Thanksgiving

Captain-General Menendez

Nearly 500 years ago in Asturias, Spain, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was born, one of the twenty children of Juan and Mary. Upon his father's death and his mother's re-marriage, Pedro was cast aside to a relative's watchful eye only to run away, pondering a better future. Some years on, having received his inheritance, he commissioned the construction of a warship and convinced relatives to sail under his command in search of adventure.

Having developed a cunning seamanship, he became famous for taking two French corsairs and chasing off a third in defense of Spanish freighters off the coast of Gallicia. These and other exploits made him known to the Crown, which eventually engaged him as their lead figure in the battle against the French for the resources of the new world. King Philip II appointed him Captain-General of the Spanish Treasure Fleet in 1554, and he successfully voyaged the Caribbean, returning great wealth to Spain.

After his son was shipwrecked in 1561, Menendez turned his eyes to Florida in the hopes of rescuing him. Turning away Menendez's requests to find his son, the Spanish crown instead gave him the task of putting aside the French, destroying the "heretical" Huguenot colony, and establishing Spanish rule. Through his skills as a commander, and with the benefit of a relentless storm that sacked several French warships, Menendez accomplished all of these tasks, and founded the oldest European settlement in the continental United States at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565.

The Susan Constant

And so it came to be that on September 8, 1565, Menendez and a group of soldiers, colonists and priests, having routed the French in grisly fashion, held what is said to be the first Catholic mass ever given in what is now the United States. Following the mass, and in keeping with a tradition that many cultures had observed in celebration of military or other triumphs, the group joined with the Timucuan Indians in a feast of Thanksgiving. Perhaps Menendez himself was thankful for his good fortune in accomplishing the tasks set before him, despite his difficult childhood, and despite the loss of his son.

Forty-two years later, in May 1607, 105 settlers and 39 crew members, sailing aboard the Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed, landed near what is now Jamestown, having been granted a settlement charter as the "Virginia Company" by King James I. While they skirmished regularly with the Powhatan Indians who inhabited Virginia, without the aid and supplies provided by the tribe - celebrated by a Thanksgiving feast - none would have survived the winter.

Pocahontas - 1616

One can imagine the plight of these colonists, having survived the ocean transit and faced with their first winter in the new world. Thankful for having made it to Virginia, but with very little foothold to survive. Only 38 remained in spring 1608. By 1612, Indian relations had deteriorated to the point that the colonists captured Pocahontas, who had helped them get through winter and prevented the execution of Captain John Smith. She married colonist John Rolfe in 1614, and died just three years hence.

On December 4th, 1619, a new group of 38 settlers arrived on the James River at the Berkeley Hundred. On that very day, they celebrated their arrival with a service of Thanksgiving. The group's charter read as follows: "We ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God." They were massacred by the Powhatans in 1622, and the few survivors retreated to Jamestown.

Further north, and much more known to most today, the colony at Plymouth had been established by those who took passage to Massachusetts aboard the Mayflower in 1620. Having gained a foothold, the colonists celebrated what is recognized today as the "First Thanksgiving" following the 1621 harvest, as had been their custom for celebrating military victories or good weather. The Indians apparently thought this was wise, given that their attendance of 90 nearly doubled the colonists' 53. The feast lasted 3 days, and was reprised in 1623 at the behest of Governor Bradford, this latter event being the first recognition of Thanksgiving by organized Government.

As the country formed, days of Thanksgiving were irregularly but spectacularly proclaimed. While the British occupied Philadelphia in the midst of the Revolutionary War, Samuel Adams drafted the first National Proclamation of Thanksgiving on behalf of the Continental Congress, then ensconced at York. George Washington as President proclaimed the first Thanksgiving day decreed by the Government of the United States in 1789. President John Adams decreed days of Thanksgiving in 1798 and 1799. National, state and local leaders continued to proclaim days of thanksgiving in a manner fit for their purposes.

But it wasn't until 240 years after its first civil recognition that the holiday earned its due. In the depths of the Civil War in 1863, Abraham Lincoln was persuaded by a series of editorials by Sarah Josepha Hale, coincidentally also the author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb", to make Thanksgiving a regular holiday. 150 years after its writing, Lincoln's proclamation, penned by William Henry Seward, still hits home with or without the divine influence:

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

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It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

That the first celebrants of this great holiday suffered so mightily and yet still felt fortunate is truly amazing, and serves as a reminder just how far our livelihoods have progressed. So for all of the bounties you celebrate this weekend, we say...

...Happy Thanksgiving.