Recognizing the Plymouth Thanksgiving: How the Pilgrims became America’s forefathers

The town of Plymouth in Massachusetts has not always been well-known. The town and the Pilgrims who created it were largely forgotten for 200 years until December 22, 1820.

On that day, the great orator Daniel Webster traveled to Plymouth from Boston to take part in the bicentennial celebration of the Pilgrims’ landing. So great was his speech that it became known as the “Plymouth oration.”

Before 1,500 people seated themselves on wooden benches in the meetinghouse, he said, in part:

“We have come to this Rock to record here our homage for our Pilgrim Fathers; our sympathy in their sufferings; our gratitude for their labors, our admiration of their virtues; our veneration for their piety, and our attachment to those principles of civil and religious liberty…

“We listen to the chiefs in council … We are filled with reverence and admiration for the mild dignity of Carver and Bradford, the decisive military air of Standish, the devout Brewster, the enterprising Allerton…”

Webster’s oration started the Pilgrims’ elevation to their status as forefathers of the nation. At that time, the recently independent America needed an event and a place that rooted the country to its founding history.

They needed a founding location. Jamestown in Virginia was a candidate, as was Plymouth in Massachusetts. Jamestown had an advantage because it was founded 13 years before the Pilgrims landed. But Plymouth offered a moral authority, thanks to the words of Daniel Webster.

Though the great Thanksgiving feast occurred 401 years ago, in November of 1621, we still follow the Pilgrims’ lead in being thankful for our blessings on Thanksgiving Day.

Thanksgiving fun facts

• Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the U.S. In a letter to his daughter, he said the bald eagle had a bad moral character.
• Minnesota produces most of the 46 million turkeys prepared at Thanksgiving in the U.S. every year.
• Green bean casserole, invented by the Campbell Soup Company, is served in 30 million households, but 24 percent of diners hate it.
• Breaking the wishbone originated with the Estruscans, an ancient Italian civilization. Birds were thought to be able to predict the future. They actually kept the bones intact to use the birds’ powers for more wishes.