THE
PILGRIMS
IN
AMERICAN
CULTURE:
THANKSGIVING
The Alleged Gov.
Bradford First
Thanksgiving
Proclamation
The "First Thanksgiving"
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For some years, a document (reproduced
below) described as Governor Bradford's first Thanksgiving proclamation
has surfaced periodically. It is supposed to date from 1623,
which is indeed the year of the first Day of Thanksgiving proclaimed
in Plymouth Colony. However, there are a number of problems with
this identification:
The date of celebration was given as
November 29, while the 1623 event happened in the summer, most
probably the end of July.
The 1623 event celebrated two events
- the end of a drought, and the news that a ship carrying new
colonists, feared sunk, was safe and in transit. It had nothing
to do with the harvest, activities of Native Americans, pestilence
or the establishment of the church.
Plymouth Colony had no pastor at this
time; the religious leader was Elder William Brewster..
The proclamation included anachronistic
terms such as vegetables, Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock..
Based on the above evidence, the proclamation
was probably created sometime in the 20th century. We have yet
to trace its origin with any more accuracy. If anyone knows or
finds any datable printed source which would help us, please
email us at this adddress: jimbaker@adelphia.net
"THE FIRST THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION"
"In 1623, William Bradford, the first Governor of the
Colony, wrote a proclamation containing the spirit of the first
Thanksgiving.
Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an
abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, squashes and garden
vegetables, and made the forest to abound with game and the sea
with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from
the ravages of the savages, has spared us from the pestilence
and granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates
of our own conscience, now I, your magistrate do proclaim that
all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather
at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of nine and
twelve in the daytime on Thursday, November ye 29th, of the year
of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the
third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Plymouth Rock, there
to listen to ye Pastor and render Thanksgiving to ye Almighty
God for all his blessings.
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