Thanksgiving

in America

The Pilgrims sailed on the Mayflower across the Atlantic Ocean to reach North America. The Mayflower arrived in December 1620.

The Wampanoag Indians befriended the Pilgrims. They taught them to bury fish for fertilizer when they planted their crops, and how to cultivate the land. The Wampanoags brought the Pilgrims corn and turkey to help them through their first difficult winter on this continent.

The Pilgrims, under the leadership of Governor William Bradford, held a Thanksgiving feast in Plymouth, Massachussetts after their first harvest in the fall of 1621, and invited the Wampanoag Indians to join them. Approximately ninety Wampanoags, including their chief Massasoit attended. The Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days.

Unfortunately, as more and more English settlers arrived, they tricked the Wampanoags out of their land. They would give the Indians alcohol to get them drunk, then convince them to sign documents transferring title to their land.

Led by Metacomet, the Wampanoags tried to get this detestable practice outlawed. The British refused, and a war resulted. Many Wampanoags were killed. Some were forced into hiding. Others were captured and sold into slavery. The use of their language and tribal names was forbidden.

President George Washington issued the first national Thanksgiving Day Proclamation in the year 1789 and again in 1795.

In October, 1863, Abraham Linclon officially set aside the last Thursday in November for the national celebration of Thanksgiving. (Prior to this, other presidents made annual proclamations to specify the day.

The surviving Wampanoags were finally able to reclaim their identity in 1928.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the day Thanksgiving is celebrated to the Thursday before the last one in November in order to extend the Christmas shopping season in an effort to stimulate the economy.

It is still celebrated at this time today. Department stores typically offer Major sales the day after Thanksgiving on Black Friday, the official beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

The term “Black Friday” was coined in the 1960’s to refer to the day many retailers make the transition from doing business “in the red” to turning a profit -- thus getting their business back into the black.