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History
Most people know that the history of Thanksgiving occurs when the Pilgrims celebrate with Native Americans by sharing a large feast together after the natives help the Pilgrims survive in the Americas. Now years later Americans still celebrate Thanksgiving as a way to be thankful for everything we have, gather with friends and family, watch sports, and eat half our body weight in food. But what is the history of Thanksgiving and how did it become a national holiday?
In September of 1620, the Mayflower, a ship, left Plymouth, England to the New world. While many settlers had a variety of reasons to travel to the New World, mainly economic, pilgrims left England because of religious persecution and for more religious freedom in the New World.
However on the Mayflower the colonists suffer from many diseases like scurvy leaving half alive. Furthermore the ship wasn't well prepared for the journey leaving the colonists running low on food supply. Weakening the remaining colonists with malnutrition.
Arriving near Massachusetts Bay to create a village named Plymouth an Native American, Squanto, from the Patuxet tribe taught the Pilgrim how to extract sap from maple trees, catch fish, avoid poisonous plants, and many other valuable survival skills. But by far the most important ones being how to cultivate corn and forging an alliance with a local Native American tribe, the Wampanoag, which ended up lasting over 50 years.
That following November in 1621, after the first successful corn harvest the Governor William Bradford organized a celebration with the colonists and their Native American Allies lasting for days. Thus creating the first thanksgiving.
From this day Thanksgiving played an important role in American history. From celebrating the ratification of the U.S Constitution to trying to unify the country and promote care for others during the Civil War.
But it is always important to remember that it was thanks to the generosity of the Native Americans that led the colonists to survive and thus create America. So make sure to be thankful for them.