Kathleen Wall, the amazing Colonial Foodways Culinarian at Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a living history project sponsored by the Smithsonian Institute, shared this on her Facebook page the other day. It’s a DVD about the true history of Thanksgiving, made by Kathleen herself.
The story of Thanksgiving, with its costumed Pilgrims, turkeys and pumpkin pie, zigzags through American history with some surprising twists. At the iconic Thanksgiving feast of 1621 — no pumpkin pie or cranberry sauce was served, and that event was wiped from the history books for 200 years! In the 19th Century, some southern states thought Thanksgiving was an abolitionist plot and refused to celebrate it. Thanksgiving didn’t become an annual national holiday until World War II! What started as a somber Puritan day of prayer is now about football and food. How did we get there?
Click here to listen to “Miles Standish” talk about the first harvest in Plymouth.
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