Date and locale of ‘first Thanksgiving’ is debatable

Early “thanksgiving observances” in Florida by French colonists in 1564 and by Spanish colonists in 1565 have been swept aside in most versions of American history textbooks. 

Not to mention Texas. The Texas Society of Daughters of the American Colonists asserts that the “first Thanksgiving” actually occurred on May 29, 1541, at Palo Duro Canyon, near present-day Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle region. 

It is here that Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and 1,500 men celebrated a “Thanksgiving Mass” after an arduous expedition to the west coast of Mexico in search of the “Seven Cities of Gold.”

 

Instead of wealthy civilizations, Coronado found “pueblos of poor but industrious agricultural Indians,” one historian remarked. 

All of the above have been overshadowed by the English pilgrims in the colony of Plymouth (Mass.) in 1621.

 

A U.S. National Park Service (NPS) spokesperson said: “In the autumn of 1621, in celebration of their first successful corn harvest, the Plymouth pilgrims hunted wildfowl and held a feast that was attended by local members of the Wampanoag tribe who contributed five deer.” 

“Countless American schoolchildren know this communal meal as the famous ‘First Thanksgiving.’ It helps to remember that it is the victors who typically write history. British forces won out over those of Spain and France for mastery over the (North American) continent,” the NPS stated. 

“Thus, British observances, such as the annual reenactment of the Pilgrims’ harvest festival in 1621, became a national practice.”

 

When and where was the first Thanksgiving in North Carolina? Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer. Archivists at the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources provide some clues, however. 

In 1758, colonial governor Arthur Dobbs “issued a proclamation for a public Thanksgiving on the first Wednesday in December” (Dec. 6).

 

After the colonies declared their independence, North Carolina Gov. Richard Caswell declared a day of “general thanksgiving to Almighty God.” It was celebrated in New Bern, the state capital, on Dec. 18, 1776. 

Gov. William Alexander Graham, who served from 1845-48, was the first to call on the North Carolina General Assembly to make Thanksgiving an annual occasion and state holiday, a time “for the forgiveness of injuries…and for acts of good neighborhood and especially for the charitable remembrance of the Poor.” 

The legislature agreed, ratifying a joint resolution recognizing the holiday. Gov. Charles Manly, proclaimed Nov. 15, 1849, as North Carolina’s first Thanksgiving holiday. 

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. The date was set as the last Thursday of November. That tradition was continued every year until 1939. 

Faced with a November containing five Thursdays, retail merchants leaned hard on President Franklin D. Roosevelt to push Thanksgiving up a week, moving the date from Nov. 30 to Nov. 23 in 1939.

 

In that era, most people didn’t start their Christmas shopping until after Thanksgiving. Roosevelt heard “the voice of business,” and made the switch. In effect, Roosevelt “added a week to the Christmas shopping season.” 

At the time, a fellow named E.E. Scranton told The San Diego Union-Tribune: “Changing Thanksgiving to aid Christmas shoppers won’t help the men one bit. It is a well-known fact that men always do their shopping on Christmas Eve anyway.” 

Roosevelt took a lot of heat. While 32 states went along with the idea of moving Thanksgiving up a week, 16 states refused to budge, opting to celebrate on the normal “last Thursday” date.

To stabilize the situation, Congress acted in 1941, setting a fixed date for the federal holiday – the “fourth Thursday” in November.