Thanksgiving, often painted as a harmonious feast between Pilgrims and Indigenous peoples, is a cornerstone of the American origin story. But beneath the familiar images of shared meals and seasonal gratitude lies a far more complex history—one shaped by conflict, shifting narratives, and evolving meanings. As the United States marks another Thanksgiving, historians and cultural observers are taking a closer look at how the holiday’s story has changed over time, and what that says about the nation itself.
The classic tale begins in November 1621, when the Pilgrims—having survived a brutal winter that claimed half their number—sat down with the Wampanoags for a three-day harvest celebration. According to The Conversation, the Pilgrims owed their survival in part to the Wampanoags, who taught them to grow corn and navigate the harsh New England environment. This event, attended by about ninety Indigenous Americans and the English settlers, featured shared fowl and deer and is now widely recognized as the first Thanksgiving.
Yet, as The Conversation points out, this peaceful gathering was not the first of its kind on American soil. Indigenous peoples had long observed rituals of gratitude, and earlier European settlers had declared days of thanks in Florida in 1565 and along the Maine coast in 1607. Even the Pilgrims themselves held another day of thanks in 1623, celebrating rain that saved their crops from drought. It wasn’t until the 19th century, through the efforts of New England promoters and the annual mentions in presidential proclamations, that the 1621 Plymouth feast became the focal point of the national narrative.
However, the events that unfolded just four months after that iconic meal tell a different story—one marked by distrust and violence rather than fellowship. In March 1622, roughly 600 miles south of Plymouth, Opechancanough, a Powhatan leader, orchestrated a surprise attack on the English settlers in Virginia, killing 347 people in a single day. According to The Conversation, the Jamestown colony, founded in 1607, had survived only through the initial goodwill of Wahunsonacock (known to the English as Powhatan), who led a confederation of about thirty Indigenous communities and provided the struggling settlers with food and support. But after Wahunsonacock’s death in 1618, Opechancanough grew wary of English expansion, especially as colonists pushed further into Powhatan lands to plant tobacco—a crop introduced to the region by John Rolfe that quickly became the colony’s economic lifeline.
The violence of 1622 shattered the tenuous peace that had existed between the English and the Powhatans. News of the attack spread quickly to England, where the colony’s secretary, Edward Waterhouse, described the “barbarous Massacre” in a pamphlet, using language that cast the Powhatans as “savages” and vowed revenge. Over the next decade, English forces responded with a brutal campaign against the Powhatans, including the deliberate burning of fields at harvest time to starve and drive away the Indigenous population. As The Conversation notes, this cycle of conflict and repression became the defining pattern of European-Indigenous relations in North America for centuries to come.
Meanwhile, the positive legacy of the 1621 feast in Plymouth did not last. By 1675, simmering tensions between colonists and Indigenous peoples in New England erupted into a devastating war, one of the deadliest in American history on a per capita basis. The violence and dispossession experienced by Native communities became so pronounced that, by 1970, many Indigenous Americans began observing a National Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving, reflecting on generations of loss rather than celebration.
For much of American history, the story of Thanksgiving faded into the background. It was only in 1841, when early Plymouth diaries and letters were reprinted, that the tale of the 1621 celebration was revived, according to Letters from an American. This rediscovery inspired Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, to campaign for a national day of thanksgiving. Her goal was to promote unity in a nation increasingly divided over slavery, hoping that a shared holiday could ease tensions between the North and the slave-holding South.
The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, however, gave Thanksgiving a new—and urgent—meaning. As Letters from an American details, southern leaders sought to create a nation built on the principle of inequality and enslavement, directly opposing the idea that “all men are created equal.” Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860 was a response to the growing power of southern enslavers, and the subsequent secession of southern states plunged the country into conflict.
During the early years of the war, the Union’s prospects looked grim, and public morale waned. In November and December of 1862, seventeen state governors declared state thanksgiving holidays, hoping to inspire resilience and unity. New York governor Edwin Morgan’s proclamation acknowledged the nation’s suffering but urged citizens to give thanks for the sacrifices made in defense of the Union and its ideals.
Lincoln, recognizing the need for national solidarity, declared a national day of Thanksgiving on July 15, 1863, following pivotal Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Ministers across the country used the occasion to recount the military successes and reassure Americans that the nation would endure. In October 1863, Lincoln issued another Thanksgiving proclamation, celebrating not only military victories but also the nation’s perseverance, economic growth, and the promise of ending slavery. He invited all Americans, at home and abroad, to observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanks.
That same month, on November 19, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, invoking the Declaration of Independence and urging Americans to ensure that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” The following year, Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation celebrated emancipation and the courage Americans had shown during the trials of civil war.
Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated with parades, football games, and family gatherings, but its history is anything but simple. The holiday’s origins encompass both moments of genuine cooperation and episodes of violence and dispossession. As The Conversation and Letters from an American remind us, the stories we choose to remember—and those we forget—shape not just our holidays, but our understanding of who we are as a nation.
On this Thanksgiving, some Americans will gather in gratitude, while others will mark a day of mourning. The holiday’s layered history serves as a reminder that the American story is one of perseverance, conflict, and the ongoing struggle to define freedom and equality for all.
