The year was 1620 and the month September. 86 years ago, in 1534, King Henry VIII sought a divorce from Catherine of Aragon; and Pope will not grant it. In a daring and deft move, he split the Roman Catholic Church and created a separate Church of England wresting the Supreme Divine authority from the Pope.
Persecution and Pilgrims
Every British citizen was expected to attend the Church of England, and those who didn’t were punished by the state. One group of farmers in Northern England, known disparagingly as the Separatists, began to worship in secret, knowing full well that it was treasonous.
They were hunted and persecuted, and many of them faced the loss of their homes and the loss of their livelihood. Driven by their passionate conviction, as it increasing became impossible for them to continue in this way, they began to seek another place to live.
The Separatists first fled to the Netherlands, a wealthy maritime superpower that was far more religiously diverse and tolerant. But while life in Holland was peaceful, it wasn’t English, and the Separatists feared that their children were losing their native culture. They decided that the only way to live as true English Christians was to separate even further and establish their own colony in the New World.
Mayflower
In September 1620, a small ship called the Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying 102 passengers—an assortment of religious separatists seeking a new home where they could freely practice their faith and other individuals lured by the promise of prosperity and land ownership in the “New World.” They were led by William Bradford, an ambitious enterprising man who had more than ecclesiastical designs.
They were the Pilgrims.
After a treacherous and uncomfortable crossing that lasted 66 days, they dropped anchor near the tip of Cape Cod, far north of their intended destination at the mouth of the Hudson River. One month later, the Mayflower crossed Massachusetts Bay, where the Pilgrims, as they are now commonly known, began the work of establishing a village, they nostalgically called Plymouth.
Throughout that first brutal winter, most of the colonists remained on board the ship, where they suffered from exposure, scurvy and outbreaks of contagious disease. Only half of the Mayflower’s original passengers and crew lived to see their first New England spring. In March, the remaining settlers moved ashore, where they received an astonishing visit from a member of the Abenaki tribe who greeted them in English.
Squanto leads Them to Life
Several days later, he returned with another Native American, Squanto, a member of the Pawtuxet tribe who had been kidnapped by an English sea captain and sold into slavery before escaping to London and returning to his homeland on an exploratory expedition. Squanto taught the Pilgrims, weakened by malnutrition and illness, how to cultivate corn, extract sap from maple trees, catch fish in the rivers and avoid poisonous plants. He also helped the settlers forge an alliance with the Wampanoag, a local tribe, which endured for more than 50 years and remains one of the sole examples of harmony between European colonists and Native Americans.
In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies, including the Wampanoag chief Massasoit. Now remembered as American’s “first Thanksgiving”—although the Pilgrims themselves may not have used the term at the time—the festival lasted for three days.
This shared autumn harvest meal held almost 400 years ago, is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. For more than two centuries, days of thanksgiving were celebrated by individual colonies and states.
A National Festival
However, the context changed dramatically. In 1789 George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation by the national government of the United States; in it, he called upon Americans to express their gratitude for the happy conclusion to the country’s war of independence and the successful ratification of the U.S. Constitution..
In 1817, New York became the first of several states to officially adopt an annual Thanksgiving holiday; each celebrated it on a different day, however, and the American South remained largely unfamiliar with the tradition.
Mother of Modern Thanksgiving
The famous nursery rhyme, “Mary had a Little Lamb” was written by the very prolific and persuasive Sarah Josepha Hale. In 1827 she took upon herself to get Thanksgiving Day recognised as a National Holiday. For 36 years, she published numerous editorials and sent scores of letters to governors, senators, presidents and other politicians.
Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War. In a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.” ,he scheduled Thanksgiving for the final Thursday in November, and it was celebrated on that day every year until 1939. Sarah was nicknamed ’Mother of Thanksgiving”.
‘Franksgiving’
During the Great Depression, the then President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in an attempt to spur retail sales. The move met with disapproval and derision. Called ‘Franksgiving’ disparagingly, its passionate and universal opposition, made him restore the event to the fourth Thursday of November every year.
Ever since, it has remained thus. A feast that commemorates the help and generosity of Indian Tribes recognised by early settlers, became the most celebrated National Holiday of US second only to its Independence Day.
(To Be Continued)
scribo ad LX 