Eye-Witness Account of the 1621 Harvest Celebration

In a letter to a friend in England, “E.W.” (Pilgrim Edward Winslow) wrote the only eye-witness record of the celebration that survives. It was published in the colony’s first promotional pamphlet known today as Mourt’s Relation. Edward Winslow notes “many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men...” Who were the many Indigenous People in addition to Ousamequin (Massasoit) and his 90 Pokanoket men? They may have been representatives of other communities within Ousamequin’s sphere of diplomatic influence. Only a few weeks before, on September 13, several sachems (probably also accompanied by trains of men) came to Plymouth for diplomatic talks and treaty agreements. According to Nanepashemet, “the 17th century Wampanog would have understood alliances in terms of oral agreements accompanied by a ritual exchange of gifts which certified the pact. If either party chose to end the treat then it was invalid as far as they were concerned. Renewal of the treaties would be necessary, perhaps on a regular basis, in order to keep alive the memory of the terms.”¹Wampanoag and Penobscot historian and educator, Nancy Eldridge, asserted that “it is probable that [Ousemequin’s attendance at the celebration] was a political show of force.”²

Indigenous women and children may also have been part of the group. Following the March alliance, Ousamequin informed the English that their wives and women “would come and set corn on the other side of the brook, and dwell there all summer.” Because farming is traditionally women’s work in Wampanoag culture, perhaps these families were still in the area following the harvest. Of the 102 Mayflower passengers, about half were alive at the First Thanksgiving: 24 men, five women, and 24 children and teenagers. Survivors ranged in age from Peregrine White, born in December 1620 aboard Mayflower in Cape Cod Bay, to Elder William Brewster in his fifties.

In 1841, Unitarian minister and antiquarian Alexander Young published a compendium of source excerpts about Plymouth Colony entitled Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers. Because the passage describing the event resembled the Thanksgiving feasts popular at his time, he annotated it with a footnote, “This was the first Thanksgiving, the harvest festival of New England.”³

Transcription

Edward Winslow wrote these few lines in a letter to a friend in 1621. This letter was printed in a book, Mourt’s Relation, in 1622. Winslow was at the harvest celebration and is the only person we know who wrote about what happened. This letter can be pretty hard to read. Sometimes the letter “s” looks like an “f.” Also, people back then did not spell words as we do today!

Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week. At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some 90 men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

• Who was at the 1621 harvest feast? Is there anyone who might have been there who isn’t specifically mentioned?
• What happened? Create a sequence of events just from the details in the source.
  
• What do we know was eaten during the harvest feast? Based on what you know, what other foods may have also been eaten?
  
• How did the people of Pokanoket and Plymouth entertain themselves during the harvest celebration?
  
• Do you think Wampanoag women and children were there? Why or why not?
  
• How does this harvest celebration compare to your Thanksgiving?
  

• ¹ Wampanoag in the 17th Century” Plimoth Patuxet Museums Wampanoag Training Manual, 17
• ² Plimoth Patuxet Museums,You are the Historian: Investigating the First Thanksgiving Educator Resources (2002), 75
• ³ Alexander Young, Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers (Cambridge, MA: CC Little and J Brown, 1844), pg.231, Footnote 3.