particularly rich with inventions
and anachronisms. Let's go through the iconic Thanksgiving foods one
by one and separate fact from fiction. Turkey has become
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so central to the Thanksgiving meal that the holiday is
sometimes called Turkey Day. Most Americans would consider a Thanksgiving
without turkey to be incomplete. Turkey has become so central
to the Thanksgiving meal that the holiday is sometimes called
Turkey Day. But while wild turkey was native to the
region and was probably part of the sixteen twenty one feast,
it wasn't the centerpiece of the meal, and certainly wasn't
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the symbol of the occasion. Winslow's letter mentions foul but
doesn't specify turkey. The fowl that were hunted probably included ducks, geese,
and swans, all of which were abundant in the area
and were familiar game birds to the English. Wild turkey
would have been just one option among many. There's no
evidence it was privileged over other birds. It's also worth
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noting that the turkeys the colonists would have hunted were
wild turkeys. Wild turkey would have been just one option
among many. There's no evidence that was privileged over other birds.
It's also worth noting that the turkeys the colonists would
have hunted were wild turkeys. They're actually capable of flight,
unlike domestic turkeys, which have been bred to be so
heavy that they can barely walk. A wild turkey prepared
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using seventeenth century cooking methods would have been roasted on
a spit over an open fire, or possibly stewed. It
would have tasted quite different from a modern oven roasted
domestic turkey basted with butter stuffing. That beloved side dish
that many people actually prefer to The turkey itself almost
certainly didn't exist at the sixteen twenty one feast in
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any form we would recognize. The English did have a
tradition of stuffing birds with herbs on us and bread
crumbs before roasting them, but the colonists had no wheat
flour with which to make bread. Their wheat crop had failed.
They were dependent on corn for their grain needs. While
they could and did make corn bread, it wouldn't have
had the texture or flavor of wheat bread their wheat
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crop had failed. Moreover, the elaborate bread based stuffing recipes
we associate with Thanksgiving, often enriched with butter, celery, sage,
and other ingredients, are much later inventions. If any birds
were stuffed at the sixteen twenty one feast. It would
have been with simple ingredients like wild herbs and onions.
It's entirely possible that no stuffing was used at all.
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Mashed potatoes are another Thanksgiving staple that definitely weren't present
in sixteen twenty one. Potatoes native to South America had
been introduced to Europe by Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century,
but they were slow to gain acceptance and weren't widely
cultivated in England during the early seventeenth century. The Pilgrims
wouldn't have brought potato seeds or tubers with them. Potatoes
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weren't being grown in New England at that time. Even
if potatoes had somehow been available, the dish we know
as mashed potatoes, with potatoes boiled and mashed with butter
and milk or cream, requires dairy products that the colonists
didn't have. They had no cattle during their first year.
The idea of serving mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving is a
much later development, probably dating to the nineteenth century, when
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potatoes had become a common staple crop and the dish
had become popular in American cuisine. Cranberry sauce is so
associated with Thanksgiving that many people consider it essential, whether
in the form of wholeberry sauce or the jellied cylinder
that slides out of a can with its canridges. Intact,
cranberries were indeed native to New England and were known
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to both the Wampanog and the colonists. The Wampanogue used
cranberries in various ways, including in Pemmican, a mixture of
dried meat, fat, and berries that could be stored for
long periods. However, the sweet cranberry sauce we know today
requires substantial amounts of sugar. The colonists had very little sugar.
Sugar was an expensive imported commodity. What little the colonists
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had brought with them would have been reserved for medicinal
use or very special occasions. Cranberries in their natural state
are extremely tart and astringent. While they might have been
served at the sixteen twenty one feast, they would have
been prepared quite differently from modern cranberry sauce, perhaps dried
or mashed with other ingredients to make them more palatable.
(13:27):
Pumpkin pie has become so iconic that it appears in
countless Thanksgiving illustrations and is many people's favorite part of
the meal. But there was no pumpkin pie at the
sixteen twenty one feast, and there couldn't have been. Pumpkins
were native to North America and were cultivated by the Wampanog,
so the colonists would have had access to pumpkins and
probably did eat them in various forms. The Wampanog roasted
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pumpkin's whole in the ashes of fires, they cut them
into strips and dried them for storage, or they stewed them.
The colonists might have adopted some of these operations, but
they couldn't have made pumpkin pie as we know it.
Pie requires pastry, which requires wheat flour, which the colonists
didn't have. Even if they had managed to make some
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kind of crust from corn meal, they lacked the butter
and the sugar needed for a proper pie, and they
didn't have ovens suitable for baking. The evolution of pumpkin
pie was a gradual process that took place over many decades,
as wheat flour became available, sugar became cheaper and more accessible,
and cooking technology improved. Sweet potatoes Another Thanksgiving staple, particularly
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in the South, where they're often prepared with marshmallows or
in pie form, weren't at the sixteen twenty one feast either.
Sweet potatoes are native to Central and South America and
weren't widely cultivated in English colonies during the early seventeenth century.
The confusion between sweet potatoes and regular potatoes in historical
sources is considerable, but it's clear that neither type of
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potato was part of the sixteen twenty one menu. Green
Bean casserole, that beloved dish of green bean, cream of
mushroom soup, and French fried onions that appears on countless
Thanksgiving tables is a twentieth century invention. It was specifically
created in nineteen fifty five by the Campbell Soup Company
as a way to sell more cream of mushroom soup.
Dinner rolls weren't possible without wheat flour, which the colonists lacked.
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Yeast love and wheatbread would have seemed like an almost
unimaginable luxury to people who had been struggling to survive.
So if the modern Thanksgiving menu is almost entirely fictional,
what did they actually eat at the sixteen twenty one gathering.
Based on Winslow's letter and our knowledge of what foods
were available in coastal New England in autumn, we can
reconstruct a probable menu, though we have to acknowledge that
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much of this is educated guesswork. There was definitely wild fowl.
This included some combination of ducks, geese, swans, and possibly turkeys.
These would have been roasted on spits over open fires,
or possibly stewed in large pots. There was definitely wild fowl.
This would have been paired in various ways, including roasting, stewing,
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and possibly drying some of the meat for preservation, or
possibly stewed in large pots. There was venison from the
five deer the Wampanog brought. The Wampanog might have prepared
the venison according to their traditional methods, which could have
included cooking it with corn and beans in a sort
of stew. There was corn prepared in multiple ways that
reflected both English and Wampanog food traditions. There might have
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been corn porridge or hominy, where dried corn is treated
with lye to remove the hull and then boiled until tender.
There might have been corn bread made from ground corn meal,
though without wheat flour and with limited access to fat
and leavening agents, this would have been quite different from
modern corn bread. There was almost certainly succotash, the Wampanog
dish of corn and beans cooked together, which the English
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had adopted because it was nutritious, filling, and made use
of the two most important crops they had successfully harvested.
The Wampanog named for this dish referred to the fact
that the ingredients were cooked together until the beans were
soft enough to eat. There were beans, probably both fresh
green beans and dried beans from earlier in the harvest season.
The beans would have been prepared simply, likely boiled with herbs,
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and possibly with small amounts of meat. There were beans,
probably both fresh green beans and dried beans from earlier
in the harvest season. Squash could be prepared in numerous ways,
including roasting it whole in the ashes of fires, cutting
it into pieces and boiling it, or mashing it. The
English were familiar with various types of squash and gourds,
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so this wouldn't have been a completely foreign food to them,
though the American varieties they encountered were different from European squashes.
There was probably seafood, which was abundant in the coastal
waters and estuaries around Plymouth. Both groups harvested it extensively.
This might have included fish, both fresh and smoked or
dried for preservation. It might have included eels, which the
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colonists initially found repellent, but which were extremely abundant in
local streams. They eventually learned to appreciate them. It might
have included eels, which the colonists initially found repellent, but
which were extremely abundant in local streams. They eventually learned
to appreciate them. They could be gathered easily along the shore,
particularly after storms, when they would be washed up on
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the beach. The idea of lobster as a luxury food
is a much later development. There were nuts, including walnuts,
hickory nuts, chestnuts, and possibly acorns that had been processed
to remove their bitter tannins. Nuts were an important food
source that could be stored throughout the winter. Gathering nuts
in autumn was a standard part of the seasonal round
for both indigenous peoples and English colonists. There were likely
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wild fruits that had been preserved from earlier in the season.
These included strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and grapes. Some of these
might have been dried for storage, while others might have
been preserved in other ways. There were probably root vegetables,
including onions and turnips, which the colonists had successfully grown,
though the root vegetable harvest would have been modest since
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they were still learning how to farm in this environment.
There might have been herbs, both cultivated and wild, used
to season the food. These included sage, thyme, and various
native plants. Both the English and the Wampaog used herbs extensively,
both for flavoring food and for medicinal purposes. There was
no dairy at this feast because the colonists had no cattle,
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no goats, and no sheep during their first year. This
means no butter, no milk, no cream, and no cheese,
all of which would have been standard parts of an
English harvest feast back home. The absence of dairy products
would have made the food seem plain and incomplete to
English palates accustomed to the richness that butter and cream provided.
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The beverages at the feast probably included water, which was
the primary drink for both groups. There was possibly beer,
though the colonist's supply of English beer would have been
running low by autumn and they hadn't yet begun brewing
their own. They might have made a weak beer from corn,
a practice they learned from the indigenous peaple, though this
would have been quite different from the barley and hop's
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beard they were accustomed to. There was no wine, no
cider since the apple orchards they would later plant hadn't
yet been established, and no spirits, though both the English
and the Wampanog were familiar with various fermented and alcoholic beverages.
The manner of eating at the sixteen twenty one gathering
would have been quite different from a modern Thanksgiving dinner.
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The English would have been accustomed to eating from wooden trenchers.
These were thick wooden plates that might be shared between
two people. They used knives and their fingers to eat,
forks weren't yet common in England and wouldn't become standard
eating implements until later in the seventeenth century. The Wampanog
might have eaten from wooden bowls or from sections of
bark folded to create containers. Both groups would have used
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their hands extensively to eat, with only knives as utensils.
The food would have been served communally, with large platters
or pots from which people helped themselves, rather than being
individually plated as we would do today. The setting for
the feast would have been outdoors, whether permitting, or possibly
in a combination of indoor and outdoor spaces. The setting
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for this feast would have been outdoors, whether permitting or
possibly in a combination of indoor and outdoor spaces. More likely,
the feast took place in the common area of the settlement,
perhaps with the food cooked over outdoor fires and people
gathering in groups to eat and socialize. More likely, the
feast took place in the common area of the settlement.
The three day duration of the gathering suggests that this
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was in a single elaborate meal, but rather an extended
period of feasting, games, demonstrations, and diplomatic exchange, with food
being prepared and consumed throughout. The diplomatic and political dimensions
of this gathering are crucial to understanding its significance, yet
these aspects are almost completely absent from the mythologized version
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of the First Thanksgiving taught to school children. This wasn't
primarily a social event where the English and Wampanoag came
together out of spontaneous friendship and good feeling. It was
a carefully calibrated diplomatic encounter between two groups who had
formed an alliance earlier in the year and who were
in the process of working out the terms of their relationship.
Massasoit had made the strategic decision to alli with the
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Plymouth colonists as a counterweight to rival indigenous nations, particularly
the Narragansetts, with whom the Wampanoag had a tense relationship.
The alliance between the Wampanogu and the English was formalized
in a treaty negotiated in March of sixteen twenty one,
shortly after the colonist's arrival. This treaty was actually quite
favorable to the English. It required the wampanog and the
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English was formalized in a treaty negotiated in March of
sixteen twenty one, shortly after the colonist's arrival. This treaty
was actually quite favorable to the English. In return, the
English were supposed to provide similar reciprocal support to the Wampanogue.
The treaty was negotiated at a moment when the Wampanogu
were in a weakened position. They had suffered catastrophic population
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losses from epidemics introduced by earlier European contacts. Estimates suggests
that up to ninety percent of the indigenous population of
coastal New England died in the years immediately preceding the
Plymouth Settlement. This created a demographic and political crisis that
shaped Massasoit's calculations about whether to ally with or oppose
the English newcomers. The sixteen twenty one harvest gathering needs
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to be understood in this context of strategic alliance, rather
than as an expression of simple friendship or hospitality. Massasoit's
presence with ninety men was a show of strength. It
was a demonstration that despite the population losses the Wampanoake
had suffered, they could still feel a significant force of warriors.
The Wampanoak contribution of five dar wasn't just generosity. It
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was a demonstration of their prowess as hunters and their
ability to provision themselves and their allies. The three day
duration of the gathering would have provided ample time for
diplomatic discussions, time for Massasoit and the English leaders to
reinforce the terms of their alliance, and time for both
sides to take the measure of the other. From the
Wampenwog perspective, this gathering would have been understood within their
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existing frameworks for diplomatic feasts and alliance building ceremonies. Sharing
food was a crucial part of Wampenwog diplomacy. Communal feasts
served to bind groups together through the reciprocal obligations created
by giving and receiving hospitality. Sharing food was a crucial
part of Wampanoade diplomacy. The Wompinaud had sophisticated diplomatic traditions
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that included formal speeches, the exchange of gifts, and elaborate
protocols for hosting and being hosted. The Wampanogue had sophisticated
diplomatic traditions that included formal speeches, the exchange of gifts,
and elaborate protocols for hosting and being hosted. One of
the most problematic aspects of the First Thanksgiving mythology is
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the way it erases the subsequent history of conflict between
English colonists and indigenous peoples. The story is told to
school children often ends with the sixteen twenty one Feast,
leaving the impression that the colonists and Native Americans lived
happily ever after in peace and harmony. The historical reality
is dramatically different. The alliance between Plymouth Colony and the
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Wampanogue would last for about fifty years until it was
shattered by King Philip's War in sixteen seventy five. This
was one of the bloodiest conflicts in American history relative
to population. This war resulted in the deaths of thousands
of Indigenous people and hundreds of English colonists. It led
to the destruction of numerous towns on both sides, and
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it brought about the effective end of indigenous independence in
southern New England. Massisot himself remained allied with the English
until his death in the sixteen sixties, but his son Medicom,
known to the English as King Philip, came to view
the ever expanding English settlements as an existential threat to
indigenous survival. The war was devastating for indigenous peoples. It
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resulted not just in deaths during combat, but in the
systematic destruction of indigenous survival. He launched a desperate war
to drive the colonists out. Those who remained were permanently displaced.
The Wampanogu, who had welcomed the pilgrims and shared their
knowledge and their harvest, were largely destroyed within two generations,
and their culture was disrupted. The Wampanoague, who had welcomed
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the pilgrims and shared their knowledge and their harvest, were
largely destroyed within two generations. Their lands were taken, their
population was decimated. From an Indigenous perspective, Thanksgiving is a
reminder not of peaceful coexistence, but of betrayal, broken treaties,
stolen land, and cultural genocide. Since nineteen seventy, Indigenous people
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and their allies have marked Thanksgiving as a national day
of mourning. They gather in Plymouth to honor Indigenous ancestors
and to protest the mythologized version of history that erases
Indigenous suffering and resistance. These gatherings draw attention to the
ongoing struggles of Indigenous peoples, issues ranging from poverty and
health disparities to the fight for sovereignty and the protection
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of sacred sites and natural resources. Spanog people still exist,
contrary to what many Americans assume. The Mashby Wampanau tribe
and the Wampanag tribe of gay Head, also known as Aquinna,
are both federally recognized tribes with reservation lands in Massachusetts.
They have maintained their cultural traditions despite centuries of colonization,
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assimilation pressures, and attempts to erase their identity. They continued
to speak the Wampanoag language, which had ceased to be
spoken fluently but has been revived through extraordinary linguistic reconstruction efforts.
They continued to practice traditional arts, including basket making, beadwork,
and wampum belt weaving. They continue to practice traditional arts,
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including basket making, beadwork, and wampum belt weaving. When the
Wampanad tell the story of the sixteen twenty one harvest gathering,
it sounds very different from the version taught in schools.
They emphasize the context of population loss from epidemics. They
highlight the political calculations that led Massasoa to ally with
the English, and they point to the subsequent betrayal of
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that alliance. They note that their ancestors' generosity and knowledge
transfers save the colonists from starvation, yet this assistance was
repaid with land theft and violence. They emphasized that the
harvest celebration happened on Wampanog land, not English land, and
they stressed that the wampanag were not guests but hosts.
They challenged the assumption that their ancestors were awed by
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English technology or culture. They point out that in many ways,
Wampanog material culture was better adapted to the environment than
English culture was. The Wampanague also challenged the narrative of
inevitable indigenous decline and disappearance. The Wampanogu also challenged the
narrative of inevitable indigenous decline and disappearance. The wampanog insist
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on their continued presence and vitality. They are not historical
relics or tragic remnants of a bygone era. But indigenous
peoples didn't vanish. They are contemporary people dealing with contemporary
issues while maintaining connections to their ancestral lands and traditions.
The fight to maintain their reservation lands, to protect their sovereignty,
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and to pass their language and culture to the next
generation is ongoing. They resent being trotted out as part
of a feel good historical narrative while their actual contemporary
concerns are ignored. The scholarly understanding of the sixteen twenty
one gathering has evolved considerably over the past several decades.
Historians have moved away from simple narratives of progress and civilization.
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They now embrace more nuanced to understandings that take indigenous
perspectives seriously. They acknowledge the violence and dispossession at the
heart of the colonial project. They now embrace more nuanced
understandings that take indigenous perspectives seriously. Early histories of Plymouth Colony,
written by descendants of the Pilgrims or by historians sympathetic
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to the colonial project, tended to portray the English as
heroic pioneers bringing civilization to a wilderness. Indigenous people were
depicted as either noble savages who graciously stepped aside, or
as as violent obstacles to progress who had to be subdued.
These narratives served the ideological purpose of justifying colonization and
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westward expansion. They created a heroic founding myth for the
American nation. More recent scholarship has complicated this narrative considerably.
It emphasizes indigenous agency and perspective. It acknowledges the catastrophic
impact of colonization on indigenous peoples, and it questions the
assumption that the colonial project was either inevitable or beneficial.
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Historians now recognized that the Wampanog and other Indigenous peoples
were not passive victims. They were not simply obstacles to
English settlement. They were active participants in a complex process
of cultural encounter and conflict. They made strategic decisions based
on their own interests and values, They adapted to changing circumstances,
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and they resisted when resistance seemed possible. The fact that
they were ultimately overwhelmed by English numerical superiority, disease, and
military technology doesn't negate their agency or reduce them to
tragic figures in someone else's story. The fact that they
were ultimately overwhelmed by English numerical superiority, disease, and military
technology doesn't negate their agency or reduce them to tragic
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figures in someone else's story. For nearly two hundred years
after sixteen twenty one, the harvest gathering was largely forgotten.
It was mentioned only in the brief passages in Winslow's
Letter and Bradford's History, neither of which was widely read.
Various colonies and later states observed Thanksgiving days proclaimed for
various reasons, but these weren't tied to the sixteen twenty
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one event and weren't annual celebrations. The transformation of the
sixteen twenty one gathering into the first Thanksgiving began in
the nineteenth century and was driven by several factors. New
England intellectuals, seeking to create a distinctive regional identity and
to assert New England's importance in American history, began to
emphasize the Pilgrim story. They searched historical records for evidence
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of earth early New England superiority. In this context, Bradford's
manuscript was rediscovered in England and published in eighteen fifty six.
The passage about the sixteen twenty one harvest began to
receive attention. Around the same time, Sarah Josepha Hale, the
influential editor of Godey's Lady's Book, began a campaign to
establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Hale wrote editorials, letters
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to presidents and governors, and articles promoting the idea of
a unified national Thanksgiving celebration. She hoped this would help
bind together a fractious nation heading toward Civil war. Hale's
campaign eventually succeeded in eighteen sixty three, when President Abraham Lincoln,
in the midst of the Civil War, proclaimed a national
Day of Thanksgiving to be observed on the last Thursday
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in November. Lincoln's proclamation didn't specifically reference the sixteen twenty
one Plymouth gathering, but in the decades that followed, that
event increasingly came to be understood as the origin of
the Thanksgiving tradition. The story was elaborated and embellished. Details
were added that had no basis in the historical record,
but that served the narrative purposes of creating a heartwarming
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origin story. These additions emphasized themes of gratitude, peaceful coexistence,
and divine providence. By the early twentieth century, the First
Thanksgiving had become firmly established in American popular culture and education.
School Children across the country were learning a sanitized version
of the story. They performed Thanksgiving pageants featuring Pilgrims and
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Indians sharing a peaceful meal. This mythologized version of the
First Thanksgiving has been remarkably persistent despite decades of historical
scholarship that has complicated and challenged the simple narrative. In
popular culture, the image of pilgrims and Indians sharing a
harvest feast remains powerful. It appears in everything from greeting
cards to advertising to political rhetoric about American values. The
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story serves important cultural functions. It provides a shared origin
narrative for a diverse nation. It promotes values of gratitude
and generosity, and it offers a vision of peaceful coexistence
that can feel comforting in times of division and conflict.
But this comes at the cost of historical accuracy, and
it comes at the cost of Indigenous perspectives. It reduces
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the wampanogue to supporting characters in someone else's story, and
it erases the subsequent history of violence and dispossession. Moving
toward a more accurate and inclusive understanding of the sixteen
twenty one gathering and its place in American history requires
several things. It requires acknowledging what we actually know and
don't know about the event based on the limited historical evidence.
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We need to stop confidently asserting details that are speculation
or invention. It requires centering indigenous perspectives and recognizing that
the Wampanogue have their own understanding of this history. Their
perspective deserves to be heard and respected. It requires acknowledging
the context of alliance and strategic calculation rather than portraying
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the gathering as simply an expression of spontaneous friendship. It
requires acknowledging the context of alliance and strategic calculation rather
than portraying the gathering as simply an expression of spontaneous friendship.
And it requires recognizing that the way we tell this
story has real consequences for contemporary indigenous peoples. It affects
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how Americans understand the nation's history and its ongoing relationship
with indigenous communities. Some schools and communities have begun to
revise how they teach about Thanksgiving. They're moving away from
simple narratives and costume pageants. They're embracing more complex lessons
that acknowledge multiple perspectives and historical context. Some teachers use
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Thanksgiving as an opportunity to teach about the broader history
of indigenous peoples in North America. They're embracing more complex
lessons that acknowledge multiple perspectives and historical context. Some teachers
use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to teach about the broader
history of indigenous peoples in North America. Others have reframed
it as a day to acknowledge Indigenous history and contemporary
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indigenous issues. Some communities have stopped celebrating Thanksgiving altogether. They
see it as an attempt to make children feel guilty
about American history. But teaching accurate history, even when it's uncomfortable,
is essential for creating informed citizens who can grapple with
the complexities of the past and present. The choice isn't
between feeling good about American history and feeling guilty about it.
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The choice is in between feeling good about American history
and feeling guilty about it. The Womponog children who hear
the traditional Thanksgiving story in school are learning that their
ancestors are props in someone else's narrative. They learn that
their perspective doesn't matter. They learn that the subsequent history
of violence against their people can be ignored. This is
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not a neutral or innocent story. It's a story with
real consequences for how Indigenous children understand their own identity
and place in American society. The food at the sixteen
twenty one gathering, stripped of the mythological accretions of later centuries,
tells its own story about cultural exchange, adaptation, and the
blending of Indigenous and European food ways that would shape
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American cuisine. The venicon, the foul, the corn, the beans,
the squash, and the other foods represented both continuity with
English food traditions and adaptation to a new environment with
different resources and different knowledge systems. The colonists were learning
to eat foods that were unfamiliar to them. They were
learning preparation techniques from indigenous peoples who had spent thousands
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of years figuring out how to live successfully in this environment.
This process of culinary exchange and adaptation would continue throughout
American history, creating the distinctive regional cuisines that characterize American
food culture. This process of culinary exchange and adaptation would
continue throughout American history, creating the distinctive regional cuisines that
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characterize American food culture. The real story involves strategic alliances
and cultural misunderstandings. It involves extraordinary generosity in the face
of devastating population loss. It includes the transmission of crucial
survival knowledge, and it marks the beginning of relationships that
would shape the history of the region for generations. It
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involves real people making difficult decisions in uncertain circumstances, trying
to survive and protect their communities in a rapidly changing world.
That story, with all its complexity and ambiguity, deserves to
be told accurately, rather than being reduced to a simple
fable about Pilgrims and Indians sharing turkey dinner and living
happily ever after. Thanks for listening to this episode of Thanksgiving,
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where we've separated fact from fiction and centered Indigenous perspectives
in understanding the sixteen twenty one gathering that's been mythologized
as the first Thanksgiving. Please subscribe for more episodes as
we continue exploring this complex holiday. This podcast was brought
to you by Quiet Please Podcast Networks, Quiet Please dot
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Ai hear what matters.
Welcome back to Thanksgiving, where we peel back the layers
of America's most food centric holiday to discover what's really
simmering beneath the surface. I'm Claire Delish, your digital culinary historian,
and today we're diving fork first into episode two, the
First Thanksgiving Fact versus myth. We're going to carve into
what actually happened at that sixteen twenty one gathering in Plymouth,
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who was really there, what they actually ate, And most importantly,
we're going to carve into what actually happened at that
sixteen twenty one gathering in Plymouth, who was really there,
what they actually ate, And most importantly, more critically, we're
going to examine how the wampanoid perspective has been systematically
erased from the Thanksgiving narrative, and what happens when we
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center indigenous voices in telling this story. Let me start
by saying something that might surprise you. The people who
gathered in Plymouth in the autumn of sixteen twenty one
had absolutely no idea they were participating in what would
later be called the First thanks Giving. They weren't consciously
creating an American tradition or founding a holiday that would
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be celebrated centuries later. They were simply marking a successful
harvest in a way that made sense within their respective
cultural frameworks. The English colonists were drawing on their memories
of English harvest home celebrations. The Wampanogu were participating in
what was for them a fairly typical harvest gathering and
diplomatic feast. The English colonists were drawing on their memories
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of English harvest home celebrations. The wampanogue were participating in
what was for them a fairly typical harvest gathering and
diplomatic feast. When it did happen, it would tell us
more about nineteenth century America's need for unifying narratives than
about what actually occurred in sixteen twenty one. So what
do we actually know about the sixteen twenty one gathering?
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Frustratingly little when you get right down to it. We
have exactly two primary source documents that mentioned the event,
and neither one is particularly detailed. The first is letter
written by Edward Winslow, one of the Plymouth colonists, in
December of sixteen twenty one. This letter was published in
London in sixteen twenty two, as part of a promotional
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tract encouraging further English settlement in New England. Winslow's letter
is maddeningly brief on details, but it's worth discussing the
relevant passage because this is essentially the entire contemporary account
we have from the English side. Winslow's letter is maddeningly
brief on details, but it's worth discussing the relevant passage
because this is essentially the entire contemporary account we have
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from the English side. He noted that these hunters killed
enough fowl to serve the company for almost a week.
He said that many of the Wampanoa came among them,
including their greatest king, Massasoid, with some ninety men, who
remained with the colonists for three days. He added that
the Wampanog went out and killed five deer, which they
brought to the plantation and bestowed upon the colonists. That's it.
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That's the entire contemporary English account of what would later
be mythologized as the First Thanksgiving. Winslow doesn't call it
a thanksgiving, he doesn't describe it as particularly significant. He
doesn't detail what was eaten beyond mentioning foul and deer.
He doesn't describe any prayers or religious services. He doesn't
wax poetic about friendship between the colonists and the Wampanoague.
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It's a brief, matter of fact note about a harvest
celebration mentioned almost in passing in a letter primarily concerned
with describing the climate, the fertility of the soil, and
the availability of natural resources, all information calculated to encourage
further English settlement. The second primary source is even less detailed.
William Bradford, who served as governor of Plymouth Colony for
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much of its early history, wrote a historical account of
the colony that covered events from sixteen twenty to sixteen
forty seven. Bradford's manuscript wasn't published during his lifetime. It
sat in a library in England for many years before
being rediscovered and finally published in the mid nineteenth century.
Bradford's account of the sixth teen twenty one harvest mentions
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only that after the harvest was gathered in, the colonists
had a good store of foul venison and other things.
He doesn't describe any specific celebration or feast. The passage
is even briefer than Winso's letter. And adds almost nothing
to our understanding of the event. These two fragmentary sources
are the entire foundation upon which the elaborate mythology of
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the First Thanksgiving has been constructed. Everything else, all the
details that seem so vivid and specific in children's books
and holiday pageants, is speculation, extrapolation, or outright invention. We
don't know the exact date the celebration occurred, though it
was some time between late September and early November based
on when the harvest would have been completed. We don't
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know the exact date the celebration occurred, though it was
probably most or all of the roughly fifty colonists who
had survived the brutal first winter. We don't know which
Wampanog men accompanied Massasoi, though ninety men represents a significant
delegation that would have included important leaders, warriors, and probably
some of Massasoit's close relatives. We don't know which Wampanoag
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men accompanied Massasoit, though ninety men represents a significant delegation
that would have included important leaders, warriors, and probably some
of Massasoit's close relatives. We don't know if there were
any formal speeches, prayers, or ceremonies, though given the diplomatic
importance of the gathering there almost certainly were. We don't
know if there were any formal speeches, prayers, or ceremonies,
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though given the diplomatic importance of the gathering there almost
certainly were. We don't know what languages were spoken or
how communication was facilitated, though Tis Quantum and possibly others
would have served as interpreters. We don't know what the
weather was like, where exactly people gathered, how the food
was prepared and served, or countless other details that would
bring the event to life. What we can say with
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confidence is that this was a three day gathering that
brought together the Plymouth colonists and a large Wampinaud delegation
in the autumn of sixteen twenty one. It involves significant
amounts of food, including foul and venison. It was connected
to the successful completion of the harvest, and it was
important enough for both groups to invest considerable time and resources.
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Beyond these basic facts were largely in the realm of
inference and speculation. That hasn't stopped generations of Americans from
confidently describing the First Thanksgiving as if they had personally attended.
Let's talk about some of the most persistent myths about
the First Thanksgiving that hasn't stopped generations of Americans from
confidently describing the First Thanksgiving as if they had personally attended.
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One of the most common misconceptions is that the sixteen
twenty one gathering was consciously understood by the participants as
the first Thanksgiving, as if the colonist and Wampanogue knew
they were establishing a tradition that would be celebrated annually thereafter.
This is completely false. The colonists didn't call this event
a Thanksgiving, they didn't record it as particularly significant at
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the time, and they didn't repeat it annually. The Puritan
concept of Thanksgiving days was quite different from harvest celebrations.
Thanksgiving days were solemn religious occasions, proclaimed for specific reasons,
and not tied to the calendar. The Plymouth colonists observed
various Thanksgiving Days over the years, but these were days
of prayer and fasting, not feasting, and were unrelated to
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the sixteen twenty one harvest celebration. Another pervasive myth is
that the gathering was initiated by the colonists who invited
the Wampanoague to join them in celebration as a gesture
of friendship and gratitude. The historical evidence actually suggests something
quite different. The Wampanog delegation was large, about ninety men
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compared to roughly fifty English colonists, including women and children.
They brought significant contributions to the feast in the form
of five deer. This wasn't the behavior of guests politely
invited to dinner, but rather the behavior of participants in
a diplomatic exchange. Some historians have suggested that the Wampanog
may have actually shown up uninvited, hearing the noise of
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the colonists must get fired during their celebrations and coming
to investigate whether there was danger or conflict maso. So
it may have decided that this was an opportunity to
formalize the alliance between the Wampanogue and the English, and
to demonstrate Wampanog's strength and generosity by contributing substantially to
the feast. The power dynamics of this situation are worth
considering carefully. The Plymouth colonists were not in a position
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of strength in sixteen twenty one. They had barely survived
their first winter, losing half their number to disease and starvation.
They were dependent on the wampanoag for knowledge about how
to survive in this environment. They were vastly outnumbered by
the indigenous population of the region. They were disconnected from
their home country by thousands of miles of ocean, with
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no guarantee that supply ships would arrive when needed. The
wampanoau Ogg, on the other hand, were on their own territory.
They were disconnected from their home country by thousands of
miles of ocean, with no guarantee that supply ships would
arrive when needed. The Wampanogu, on the other hand, were
on their own territory. The notion that this gathering was
primarily about the colonists generously including the Wampanogue in their
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celebration gets the power dynamics almost exactly backward. The mythology
around what was eaten at the first Thanksgiving is particularly
rich with inventions and anachronisms. The mythology around what was
eaten at the first Thanksgiving is particularly rich with inventions
and anachronisms. Let's go through the iconic Thanksgiving foods one
by one and separate fact from fiction. Turkey has become
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so central to the Thanksgiving meal that the holiday is
sometimes called Turkey Day. Most Americans would consider a Thanksgiving
without turkey to be incomplete. Turkey has become so central
to the Thanksgiving meal that the holiday is sometimes called
Turkey Day. But while wild turkey was native to the
region and was probably part of the sixteen twenty one feast,
it wasn't the centerpiece of the meal, and certainly wasn't
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the symbol of the occasion. Winslow's letter mentions foul but
doesn't specify turkey. The fowl that were hunted probably included ducks, geese,
and swans, all of which were abundant in the area
and were familiar game birds to the English. Wild turkey
would have been just one option among many. There's no
evidence it was privileged over other birds. It's also worth
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noting that the turkeys the colonists would have hunted were
wild turkeys. Wild turkey would have been just one option
among many. There's no evidence that was privileged over other birds.
It's also worth noting that the turkeys the colonists would
have hunted were wild turkeys. They're actually capable of flight,
unlike domestic turkeys, which have been bred to be so
heavy that they can barely walk. A wild turkey prepared
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using seventeenth century cooking methods would have been roasted on
a spit over an open fire, or possibly stewed. It
would have tasted quite different from a modern oven roasted
domestic turkey basted with butter stuffing. That beloved side dish
that many people actually prefer to The turkey itself almost
certainly didn't exist at the sixteen twenty one feast in
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any form we would recognize. The English did have a
tradition of stuffing birds with herbs on us and bread
crumbs before roasting them, but the colonists had no wheat
flour with which to make bread. Their wheat crop had failed.
They were dependent on corn for their grain needs. While
they could and did make corn bread, it wouldn't have
had the texture or flavor of wheat bread their wheat
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crop had failed. Moreover, the elaborate bread based stuffing recipes
we associate with Thanksgiving, often enriched with butter, celery, sage,
and other ingredients, are much later inventions. If any birds
were stuffed at the sixteen twenty one feast. It would
have been with simple ingredients like wild herbs and onions.
It's entirely possible that no stuffing was used at all.
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Mashed potatoes are another Thanksgiving staple that definitely weren't present
in sixteen twenty one. Potatoes native to South America had
been introduced to Europe by Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century,
but they were slow to gain acceptance and weren't widely
cultivated in England during the early seventeenth century. The Pilgrims
wouldn't have brought potato seeds or tubers with them. Potatoes
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weren't being grown in New England at that time. Even
if potatoes had somehow been available, the dish we know
as mashed potatoes, with potatoes boiled and mashed with butter
and milk or cream, requires dairy products that the colonists
didn't have. They had no cattle during their first year.
The idea of serving mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving is a
much later development, probably dating to the nineteenth century, when
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potatoes had become a common staple crop and the dish
had become popular in American cuisine. Cranberry sauce is so
associated with Thanksgiving that many people consider it essential, whether
in the form of wholeberry sauce or the jellied cylinder
that slides out of a can with its canridges. Intact,
cranberries were indeed native to New England and were known
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to both the Wampanog and the colonists. The Wampanogue used
cranberries in various ways, including in Pemmican, a mixture of
dried meat, fat, and berries that could be stored for
long periods. However, the sweet cranberry sauce we know today
requires substantial amounts of sugar. The colonists had very little sugar.
Sugar was an expensive imported commodity. What little the colonists
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had brought with them would have been reserved for medicinal
use or very special occasions. Cranberries in their natural state
are extremely tart and astringent. While they might have been
served at the sixteen twenty one feast, they would have
been prepared quite differently from modern cranberry sauce, perhaps dried
or mashed with other ingredients to make them more palatable.
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Pumpkin pie has become so iconic that it appears in
countless Thanksgiving illustrations and is many people's favorite part of
the meal. But there was no pumpkin pie at the
sixteen twenty one feast, and there couldn't have been. Pumpkins
were native to North America and were cultivated by the Wampanog,
so the colonists would have had access to pumpkins and
probably did eat them in various forms. The Wampanog roasted
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pumpkin's whole in the ashes of fires, they cut them
into strips and dried them for storage, or they stewed them.
The colonists might have adopted some of these operations, but
they couldn't have made pumpkin pie as we know it.
Pie requires pastry, which requires wheat flour, which the colonists
didn't have. Even if they had managed to make some
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kind of crust from corn meal, they lacked the butter
and the sugar needed for a proper pie, and they
didn't have ovens suitable for baking. The evolution of pumpkin
pie was a gradual process that took place over many decades,
as wheat flour became available, sugar became cheaper and more accessible,
and cooking technology improved. Sweet potatoes Another Thanksgiving staple, particularly
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in the South, where they're often prepared with marshmallows or
in pie form, weren't at the sixteen twenty one feast either.
Sweet potatoes are native to Central and South America and
weren't widely cultivated in English colonies during the early seventeenth century.
The confusion between sweet potatoes and regular potatoes in historical
sources is considerable, but it's clear that neither type of
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potato was part of the sixteen twenty one menu. Green
Bean casserole, that beloved dish of green bean, cream of
mushroom soup, and French fried onions that appears on countless
Thanksgiving tables is a twentieth century invention. It was specifically
created in nineteen fifty five by the Campbell Soup Company
as a way to sell more cream of mushroom soup.
Dinner rolls weren't possible without wheat flour, which the colonists lacked.
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Yeast love and wheatbread would have seemed like an almost
unimaginable luxury to people who had been struggling to survive.
So if the modern Thanksgiving menu is almost entirely fictional,
what did they actually eat at the sixteen twenty one gathering.
Based on Winslow's letter and our knowledge of what foods
were available in coastal New England in autumn, we can
reconstruct a probable menu, though we have to acknowledge that
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much of this is educated guesswork. There was definitely wild fowl.
This included some combination of ducks, geese, swans, and possibly turkeys.
These would have been roasted on spits over open fires,
or possibly stewed in large pots. There was definitely wild fowl.
This would have been paired in various ways, including roasting, stewing,
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and possibly drying some of the meat for preservation, or
possibly stewed in large pots. There was venison from the
five deer the Wampanog brought. The Wampanog might have prepared
the venison according to their traditional methods, which could have
included cooking it with corn and beans in a sort
of stew. There was corn prepared in multiple ways that
reflected both English and Wampanog food traditions. There might have
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been corn porridge or hominy, where dried corn is treated
with lye to remove the hull and then boiled until tender.
There might have been corn bread made from ground corn meal,
though without wheat flour and with limited access to fat
and leavening agents, this would have been quite different from
modern corn bread. There was almost certainly succotash, the Wampanog
dish of corn and beans cooked together, which the English
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had adopted because it was nutritious, filling, and made use
of the two most important crops they had successfully harvested.
The Wampanog named for this dish referred to the fact
that the ingredients were cooked together until the beans were
soft enough to eat. There were beans, probably both fresh
green beans and dried beans from earlier in the harvest season.
The beans would have been prepared simply, likely boiled with herbs,
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and possibly with small amounts of meat. There were beans,
probably both fresh green beans and dried beans from earlier
in the harvest season. Squash could be prepared in numerous ways,
including roasting it whole in the ashes of fires, cutting
it into pieces and boiling it, or mashing it. The
English were familiar with various types of squash and gourds,
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so this wouldn't have been a completely foreign food to them,
though the American varieties they encountered were different from European squashes.
There was probably seafood, which was abundant in the coastal
waters and estuaries around Plymouth. Both groups harvested it extensively.
This might have included fish, both fresh and smoked or
dried for preservation. It might have included eels, which the
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colonists initially found repellent, but which were extremely abundant in
local streams. They eventually learned to appreciate them. It might
have included eels, which the colonists initially found repellent, but
which were extremely abundant in local streams. They eventually learned
to appreciate them. They could be gathered easily along the shore,
particularly after storms, when they would be washed up on
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the beach. The idea of lobster as a luxury food
is a much later development. There were nuts, including walnuts,
hickory nuts, chestnuts, and possibly acorns that had been processed
to remove their bitter tannins. Nuts were an important food
source that could be stored throughout the winter. Gathering nuts
in autumn was a standard part of the seasonal round
for both indigenous peoples and English colonists. There were likely
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wild fruits that had been preserved from earlier in the season.
These included strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and grapes. Some of these
might have been dried for storage, while others might have
been preserved in other ways. There were probably root vegetables,
including onions and turnips, which the colonists had successfully grown,
though the root vegetable harvest would have been modest since
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they were still learning how to farm in this environment.
There might have been herbs, both cultivated and wild, used
to season the food. These included sage, thyme, and various
native plants. Both the English and the Wampaog used herbs extensively,
both for flavoring food and for medicinal purposes. There was
no dairy at this feast because the colonists had no cattle,
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no goats, and no sheep during their first year. This
means no butter, no milk, no cream, and no cheese,
all of which would have been standard parts of an
English harvest feast back home. The absence of dairy products
would have made the food seem plain and incomplete to
English palates accustomed to the richness that butter and cream provided.
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The beverages at the feast probably included water, which was
the primary drink for both groups. There was possibly beer,
though the colonist's supply of English beer would have been
running low by autumn and they hadn't yet begun brewing
their own. They might have made a weak beer from corn,
a practice they learned from the indigenous peaple, though this
would have been quite different from the barley and hop's
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beard they were accustomed to. There was no wine, no
cider since the apple orchards they would later plant hadn't
yet been established, and no spirits, though both the English
and the Wampanog were familiar with various fermented and alcoholic beverages.
The manner of eating at the sixteen twenty one gathering
would have been quite different from a modern Thanksgiving dinner.
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The English would have been accustomed to eating from wooden trenchers.
These were thick wooden plates that might be shared between
two people. They used knives and their fingers to eat,
forks weren't yet common in England and wouldn't become standard
eating implements until later in the seventeenth century. The Wampanog
might have eaten from wooden bowls or from sections of
bark folded to create containers. Both groups would have used
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their hands extensively to eat, with only knives as utensils.
The food would have been served communally, with large platters
or pots from which people helped themselves, rather than being
individually plated as we would do today. The setting for
the feast would have been outdoors, whether permitting, or possibly
in a combination of indoor and outdoor spaces. The setting
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for this feast would have been outdoors, whether permitting or
possibly in a combination of indoor and outdoor spaces. More likely,
the feast took place in the common area of the settlement,
perhaps with the food cooked over outdoor fires and people
gathering in groups to eat and socialize. More likely, the
feast took place in the common area of the settlement.
The three day duration of the gathering suggests that this
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was in a single elaborate meal, but rather an extended
period of feasting, games, demonstrations, and diplomatic exchange, with food
being prepared and consumed throughout. The diplomatic and political dimensions
of this gathering are crucial to understanding its significance, yet
these aspects are almost completely absent from the mythologized version
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of the First Thanksgiving taught to school children. This wasn't
primarily a social event where the English and Wampanoag came
together out of spontaneous friendship and good feeling. It was
a carefully calibrated diplomatic encounter between two groups who had
formed an alliance earlier in the year and who were
in the process of working out the terms of their relationship.
Massasoit had made the strategic decision to alli with the
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Plymouth colonists as a counterweight to rival indigenous nations, particularly
the Narragansetts, with whom the Wampanoag had a tense relationship.
The alliance between the Wampanogu and the English was formalized
in a treaty negotiated in March of sixteen twenty one,
shortly after the colonist's arrival. This treaty was actually quite
favorable to the English. It required the wampanog and the
(22:34):
English was formalized in a treaty negotiated in March of
sixteen twenty one, shortly after the colonist's arrival. This treaty
was actually quite favorable to the English. In return, the
English were supposed to provide similar reciprocal support to the Wampanogue.
The treaty was negotiated at a moment when the Wampanogu
were in a weakened position. They had suffered catastrophic population
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losses from epidemics introduced by earlier European contacts. Estimates suggests
that up to ninety percent of the indigenous population of
coastal New England died in the years immediately preceding the
Plymouth Settlement. This created a demographic and political crisis that
shaped Massasoit's calculations about whether to ally with or oppose
the English newcomers. The sixteen twenty one harvest gathering needs
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to be understood in this context of strategic alliance, rather
than as an expression of simple friendship or hospitality. Massasoit's
presence with ninety men was a show of strength. It
was a demonstration that despite the population losses the Wampanoake
had suffered, they could still feel a significant force of warriors.
The Wampanoak contribution of five dar wasn't just generosity. It
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was a demonstration of their prowess as hunters and their
ability to provision themselves and their allies. The three day
duration of the gathering would have provided ample time for
diplomatic discussions, time for Massasoit and the English leaders to
reinforce the terms of their alliance, and time for both
sides to take the measure of the other. From the
Wampenwog perspective, this gathering would have been understood within their
(24:04):
existing frameworks for diplomatic feasts and alliance building ceremonies. Sharing
food was a crucial part of Wampenwog diplomacy. Communal feasts
served to bind groups together through the reciprocal obligations created
by giving and receiving hospitality. Sharing food was a crucial
part of Wampanoade diplomacy. The Wompinaud had sophisticated diplomatic traditions
(24:26):
that included formal speeches, the exchange of gifts, and elaborate
protocols for hosting and being hosted. The Wampanogue had sophisticated
diplomatic traditions that included formal speeches, the exchange of gifts,
and elaborate protocols for hosting and being hosted. One of
the most problematic aspects of the First Thanksgiving mythology is
(24:46):
the way it erases the subsequent history of conflict between
English colonists and indigenous peoples. The story is told to
school children often ends with the sixteen twenty one Feast,
leaving the impression that the colonists and Native Americans lived
happily ever after in peace and harmony. The historical reality
is dramatically different. The alliance between Plymouth Colony and the
(25:08):
Wampanogue would last for about fifty years until it was
shattered by King Philip's War in sixteen seventy five. This
was one of the bloodiest conflicts in American history relative
to population. This war resulted in the deaths of thousands
of Indigenous people and hundreds of English colonists. It led
to the destruction of numerous towns on both sides, and
(25:29):
it brought about the effective end of indigenous independence in
southern New England. Massisot himself remained allied with the English
until his death in the sixteen sixties, but his son Medicom,
known to the English as King Philip, came to view
the ever expanding English settlements as an existential threat to
indigenous survival. The war was devastating for indigenous peoples. It
(25:51):
resulted not just in deaths during combat, but in the
systematic destruction of indigenous survival. He launched a desperate war
to drive the colonists out. Those who remained were permanently displaced.
The Wampanogu, who had welcomed the pilgrims and shared their
knowledge and their harvest, were largely destroyed within two generations,
and their culture was disrupted. The Wampanoague, who had welcomed
(26:13):
the pilgrims and shared their knowledge and their harvest, were
largely destroyed within two generations. Their lands were taken, their
population was decimated. From an Indigenous perspective, Thanksgiving is a
reminder not of peaceful coexistence, but of betrayal, broken treaties,
stolen land, and cultural genocide. Since nineteen seventy, Indigenous people
(26:35):
and their allies have marked Thanksgiving as a national day
of mourning. They gather in Plymouth to honor Indigenous ancestors
and to protest the mythologized version of history that erases
Indigenous suffering and resistance. These gatherings draw attention to the
ongoing struggles of Indigenous peoples, issues ranging from poverty and
health disparities to the fight for sovereignty and the protection
(26:57):
of sacred sites and natural resources. Spanog people still exist,
contrary to what many Americans assume. The Mashby Wampanau tribe
and the Wampanag tribe of gay Head, also known as Aquinna,
are both federally recognized tribes with reservation lands in Massachusetts.
They have maintained their cultural traditions despite centuries of colonization,
(27:18):
assimilation pressures, and attempts to erase their identity. They continued
to speak the Wampanoag language, which had ceased to be
spoken fluently but has been revived through extraordinary linguistic reconstruction efforts.
They continued to practice traditional arts, including basket making, beadwork,
and wampum belt weaving. They continue to practice traditional arts,
(27:39):
including basket making, beadwork, and wampum belt weaving. When the
Wampanad tell the story of the sixteen twenty one harvest gathering,
it sounds very different from the version taught in schools.
They emphasize the context of population loss from epidemics. They
highlight the political calculations that led Massasoa to ally with
the English, and they point to the subsequent betrayal of
(28:01):
that alliance. They note that their ancestors' generosity and knowledge
transfers save the colonists from starvation, yet this assistance was
repaid with land theft and violence. They emphasized that the
harvest celebration happened on Wampanog land, not English land, and
they stressed that the wampanag were not guests but hosts.
They challenged the assumption that their ancestors were awed by
(28:23):
English technology or culture. They point out that in many ways,
Wampanog material culture was better adapted to the environment than
English culture was. The Wampanague also challenged the narrative of
inevitable indigenous decline and disappearance. The Wampanogu also challenged the
narrative of inevitable indigenous decline and disappearance. The wampanog insist
(28:43):
on their continued presence and vitality. They are not historical
relics or tragic remnants of a bygone era. But indigenous
peoples didn't vanish. They are contemporary people dealing with contemporary
issues while maintaining connections to their ancestral lands and traditions.
The fight to maintain their reservation lands, to protect their sovereignty,
(29:03):
and to pass their language and culture to the next
generation is ongoing. They resent being trotted out as part
of a feel good historical narrative while their actual contemporary
concerns are ignored. The scholarly understanding of the sixteen twenty
one gathering has evolved considerably over the past several decades.
Historians have moved away from simple narratives of progress and civilization.
(29:27):
They now embrace more nuanced to understandings that take indigenous
perspectives seriously. They acknowledge the violence and dispossession at the
heart of the colonial project. They now embrace more nuanced
understandings that take indigenous perspectives seriously. Early histories of Plymouth Colony,
written by descendants of the Pilgrims or by historians sympathetic
(29:47):
to the colonial project, tended to portray the English as
heroic pioneers bringing civilization to a wilderness. Indigenous people were
depicted as either noble savages who graciously stepped aside, or
as as violent obstacles to progress who had to be subdued.
These narratives served the ideological purpose of justifying colonization and
(30:07):
westward expansion. They created a heroic founding myth for the
American nation. More recent scholarship has complicated this narrative considerably.
It emphasizes indigenous agency and perspective. It acknowledges the catastrophic
impact of colonization on indigenous peoples, and it questions the
assumption that the colonial project was either inevitable or beneficial.
(30:30):
Historians now recognized that the Wampanog and other Indigenous peoples
were not passive victims. They were not simply obstacles to
English settlement. They were active participants in a complex process
of cultural encounter and conflict. They made strategic decisions based
on their own interests and values, They adapted to changing circumstances,
(30:51):
and they resisted when resistance seemed possible. The fact that
they were ultimately overwhelmed by English numerical superiority, disease, and
military technology doesn't negate their agency or reduce them to
tragic figures in someone else's story. The fact that they
were ultimately overwhelmed by English numerical superiority, disease, and military
technology doesn't negate their agency or reduce them to tragic
(31:15):
figures in someone else's story. For nearly two hundred years
after sixteen twenty one, the harvest gathering was largely forgotten.
It was mentioned only in the brief passages in Winslow's
Letter and Bradford's History, neither of which was widely read.
Various colonies and later states observed Thanksgiving days proclaimed for
various reasons, but these weren't tied to the sixteen twenty
(31:36):
one event and weren't annual celebrations. The transformation of the
sixteen twenty one gathering into the first Thanksgiving began in
the nineteenth century and was driven by several factors. New
England intellectuals, seeking to create a distinctive regional identity and
to assert New England's importance in American history, began to
emphasize the Pilgrim story. They searched historical records for evidence
(31:59):
of earth early New England superiority. In this context, Bradford's
manuscript was rediscovered in England and published in eighteen fifty six.
The passage about the sixteen twenty one harvest began to
receive attention. Around the same time, Sarah Josepha Hale, the
influential editor of Godey's Lady's Book, began a campaign to
establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Hale wrote editorials, letters
(32:24):
to presidents and governors, and articles promoting the idea of
a unified national Thanksgiving celebration. She hoped this would help
bind together a fractious nation heading toward Civil war. Hale's
campaign eventually succeeded in eighteen sixty three, when President Abraham Lincoln,
in the midst of the Civil War, proclaimed a national
Day of Thanksgiving to be observed on the last Thursday
(32:45):
in November. Lincoln's proclamation didn't specifically reference the sixteen twenty
one Plymouth gathering, but in the decades that followed, that
event increasingly came to be understood as the origin of
the Thanksgiving tradition. The story was elaborated and embellished. Details
were added that had no basis in the historical record,
but that served the narrative purposes of creating a heartwarming
(33:06):
origin story. These additions emphasized themes of gratitude, peaceful coexistence,
and divine providence. By the early twentieth century, the First
Thanksgiving had become firmly established in American popular culture and education.
School Children across the country were learning a sanitized version
of the story. They performed Thanksgiving pageants featuring Pilgrims and
(33:27):
Indians sharing a peaceful meal. This mythologized version of the
First Thanksgiving has been remarkably persistent despite decades of historical
scholarship that has complicated and challenged the simple narrative. In
popular culture, the image of pilgrims and Indians sharing a
harvest feast remains powerful. It appears in everything from greeting
cards to advertising to political rhetoric about American values. The
(33:52):
story serves important cultural functions. It provides a shared origin
narrative for a diverse nation. It promotes values of gratitude
and generosity, and it offers a vision of peaceful coexistence
that can feel comforting in times of division and conflict.
But this comes at the cost of historical accuracy, and
it comes at the cost of Indigenous perspectives. It reduces
(34:15):
the wampanogue to supporting characters in someone else's story, and
it erases the subsequent history of violence and dispossession. Moving
toward a more accurate and inclusive understanding of the sixteen
twenty one gathering and its place in American history requires
several things. It requires acknowledging what we actually know and
don't know about the event based on the limited historical evidence.
(34:38):
We need to stop confidently asserting details that are speculation
or invention. It requires centering indigenous perspectives and recognizing that
the Wampanogue have their own understanding of this history. Their
perspective deserves to be heard and respected. It requires acknowledging
the context of alliance and strategic calculation rather than portraying
(34:58):
the gathering as simply an expression of spontaneous friendship. It
requires acknowledging the context of alliance and strategic calculation rather
than portraying the gathering as simply an expression of spontaneous friendship.
And it requires recognizing that the way we tell this
story has real consequences for contemporary indigenous peoples. It affects
(35:19):
how Americans understand the nation's history and its ongoing relationship
with indigenous communities. Some schools and communities have begun to
revise how they teach about Thanksgiving. They're moving away from
simple narratives and costume pageants. They're embracing more complex lessons
that acknowledge multiple perspectives and historical context. Some teachers use
(35:39):
Thanksgiving as an opportunity to teach about the broader history
of indigenous peoples in North America. They're embracing more complex
lessons that acknowledge multiple perspectives and historical context. Some teachers
use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to teach about the broader
history of indigenous peoples in North America. Others have reframed
it as a day to acknowledge Indigenous history and contemporary
(36:02):
indigenous issues. Some communities have stopped celebrating Thanksgiving altogether. They
see it as an attempt to make children feel guilty
about American history. But teaching accurate history, even when it's uncomfortable,
is essential for creating informed citizens who can grapple with
the complexities of the past and present. The choice isn't
between feeling good about American history and feeling guilty about it.
(36:25):
The choice is in between feeling good about American history
and feeling guilty about it. The Womponog children who hear
the traditional Thanksgiving story in school are learning that their
ancestors are props in someone else's narrative. They learn that
their perspective doesn't matter. They learn that the subsequent history
of violence against their people can be ignored. This is
(36:45):
not a neutral or innocent story. It's a story with
real consequences for how Indigenous children understand their own identity
and place in American society. The food at the sixteen
twenty one gathering, stripped of the mythological accretions of later centuries,
tells its own story about cultural exchange, adaptation, and the
blending of Indigenous and European food ways that would shape
(37:08):
American cuisine. The venicon, the foul, the corn, the beans,
the squash, and the other foods represented both continuity with
English food traditions and adaptation to a new environment with
different resources and different knowledge systems. The colonists were learning
to eat foods that were unfamiliar to them. They were
learning preparation techniques from indigenous peoples who had spent thousands
(37:30):
of years figuring out how to live successfully in this environment.
This process of culinary exchange and adaptation would continue throughout
American history, creating the distinctive regional cuisines that characterize American
food culture. This process of culinary exchange and adaptation would
continue throughout American history, creating the distinctive regional cuisines that
(37:51):
characterize American food culture. The real story involves strategic alliances
and cultural misunderstandings. It involves extraordinary generosity in the face
of devastating population loss. It includes the transmission of crucial
survival knowledge, and it marks the beginning of relationships that
would shape the history of the region for generations. It
(38:12):
involves real people making difficult decisions in uncertain circumstances, trying
to survive and protect their communities in a rapidly changing world.
That story, with all its complexity and ambiguity, deserves to
be told accurately, rather than being reduced to a simple
fable about Pilgrims and Indians sharing turkey dinner and living
happily ever after. Thanks for listening to this episode of Thanksgiving,
(38:35):
where we've separated fact from fiction and centered Indigenous perspectives
in understanding the sixteen twenty one gathering that's been mythologized
as the first Thanksgiving. Please subscribe for more episodes as
we continue exploring this complex holiday. This podcast was brought
to you by Quiet Please Podcast Networks, Quiet Please dot
(38:56):
Ai hear what matters.
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