The Puritan colonists' foundation was in religious rebellion against the Church of England.  These separatists felt that King James failure to "cleanse" the Church of it's Roman Catholic origin and trappinds (such as religious icons) was blasphemous.  They'd been made unwelcomed in both England and Holland for their dissent and refusal to assimilate.  Upon their departure from Holland in 1620, respected member William Bradford coined the term "pilgrim" to describe their party.  Bradford was later elected governor of Plymouth Colony 30 times in that many years.

With poor educations, the Pilgrims were also practical.  They included among their number a professional soldier named Miles Standish.  Standish, along with other tradesmen and craftsmen, were called "Strangers" by the Pilgrims.  The Strangers were not Puritans.  As such, they did not consider themselves bound by anything other than their London Company Virginia land grant. 

Blown off course, the Mayflower passengers were prepared to assume residence on land not granted to them.  Ironically, it was mutual distrust between the Strangers and the Puritans that led to the creation of The Mayflower Compact,  hailed as the progenitor of written laws in the New World.  While there were 102 colonists, only 41 of them signed the compact.  Thirty-seven of that number were Puritan Pilgrims.  After their first winter in Plymouth Colony, half the Pilgrims were dead.

The Pilgrims settled and built a colony which they called the "Plymouth Plantation", near the ruins of a former Native village of Pawtuxet Nation.  Only one Pawtuxet had survived, a man named Squanto, who had spent time as a slave to the English.  Since he understood the language and customs of the Puritans, he taught them to use the corn growing wild from abandoned fields of the village, taught them to fish, and about the foods, herbs, and fruits of this land.  Squanto also negotiated a peace treaty between the Puritans ad the Wampanoag Nation, a very large Native nation which totally surrounded the New Plymouth Plantation. 

The surviving colonists had reason to be thankful for their first harvest in 1621.  The Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth in 1621, after a devastating first year in the New World the Pilgrim's fall harvest was successful.  There was corn, fruits, vegetables, along with fish which was packed in salt, and meat that was smoked cured over fires.  They found they had enough food to put away for winter.  At the end of the first year, the Puritans held a great feast following the harvest of food from their new farming efforts.  The feast honored Squanto and their friends, the Wampanoags.  The feast was followed by 3 days of "thanksgiving" celebrating their good fortune.

These Pilgrims had beaten the odds.  They built homes in the wilderness,  they raised enough crops to keep them alive during the long winter, they were at peace with their Indian neighbors.  Their Governor, William Bradford, proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving that was to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native Indians.

The custom of an annually celebrated thanksgiving, held after the harvest, continued through the years.  During the American Revolution a day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress.  President George Washington declared a day of thanksgiving to celebrate the new nation in 1789 -- and for it's welfare in 1795.  In 1815, President James Madison called for a day of thanks for the end of the War of 1812.  In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom.  By the middle of the 19th century many other states also celebrated a Thanksgiving Day.  Still, these thanksgiving days remained erratic until 1863.  In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of Thanksgiving.  Since then each President has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.  It wasn't until 1941 before Congress passed a law to declare Thanksgiving as we know it on the fourth Thursday in November.

How the Turkey got to be the Thanksgiving Day Bird

Here's a quilt on what the WWA family is Thankful for
 

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