In 1621, the Governor of Plymouth Colony wrote a letter in hopes of attracting more colonists. In it, he described a three-day feast shared by the Plymouth settlers and the local  tribe. The governor sent out four men who provided a variety of fowls, sufficient to feed the colony for a week, while tribal hunters killed five deer. In the 19th century, this event became associated with the idea of a Thanksgiving feast. Thanksgiving is traditionally associated with New England and the Pilgrims, but Jamestown, Virginia and other locations have also been suggested as the the places for the first In New England, I expect seafood would have been on the menu.

Although Thanksgiving was not made a National Holiday until 1863 (by Abraham Lincoln), it was celebrated prior to that date. A novel published in 1826, Northwood, a tale of New England, discusses Thanksgiving with many of the foods that are traditional and still eaten today.

Many of the dishes in a traditional Thanksgiving dinner are foods native to the Americas. The turkey (although having eaten a wild chicken I’m sure the turkeys were much different from our own), potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash (including pumpkin) green beans and cranberries. Besides tradition, many of these foods are eaten because they are affordable. (Although I regularly hear on the news how much the cost of turkey has risen from year to year.)

However, Will Rees and his family would not have had the lavish feast we think of when we think of Thanksgiving. The huge feasts were a feature that came in during the nineteenth century. And, as I mentioned, seafood would play a large part in their meals, as it still does in New England.