As feasts of thanksgiving were a relatively common cultural practice at the time, the Pilgrims’ feast with the Wampanoag was not identified as the first Thanksgiving until a booklet titled “Of Plymouth Plantation” was published in 1841. The booklet contained collected writings of the Plymouth colonial settlers. The editor, Alexander Young, pointed out the above passage as the original Thanksgiving in a footnote.
The United States:
Thanksgiving was a part of the national identity of the United States from its onset. During the revolutionary war, the Continental Congress declared one or more days of Thanksgiving each year. Rather then falling on an appointed day each year, these Thanksgivings were declared to honor individuals or events such as a battlefield victory. The proclamations were lengthy and wordy affairs, such as this December example:
It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive Powers of these United States to set apart Thursday, the eighteenth Day of December next, for Solemn Thanksgiving and Praise: That at one Time and with one Voice, the good People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts, and consecrate themselves to the Service of their Divine Benefactor; and that, together with their sincere Acknowledgments and Offerings, they may join the penitent Confession of their manifold Sins, whereby they had forfeited every Favor; and their humble and earnest Supplication that it may please God through the Merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of Remembrance; That it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public Council of the whole: To inspire our Commanders, both by Land and Sea, and all under them, with that Wisdom and Fortitude which may render them fit Instruments, under the Providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States, the greatest of all human Blessings, Independence and Peace: That it may please him, to prosper the Trade and Manufactures of the People, and the Labor of the Husbandman, that our Land may yield its Increase: To take Schools and Seminaries of Education, so necessary for cultivating the Principles of true Liberty, Virtue and Piety, under his nurturing Hand; and to prosper the Means of Religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that Kingdom, which consisteth “in Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost.
After the end of the Revolutionary war, Thanksgivings continued be periodically declared. President John Adams proclaimed Thanksgivings in 1798 and 1799. Thomas Jefferson was a deist and a skeptic of the idea of divine intervention. Thanksgiving was at that time associated with giving thanks to God, not to other men, and because of this Jefferson did not declare any thanksgiving days during his presidency. James Madison renewed the tradition in 1814. Madison also declared the holiday twice in 1815; however, none of these were celebrated in conjunction with autumn or the harvest.
The Civil War
Thanksgiving as we know it came to life during the American Civil War. In 1863 Lincoln, in a bid for national unity, declared a national day of Thanksgiving, to be celebrated the final Thursday of November, 1863. Of this decision William Seward, Lincoln’s secretary of state, wrote:
