Thanksgiving
was a harvest festival,
first held by the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony in 1621.
STUDY
EXERCISE
Activities,
Quizzes, Poems, Songs
The
PROTESTANT REFORMATION ^ In 1517, Martin
Luther broke with the Catholic
Church. PROTESTANTS
^ The word originated in Germany in 1529. "Protest" means
to stand for
something. Protestants were Christians who believed:
- in Christian creeds (statements of
belief)
- that the Bible
is the supreme authority in all questions of faith & religion,
- that
salvation is by faith alone,
- in two
sacraments (not the 7
in the Roman Catholic Church)
PURITANS
^ The Puritans
wanted King James
I to "purify" (make clean) the Church
of
England. They wanted to take away the fancy pictures and written
prayer of the Roman
Catholic Church. They said these things were not
in the Bible. The Puritans were farmers,
merchants, scholars. SEPARATISTS
^ They were one group of Puritans. They wanted religious
freedom from the
Church of England. They wanted the church and the government
to be separate.
In England, they met to worship in secret, but they were discovered
and persecuted, so
they decided to find another home. They ran away to Holland
in 1608, and then to
America in 1620. They came to America because they wanted
to keep their English
language and culture, not become Dutchmen.
PILGRIMS
^ The Pilgrims were a Separatist group.
They left England because King James I
did not permit religious freedom. Everyone was expected to
belong to the Church of
England.
The
SPEEDWELL ^ Two times the group
tried to come to America on this ship, but had
to return.
PLYMOUTH,
ENGLAND ^ The Mayflower left for
America from this city
in England.
The
MAYFLOWER ^ In 1620, for 66 days, the
Mayflower traveled
across the Atlantic. The
ship left Plymouth,
England on September 16, 1620, and arrived
in America on Saturday,
November 21, 1620. During the trip, one baby was
born and two people died. On Sunday,
the 22nd, the people on the ship rested and worshipped. On Monday
they came on land near what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts.
MAYFLOWER
COMPACT ^ The Pilgrims signed
an agreement for self-government.
PLYMOUTH
COLONY ^ The Pilgrims' first permanent
colony in the U.S. It was named after
the city of Plymouth, England.
The FIRST
WINTER ^ The Pilgrims landed
in a difficult New England winter. More than 100
Pilgrims had landed, but half died before the end of the winter,
including William Bradford's wife.
WILLIAM
BRADFORD ^ (1590-1657) governor of the Plymouth
Colony for 30 years. He was
a Separatist at the age of 17. He wrote
the History of
the Plymouth Colony. SQUANTO
^ the colonists' Indian interpreter and friend. He had
learned English from
explorers. He lived at the Plymouth Colony and taught the
Pilgrims how to live in the
wilderness and showed them how to
plant crops. The Indians gave the Pilgrims seeds for
Indian corn.
Squanto died in 1622.
MASSASOIT
^ the chief of the Wampanoag
Indians. A peace
treaty was signed and not
broken by either side. The
FIRST THANKSGIVING ^ The winter was very difficult.
Half of the Pilgrims died. But
the harvest in 1621 was bountiful. The Pilgrims celebrated the harvesting
of their first crops by giving thanks to God.
The Pilgrims had their first
Thanksgiving feast. They had Indian corn. Four Pilgrims hunted
wild turkeys. Fishermen caught cod and bass. The Pilgrims
invited Massasoit, who came with 90 Indians. Indian hunters brought five
deer.
The feast lasted three days.
The
GREAT MIGRATION ^ James
I and Charles
I pushed the Puritans out of England.
About 16,000 came to America during the Great Migration of 1630-40.
NEW YORK STATE adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom
in 1817.
SARAH
HALE ^ ... was the editor of a
magazine in 1846. She wanted to make Thanksgiving
a national holiday.
PRESIDENT
LINCOLN proclaimed
the first national Thanksgiving Day holiday in 1863.
THANKSGIVING
DAY HOLIDAY ^ is celebrated
on the fourth Thursday in November.
***
Today, tourists come to Plymouth,
Massachusetts to see the famous Plymouth Rock.
At this
rock, according to tradition, the first Pilgrims stepped on
land.
There is also a statue
of Massasoit, the Indian chief, and the Bible
of Governor
Bradford,
printed in 1592.
There is also a 106-foot copy of the Mayflower; this copy
is called the Mayflower
II.
It sailed from England in
1957.
Thanks
to the Pilgrims,
we have greater freedom
in religion & government today.
STUDY
EXERCISE
Activities, Quizzes,
Songs
| 
