Heather N. Kolich, ANR Agent, UGA Extension Forsyth County
In the elementary school version of Thanksgiving, the English settlers of Plymouth colony feasted with Native Americans and gave thanks for their first successful harvest. As always with history, there’s more to the story. William Bradford, who served as Governor of the settlement for over 30 years, recounted much of that history in his journal, published as Of Plymouth Plantation in 1856.
The Virginia Company of England financed the voyage to America, and the 102 Mayflower passengers, including 41 religious separatists known as Puritans, agreed to establish a permanent settlement in Virginia. They would repay the Virginia Company for their passage and future shipments of supplies by harvesting resources to send back to England.
After 66 days at sea, the Mayflower landed at Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where she stayed for six weeks while parties ventured ashore to locate a settlement site. As deeply religious people, the Puritans gave thanks often for deliverance from peril and for numerous providential happenings. One such event occurred during the explorations, when the venturers discovered a cache of corn and beans, which they brought back to the ship. Bradford wrote, “here they got seed to plant them corn the next year, or else they might have starved, for they had none.”
Because the site selected for settlement was in Massachusetts, some passengers asserted that their Virginia Company contract was void. To settle the dispute, the passengers drafted the Mayflower Compact, which created their own “Civil Body Politic” to “enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.” Forty-one male passengers signed this brief document on November 11, 1620, binding the colonists together to establish the settlement.
They finally came ashore in December 1620, and, lacking shelter, nearly half died from cold and disease. Of the 50 who survived, Bradford wrote that only six or seven were healthy, but they faithfully cared for all the others.
Still weak from winter sickness, the Plymouth colonists planted their first crops in April 1621. Squanto of the Patuxet tribe had joined the colony and served as guide and interpreter for the settlers. He taught the English how to plant and cultivate the corn seed they had taken during their explorations. The colonists also planted wheat and pea seeds they had brought from England, but these crops failed.
The corn harvest yielded enough for each person to have “about a peck . . . a week.” Throughout the summer, colonists fished to supplement their diet. They also sent out envoys to cultivate friendship and respect among the Native American tribes in the area. Several came to visit, including the people from whom the colonists had taken the corn, which they repaid from their harvest.
Gunshots in the fall alarmed Massasoit, leader of the Wampanoag. He collected 90 of his men and approached the colony, ready for hostilities. When they understood the colonists were hunting game for a feast, the Wampanoag men joined the hunt and the feast, staying in the settlement for three days. While this peaceful feasting is the basis for our Thanksgiving tradition, it was not the end of hunger for the colonists.
The ship Fortune arrived unexpectedly in November 1621. It brought confirmation of the Mayflower Compact but carried no supplies for the colony. Instead, it disgorged 35 new colonists who arrived without food, bedding, cooking pots, or adequate clothing. After provisioning the Fortune for her return voyage, and with 35 more people to feed, the Plymouth colonists endured a winter of half-rations.
Two more ships arrived in May 1622, bringing 67 more unsupplied colonists. The 60 men debarked from the second ship, Charity, refused to work and complained about the food the colonists provided. When Charity returned in September, the healthy men of that party departed, leaving their sick behind.
As famine loomed again, a ship sent to resupply Virginia colonies shared some provisions with the Plymouth settlement. This bounty was issued daily to make the food last until the harvest.
The 1622 corn harvest was poor. It suffered from neglect as the colonists built a fort, and from theft within the settlement “both by night and day before it became scarce eatable, and much more afterward.” Thieves “were well whipped,” but hunger fueled continuing theft. The settlers faced another famine and a lack of seed corn to plant next season.
Fortune arrived with the ship Discovery. Instead of hungry passengers, she carried trade goods. The Plymouth colonists bartered beaver pelts for beads and knives, which they took among the Native American tribes to trade for corn and beans. The native people, however, could not supply the quantity of food the colonists needed.
After their third hungry winter, the colonists abandoned the “common course and condition” policy, under which those who worked and those who didn’t received equal shares of food. Bradford wrote that the policy fueled resentment and discouraged labor, resulting in meager planting, neglected crops, and poor harvests.
With the “advice of the chiefest amongst them,” Governor Bradford assigned every family a parcel of land, put all boys and youths into the care a family, and charged the members of the settlement to “set corn every man for his own particular [need], and in that regard trust to themselves.” This new keep-what-you-reap policy “made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been . . . and gave far better content.”
Part of the 1623 crop was lost to drought. Yet, because they had planted in abundance and tended the crop with care, they reaped a “fruitful and liberal harvest.”
When two more ships arrived with passengers to leave at Plymouth colony, the “Old Planters” petitioned the Governor not to apportion their corn to the newcomers, but to require the newcomers to bargain or exchange goods with the planters by mutual agreement. The Governor’s approval satisfied both parties, because the newcomers were equally worried that the colonists would consume all the provisions they had brought.
The harvest of 1623 provided everyone with enough corn to last through the winter, and some planters had extra. Corn was “more precious than silver” for trading. With the 1624 planting season, the planters petitioned for ownership of their plot of land, not just the harvest. Again, the Governor agreed, and each person received ownership of one acre of land. This was the beginning of prosperity in Plymouth, and the colony did not experience another famine during the 30-plus years that Bradford was governor.