Wampanoag People share a feast with Pilgrims

Unit 4

Unit 4: Summary

This Unit aligns with the Document Decoder - 1621 harvest celebration (Activity 4) in the "You are the Historian" Interactive Game.

Learning Themes:

In this unit, students will investigate the only surviving eyewitness account of the 1621 harvest feast and use other complementary sources to deepen their understanding of the spiritual world views, particularly around gratitude, which formed the foundation of events over the three days. Students will also explore how the 1621 harvest feast came to be known as the First Thanksgiving over the next 200 years and how the meaning of the holiday changes as new meaning is layered.

Key Ideas

  1. There is only one English eye-witness account of the 1621 harvest feast and no contemporary Wampanoag historical records to suggest their perspective on the event. Many details about the events are unknown.
  2. Harvest feasts and celebrations were well-established parts of both traditional English and Wampanoag cultures and were practiced in the 17th century.
  3. Spiritual and religious practices and beliefs about gratitude and thanksgiving shaped how the English and Wampanoag communities defined and celebrated “thanksgiving” in the 17th century.
  4. In addition to celebrations and expressions of gratitude, the 1621 harvest celebration can also be seen as part of a series of diplomatic and political encounters between English colonial and Indigenous communities explored in Unit 2.

Learning Goals

In this unit, students will:

  • Read and compare eyewitness accounts of the 1621 harvest celebration to understand how the Wampanoag and English colonists may have interacted during the event
  • Understand different Wampanoag and colonial English cultural practices of gratitude and how communities gave thanks in the 1600s and for generations in memorial.
  • Explore and describe similarities and differences in the ways various cultural groups meet similar needs and concerns.
  • Give example of how information and experiences may be interpreted differently by people from different cultural groups
  • Demonstrate how holding different values and beliefs can contribute or pose obstacles to understanding between people and groups
  • Describe interactions between and among individuals, groups, and institutions
  • Identify and describe examples of tensions between and among individuals, groups, and institutions
  • Show how groups and institutions work to meet individual needs and promote or fail to promote the common good.
  • Analyze conditions and actions related to power, authority, and governance that contribute to conflict and cooperation among groups and nations or detract from cooperation

Primary Sources

Peasants harvest wheat with scythes. A group of peasants rest under a tree by eating, drinking and sleeping.
The Harvesters
Excerpt from Of Plimoth Plantation
Excerpt from William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation - Harvest of 1621
Museum educators dressed in regalia and a man in Pilgrim dress reenact the wedding of William Bradford
Another feast in Patuxet (Plymouth): Excerpt from a letter from Emmanual Altham to Sir Edward Altham, September 1623
Edward Winslow letter 1621
Eye-Witness Account of the 1621 Harvest Celebration
Text of Psalm 100
Giving Thanks in Song - Psalm 100
Good news from new england text
A Day of Thanksgiving, Summer 1623
Museum educator dressed in regalia examines a turkey on the Historic Patuxet Homesite.
“Great store of wild turkeys…”
A Wampanoag person in regalia stands near a game ball.
“Among Other Recreations”: Games & Sports
Wampanoag People share a feast with Pilgrims
What did they eat at the 1621 harvest celebration?
Museum Educator holds a bowl of cranberries and sliced squash within a cooking arbor where quail is roasting.
Wampanoag Traditions of Giving Thanks - “For the Children of the Earth”

Essential Questions

  • How did the Wampanoag and the English colonists interact during the harvest celebration of 1621?
  • How did the American tradition of celebrating the holiday of Thanksgiving begin?
  • Why did Americans start telling the story of the “First Thanksgiving”? Why do some keep telling it?
  • What is the past? How is “the past” different from “history?”
  • What role do we have in creating history?
  • How do historians use primary sources and educated guesses to research the past and create history?
  • How can we celebrate Thanksgiving respectfully?

Suggested Activities

Grades K-5

  • Tell the events of 1621 harvest celebration from a Wampanoag point of view. Since Wampanoag histories are passed down orally as stories or using images such as wampum belts, we encourage students to illustrate the story or do a jigsaw and share stories. How do the stories change from one group to the next? What does this tell us about how history is written? How can historians make sure all voices are included?
  • Invite students to use what they learned to create their own poem, play, artistic piece, etc. that tells the story of the 1621 harvest celebration.
  • Bring a taste of the 17th century into your classrooms. Explore the 17th-century recipe for nasaump. Compare the Wampanoag and English ingredients and cooking methods. What do you notice? Challenge students to prepare the dish and see how it tastes.
  • Use this Homework Help essay to learn more about Wampanoag and English games in the 17th century or test your students’ wit with some 17th-century riddles.
  • Read the Winslow letter as a class or in small groups and use keywords to create a menu for the 1621 harvest celebration based on primary sources. Use this essay about English and Wampanoag food to help students expand their understanding about how diets change in the different seasons.
  • Take a virtual trip to the 1621 harvest feast. This virtual field trip produced in partnership with Scholastic features Plimoth Patuxet’s expert staff discussing the lives of both the Pilgrims and Wampanoag people, their collaboration, and the first Thanksgiving.

Grades 6-12

  • In groups or as individuals, students choose 2-3 probing questions from this list and use artifacts from this data set to formulate an answer based on evidence.
  • Using what they’ve learned, ask students to represent the recount the events of 1621 harvest celebration from a Wampanoag point of view. Since Wampanoag histories are passed down orally as stories or using images such as wampum belts, we encourage students to illustrate the story or do a jigsaw and share stories. How do the stories change from one group to the next? What does this tell us about how history is written? How can historians make sure all voices are included?
  • Imagine you are a reporter covering the 1621 harvest celebration for the local media outlet. What would be your headline? Write a script and shoot an “on location” news spot or write a news story about what happened.
  • Use this Homework Help essay or listen to this podcast episode to learn more about Wampanoag and English games in the 17th century. Using what you’ve learned, translate one of the games described in the sources into modern English. Do your best to outline the rules and try to play. What can you learn by recreating a game from the past?

Curriculum Alignments

    • K.T3

      How do we commemorate our shared history as a nation and community?

    • 3.T2

      How did Native Peoples live in New England before Europeans arrived?

    • 3.T4

      What were the challenges for women and men in the early years in
      Plymouth?

    • 3.T5

      How did the interactions of Native Peoples, Europeans, and enslaved and free Africans shape the development of Massachusetts?

    • Perspectives

      • D2.His.4.K-2., D2.His.6.K-2., D2.His.4.3-5., D2.His.5.3-5., D2.His.6.3-5.
      • D2.His.4.6-8., D2.His.5.6-8., D2.His.4.9-12., D2.His.5.9-12., D2.His.6.9-12., D2.His.7.9-12., D2.His.8.9-12.

    • Historical Sources and Evidence

      • D2.His.9.K-2., D2.His.10.K-2., D2.His.12.K-2., D2.His.9.3-5., D2.His.10.3-5., D2.His.12.3-5., D2.His.13.3-5
      • D2.His.10.6-8., D2.His.12.6-8., D2.His.13.6-8., D2.His.12.9-12.,

    • Causation and Argumentation

      • D2.His.16.3-5.
      • D2.His.14.6-8., D2.His.15.6-8., D2.His.16.6-8., D2.His.14.9-12., D2.His.15.9-12., D2.His.16.9-12.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.1

      Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.3

      Identify key steps in a text's description of a process related to history/social studies (e.g., how a bill becomes law, how interest rates are raised or lowered).

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.4

      Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary specific to domains related to history/social studies.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.5

      Describe how a text presents information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, causally)

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.6

      Identify aspects of a text that reveal an author's point of view or purpose (e.g., loaded language, inclusion or avoidance of particular facts).

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7

      Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.9

      Analyze the relationship between a primary and secondary source on the same topic.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.3

      Analyze in detail a series of events described in a text; determine whether earlier events caused later ones or simply preceded them.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.4

      Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including vocabulary describing political, social, or economic aspects of history/social science.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.6

      Compare the point of view of two or more authors for how they treat the same or similar topics, including which details they include and emphasize in their respective accounts.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.7

      Integrate quantitative or technical analysis (e.g., charts, research data) with qualitative analysis in print or digital text.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.9

      Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.2

      Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.3

      Evaluate various explanations for actions or events and determine which explanation best accords with textual evidence, acknowledging where the text leaves matters uncertain.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.6

      Evaluate authors' differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors' claims, reasoning, and evidence.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.7

      Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.9

      Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.1

      Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.6

      Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.9

      Compare and contrast one author's presentation of events with that of another (e.g., a memoir written by and a biography on the same person).

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.1

      Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.3

      Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events).

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.6

      Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.7.9

      Analyze how two or more authors writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.1

      Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.3

      Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories).

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.6

      Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.8.9

      Analyze a case in which two or more texts provide conflicting information on the same topic and identify where the texts disagree on matters of fact or interpretation.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.1

      Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.3

      Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.6

      Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.9-10.9

      Analyze seminal U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (e.g., Washington's Farewell Address, the Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt's Four Freedoms speech, King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail"), including how they address related themes and concepts.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1

      Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.3

      Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.7

      Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.9

      Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address) for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.6.6

      Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.6

      Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.8.6

      Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

    • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.9-10.6

      Acquire and use accurately general academic and domain-specific words and phrases, sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

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