Virginia holds two claims to a day of thanksgiving predating the widely popularized “first Thanksgiving” at Plymouth in 1621. Upon arrival of much-needed supplies from England in the spring 1610, following the Jamestown settlement’s “starving time” – the winter famine in 1609-the settlers greeted Lord De la Warr on the James River with a service of thanksgiving. A second Virginia claim goes back to the Berkeley Hundred colony in 1619: settlers sought to establish the “day of [the] ships arrival” to be “yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving.” Following the Great Attack on colonial settlements by Powhatan Indians in 1622, the colony was abandoned for over a decade, ending the continuity of that ritual.
Neither of those historical moments references the 15,000-year history of Native Peoples in what is now known as America nor the fact that indigenous peoples traditionally celebrated their annual harvest with a feast. Nor can these historical moments be connected with the annual holiday later celebrated by a nation not even conceived of at the time. Several other states, including Connecticut, Florida, and Texas, also claim to have held the real “first Thanksgiving.” The dispute over the holiday’s beginnings, while probably beyond resolution, underlines the symbolic weight Thanksgiving bears as a mythic link to, and re-enactment of, national origins. In this light, as an alternative to the Pilgrim story, Virginia’s assertion of Thanksgiving primacy acquired significance.
This Vignette Provided By
Pablo Davis - Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
