Some historians say Thanksgiving originated in Florida

Fort Caroline near the northern Florida coast just may have been the site of North America’s first Thanksgiving observance in 1564. It was a gathering of about 200 newly arrived French colonists and a band of Native American Timucua villagers.

 

French Huguenots (Protestants) who were seeking to escape religious persecution sought to form a refuge in the New World. Led by explorer Rene Goulaine de Laudonnière, they reached the coast of Florida on June 22, 1564, and proceeded to establish Fort Caroline atop a bluff on the St. Johns River, near present-day Jacksonville. 

On June 30, Laudonnière called for a banquet to celebrate their arrival. An archivist at the Jacksonville Historical Society (JHS) said: “The Timucua (tee-MOO-qua) Indians warmly welcomed the French Huguenots and helped prepare a feast in their honor.” 

Laudonnière wrote in his journal: “We sang a psalm of Thanksgiving unto God.”

 

Rene Goulaine de Laudonnière

“Given the depleted state of the French food provisions after their long journey,” the JHS noted, “much of the celebratory meal would likely have been provided by the Timucua, who were excellent hunters and had access to enormous granaries that were used to store and dispense commonly harvested agricultural goods.” 

“We can surmise that Laudonnière’s feast would have included corn, beans, squash and pumpkins (which the Timucua farmed on a limited basis) as well as local fowl, oysters, shrimp, mullet, deer and alligator. The group likely also enjoyed fresh cherries, blueberries, blackberries, mulberries and muscadine grapes – although there’s no record of any pie,” the JHS quipped. 

Historian Christopher Klein commented: “Unfortunately, divine blessings were fleeting for the French colonists.” 

For the most part, the French people got along OK with the Timucuans. That wasn’t the case, however, between the Frenchmen and the Spaniards. They were bitter enemies. 

When Spanish settlers arrived in 1565 in the St. Augustine area, about 40 miles down the Florida coast from Fort Caroline, their mission was to drive the French out of Florida. (In 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon had claimed all of Florida as a territory of Spain. The Spanish empire did not want to share.) 

Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés sighted land on Aug. 28, 1965, and named this section of Florida as St. Augustine, in honor of the Catholic saint whose “feast day” is Aug. 28.

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés

Saint Augustine

Menendez and about 800 Spanish colonists came ashore on Sept. 8. They were welcomed by another sect of the Timucua nation. (Timucuans occupied most of upper Florida.) 

The Spaniards immediately celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving. The late Dr. Michael Gannon, former history professor at the University of Florida and author of “The Cross in the Sand,” wrote that Menendez’s gathering “was the first community act of religion and thanksgiving in the first permanent settlement in the land.” 

Klein said: “From what we know of the food provisions stocked on Menendez’s ships, the meal that the Spaniards and Timucua people shared on Sept. 8, 1565, was probably cocido, a stew made from salted pork and garbanzo beans, laced with garlic seasoning, saffron, cabbage and onion and accompanied by hard sea biscuits – washed down with red wine.” 

“The Timucua, as invited guests, would have contributed food to the communal meal – likely local game and fish, along with grains, corn, beans, and squash” as well as “roast native fowl and marine animals, including alligators.” (It was much like the menu at Fort Caroline.) 

In the end, Menendez took control of Fort Caroline. It did not end well for the French colonists. 

From that point forward, Spain was in firm control of the Florida territory. Spanish missionaries used the language of the Timucua to communicate with other tribes. 

Who were these people? 

Klein said: “Each (Timucuan) family had its own home, but the cooking took place in the village, and meals were held daily in a central location.”

“The Timucua were skilled hunters and fishermen,” Klein said. “They used spears, clubs, bows and arrows and blowguns to kill their game…including bears, deer, wild turkey and alligators. They smoked the meat over open fires. The women would clean and prepare the animal hides and use them for clothing.” 

The men used a fishing trap called a weir, Klein said. “This trap was a wood fence that stretched across a stream or river to catch fish. Once the fish swam over the fence in high tide, the weir caught them as the tide went out.” 

Freelance writer Patrick J. Kiger said the Timucuans once numbered about 300,000 people. 

During the mild fall and winter months, the Timucua would migrate from the coast to the inland forests. “They planted maize, beans, squash, melons and various root vegetables as part of their diet employing ‘slash and burn’ technology,” Kiger said. 

“Large growth would be cut, and then the fields would be cleared with fire. The soil would be turned and broken utilizing the nitrates in the ash as an effective fertilizer. They would also collect wild fruits and berries and bake bread made from the root starch of the koonti plant. They cultivated tobacco and utilized a communal food storage system, suggesting crop surpluses.” 

“By 1595, contact with Europeans and the diseases they brought with them had decimated the majority of the Timucuans. By 1700, the Timucuan population had been reduced to a mere 1,000,” Kiger said.

A “First Peoples Exhibit” by artist Theodore Morris contains paintings based on archaeological evidence of 18th century original inhabitants from Florida. Two of his pieces showing Timucuan people are shown below.

 

“British incursions during the early 18th century further reduced the Timucua. The rival European nations relied on Indian allies to fight their colonial wars. The English allied tribes – the Creek, Catawba and Yuchi – killed and enslaved the Timucua, who were associated with the Spanish.” 

“By the end of the French and Indian War and the acquisition of Florida by Britain in 1763, there were perhaps 125 Timucuans remaining,” Kiger said. “This last remnant either migrated with the Spanish colonists to Cuba or were absorbed into the Seminole population. They are now considered an extinct tribe.” 

The Timucuan heritage lives on, however, at the Fort Caroline National Memorial and the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve in Jacksonville, which was established in 1953, thanks to the efforts of the late Congressman Charles E. Bennett. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949-93.

 

The 140-acre park is a unit of the U.S. National Park Service. The replica of Fort Caroline “has helped reignite this overlooked piece of history unique to Jacksonville,” said local historian Andrew R. Nicholas. 

We can all express our thankfulness.