Regardless of whether it was rooted in historical fact, it became accepted as such. On a parallel track, the story of the Pilgrim forefathers coming to the New World and founding America for religious freedom gained steam, as New England Protestants wielded the myth to gain the top spot in the country’s cultural hierarchy, above Catholics and immigrants, according to historian David Silverman in his book “This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving.”Īs Americans looked for an origin story that wasn’t soaked in the blood of Native Americans or built on the backs of slavery, the humble, bloodless story of the 102 Pilgrims forging a path in the New World in search of religious freedom was just what they needed, according to Silverman. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared a Thanksgiving Day on the last Thursday of November, looking to reconcile a country in the throes of the Civil War. The first national Thanksgiving Day did not invoke the Pilgrims at all. Lincoln’s first Thanksgiving Day didn't mention Pilgrims Their role in helping the Pilgrims survive by sharing resources and wisdom went unacknowledged that day, according to accounts of the toasts given by Pilgrim leaders. As for that 1621 feast - the supposed genesis of today’s Thanksgiving tradition - there was a small feast, but the Wampanoag were not invited, they showed up later.

The Pilgrims spent only a few weeks of 1620 in the Wampanoag village of Patuxet, which they would rename Plimoth (now Plymouth), and they certainly didn’t step off onto Plymouth Rock. It doesn’t start there because those things never happened, despite being immortalized in American mythos for generations.

It also doesn’t start a year later, with the Pilgrims and the native Wampanoag all sitting together to “break bread” and celebrate their first successful harvest and a long, harmonious relationship to come. The traditional story of Thanksgiving, and by extension the Pilgrims - the one repeated in school history books and given the Peanuts treatment in 'A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving' - doesn’t start in 1620, with the cold and seasick Pilgrims stepping off the Mayflower onto Plymouth Rock.

Pilgrims thanksgiving