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The Pilgrims were a group of English people who 

didn't support the teachings of the Church of 

England, they were called Separatists. Separatists 

were persecuted and imprisoned in England. 

To have religious freedom the Pilgrims decided to 

set sail for North America. 

The Pilgrims left England in 1620, aboard a ship 

called the Mayflower. The Pilgrims were affected by 

sickness and hunger during the long trip. 

Storms and wind set the Mayflower off course and 

the Pilgrims arrived in Massachusetts, north of 

Virginia which was the intended destination. 

When the Pilgrims realized they hadn't arrived in 

Virginia, the male settlers wrote a document called 

the Mayflower Compact which explained the way 

the government would be in the new settlement, 

called Plymouth. 

The Pilgrims arrived to North America in the 

beginning of winter, they couldn't grow crops or 

work because of the harsh weather. When winter 

ended almost half of the Pilgrims had died. 

The settlers met Squanto, a member of the 

Wampanoag tribe, who had been a prisoner of the 

earlier British settlers. Squanto, who spoke almost 

perfect English, taught the settlers how to fish, 

plant crops, and other things which helped the 

settlers survive. In return Squanto and his tribe 

received guns and other weapons from the 

Pilgrims. 

To celebrate the first successful harvest in 1621, 

the Pilgrims had a three-day feast with the Indians 

from to Wampanoag tribe, who had helped them 

survive. This feast is what we know as The First 

Thanksgiving. 

After the First Thanksgiving in 1621, the next 

Thanksgivings were really different. Thanksgiving 

was now celebrated after winning a battle or after 

a drought, not only after a harvest. 

The Puritans who had also sailed to the new world 

for religious freedom celebrated Thanksgiving for 

the first time in 1630. 

Thanksgiving became a U.S. National Day in 1789 

when President George Washington declared 

Thursday, November 26 to be a day for prayer and 

thanksgiving, but still it wasn't an annual 

celebration. 

On October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln declared the 

last Thursday in November a day to give thanks 

and to pray. This was the first time Thanksgiving 

became an annual national holiday. 

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