he Pilgrims, fleeing religious persecution, sailed from England to the New World aboard the Mayflower. They stepped ashore on Plymouth Rock and began a new colony. In unfamiliar territory, they came near starvation, but the Indian Squanto appeared and taught them to plant corn and make their living from the land. Led by William Bradford and Miles Standish, they survived these difficult early days, and when they brought in the first rich harvest, they set aside a day to give thanks to God for their good fortune. The chief Massasoit and their other Native American neighbors came bringing deer and wild turkeys, and together the Indians and the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving.
The vague history (more myth, really) of the first Thanksgiving presents a scenario of the encounter of New World and Old World people that existed for only a moment, if it existed at all. It involves one of the least typical, and least successful, groups of European colonizers of the North American continent. Yet Thanksgiving is an important celebration throughout the United States, and like most things central to American culture, it is complicated and multilayered.