American History chronicles numerous events called the "first" Thanksgiving. Perhaps the earliest recorded Thanksgiving celebration occurred 57 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1621.
The first American Thanksgiving was at a small colony of French Huguenots[1] who established a settlement near present-day Jacksonville, Florida. On June 30, 1564, their leader, Rene de Laudonniere, recorded that "We sang a psalm of Thanksgiving unto God, beseeching Him that it would please Him to continue His accustomed goodness towards us."
In 1610, after a hard winter called "the starving time," the colonists at Jamestown called for a time of thanksgiving. This was after the original company of 409 colonists had been reduced to 60 survivors. The colonists prayed for help that finally arrived by a ship filled with food and supplies from England. They held a prayer service to give thanks.
This thanksgiving celebration was not originally commemorated yearly. An annual commemoration of thanks came nine years later in another part of Virginia. "On December 4, 1619, 38 colonists[2] landed at a place they called Berkeley Hundred [in Virginia]. 'We ordain,' read an instruction in the charter, 'that the day of our ship's arrival...in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God.'"
While none of these Thanksgiving celebrations was an official national pronouncement (since on nation existed at the time), they do support the claim that the celebrations were religious. "Thanksgiving[3] began as a holy day, created by a community of God-fearing Puritans sincere in their desire to set aside one day each year especially to thank
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Dr. John Barnett
Thanks to God Energized by Grace DTBM, International
Pastor John Barnett has been devouring the Word of God for over 30 years. John, now the teaching pastor of Calvary Bible Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan has served congregations in Oklahoma, New England, Georgia and California. He also served on the Faculty of the Master's College...
