A Colorful History: America’s First Thanksgiving

For as long as my flustered mind can remember, the fourth Thursday of every November of my life can best be summed up by the following keywords: turkey, pumpkin, stuffing, cranberry, pilgrim, cornucopia, parade and football.

If you were to build a color palette of my collective T-Day memories it would look something like this:

I had to throw in a little Avocado Green since somewhere in my mind’s eye I keep envisioning a packed solid dishwasher in this very descriptive hue of a late 70’s kitchen

source

and oh yeah, every Thanksgiving table of my childhood also included a set of candle just like these (except the girl’s dress was brown)- I guarantee you my mother still has them

This morning I had to wonder.  If I were to build a palette to describe the very first Thanksgiving what would it look like? I thought about Puritans, Indians and all things New England.  The colors wouldn’t be all that different- I would just have to throw in a few shades of  tanned animal skins and a pretty shade of weathered gray to represent Plymouth Rock, right?

Well, not so fast magical Photoshop tools.  After delving into a little holiday research, I realized not everyone is in agreement with how this palette would actually have first looked. Let alone who was there and where it was celebrated.

Could the official first feast of ‘thanks’ have been a little more colorful then we were all taught? I’m talking Palm Trees, sunny skies, gulf stream blue, some Spanish bean soup and even a bottle of French wine thrown in- just to ruffle the tail feathers of our Mayflower descendants a bit more.

In order to get these quite different versions of Americana history straight, one would have to head way south of Plymouth Rock to a sunny FLA some 50 odd years before the famous Puritans ever stepped one buckle shoe onto Massachusetts’ rocky coast.

According to his book The Cross In The Sand (first published in 1965), historian Michael Gannon believes that it was upon the sandy beaches of St. Augustine, FLA that the Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles first landed, settled and in true Spanish flair-extended a dinner invite to the local Timucua Indians. Legend has it their fiesta included a feast of bean soup.

Hmm.. not a pilgrim hat in sight

A 2007 USA Today article describes the book and Gannon’s version of the first ‘Thanksgiving’ celebration as going basically unnoticed for about 20 years.  It wasn’t until 1985 when an AP reporter picked up on the story and helped bring it to national attention.

At the time Gannon’s clever statement that ” by the time the Pilgrims came to Plymouth, St. Augustine was up for urban renewal” only helped to fuel the historical fire.

So does Conquistador Red need to be added to my historical palette?  Perhaps not says Kenneth C. Davis whose book “America’s Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation”, tells of yet a different tale. In his story the first Thanksgiving actually took place just outside of what is now Jacksonville, Florida and includes instead a cast of French Huguenots.

In an article last November in The New York Times, Davis weaves the tale of French pilgrims escaping the religious persecution of Europe to find solace in the new world.  Upon making land in 1564, the pilgrims threw their own soiree to celebrate the seeds of a new land.  Once settled the resourceful bunch were able to build a fort, a mill, a bakery and even produce their own wine (leave it to the French!).  It seems as if they had found la dolce vita, that is until the Spanish took it upon themselves to officially “evict’ their new French neighbors (for the lack of nicer words).

So does my color trail now lead me to include the colors of France fashion circa mid 16th century too?  Better yet am I truly prepared to rethink the entire image of this holiday?

If only this version could be the end of my palette’s plight.  I discover that Plymouth’s famous history has not only some Southerns with their pantaloons all up in a bunch, but a fellow Massachusetts town as well. Thanks to a few Cape ‘Codders’ the mystery grows even more.

It is there in Provincetown that they say the Mayflower first came to shore- six weeks prior to the pilgrims setting sail again and landing at their final destination of Plymouth Rock.  Upon these beach-y shores, the settlers signed the Plymouth Compact, discovered corn and traded goods for the first time with Native Americans.  Provincetown has spent the last 100 years trying to get this word out-that in fact it was here on Cape Cod that the pilgrims first touched American soil.  Yet unless you happen to vacation there, you probably would never ‘thoust hear of thee”.

In 2010 the Pilgrim Monument of Provincetown will celebrate 100 years of earnestly trying to rewrite American history

Geez, I’m starting to think Plymouth Rock just can’t catch a break! So whats to believe?

While I do find these historical accounts incredibly fascinating and I always love a colorful ’shake up’ of ideas, ultimately what I learned in childhood will likely be the way I will continue to think about this day in history.

For me the first Thanksgiving will continue to be a scene set upon a cool New England Autumn afternoon, a table full of the first harvested bounty and the meshing of two distinctly different cultures. In the name of giving thanks to faith, perseverance and friendship.

Of course in my mind it all plays out like a bad made-for-tv movie and includes a scene with a beautiful Indian princess attempting to teach some young studly ‘old English’ speaking pilgrim how to say ‘maize’ while his uptight WASPy parents look nervously on…you know, something like you might see Sela Ward star in on Lifetime.