Dear Mike, I do not think I said the first Thanksgiving was in Plymouth. I was wondering, what was on your Thanksgiving table in Jamestown? Thank you for any information you can share, Maureen -----Original Message----- From: Mike and Annette Poston <poston@erols.com> To: WHITNEY-L@rootsweb.com <WHITNEY-L@rootsweb.com> Date: Wednesday, November 22, 2000 6:42 AM Subject: Re: [WHITNEY-L] Whitney Thanksgiving >> Now, fast forward to John and Elinor in 1635. My hunch > is that John >and Elinor did not celebrate Thanksgiving at > all. My reasons are that John >and Elinor would not have > been used to celebrating the harvest in >England and > that they were not terribly religious. Further, I think >> that none of the Whitney's celebrated Thanksgiving until > about the >1860's. > > >I think that Carolyn is right, but perhaps not only for the reasons she puts >forth. John and Elinor were residents of Massachusets in Watertown and that >colony was principally comprised of Puritans. Though we tend to lump >together all early settlers in New England, there were really some sharp >differences between the Calvinistic Puritans and the Pilgrims. Although I >am not qualified to discern the theological differences, I suspect that the >Pilgrims had a somewhat less rigid approach to the cycle of the Church Year. >It was the Puritans who did not celebrate Christmas because they saw too >much pagan influence in it. Easter may have been a different matter--the >pernicious greeting card industry and the candy and egg folks weren't yet a >factor. > >Then, too, Thanksgiving did not become an annual event and J & E did not >arrive in New England until some 14 years after the original Plymouth >celebration. > > >> I haven't found any reference to John's >> involvement in a church in Watertown. > >I believe, but have no reference at hand, that John was a freeman of >Watertown. In that era and place, such a designation must have meant that >he was a regular attender at his church. How seriously he espoused its >tenets may be another matter, but he could not ignore the church and be a >freeman in the town. > >Now that we've dealt with that, what's this business about Plymouth's being >the first Thanksgiving in America? Are we to ignore Jamestown? > >Mike Poston >Rockville, Maryland > > >

I'm getting ancient, it's true, but even I wasn't present in Jamestown. I added that bit of nonesense to stir the pot a bit. Virginians get quite huffy when non-Virginians blythely assume that the Pilgrims had a lock on the first Thanksgiving. Apparently, Jamestown offered one in 1608 or 1609--I don't know exactly. Of course, the Pilgrims have the better story and have had the better PR people, after all. In many respects, an argument can be made that the New England settlements were more successful over all. Virginia's approach to settlement was generally land oriented, whereas New England's was town oriented. By that I mean that New England's political organization was much more democratic (small "d") with each town having real control over its own life. Virginia seems to have been more autocratic and elitist in the beginning, although some would argue that has not changed. I had best leave this discussion there, else I will be surely skewered by someone who has more knowledge, sharper wit, or shorter fuse. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Mike Poston Rockville, Maryland [What was on the Jamestown menu? Grits, for sure, and maybe crow.] ----Original Message---- > Dear Mike, > I do not think I said the first Thanksgiving was in Plymouth. > I was wondering, what was on your Thanksgiving table in Jamestown? > Thank you for any information you can share, > Maureen

Hi Mike! Thanks for your input. Your offerings are interesting! I seem to remember from my US History that there was a difference in the colonies when they were first settled. Wasn't New York a "Royal" colony and some of the others including Massachusetts Bay and Virginia were set up as businesses with the purpose of making money for shareholders. Perhaps someone with more research under their belt concerning early colonial America can add to this? from, Carolyn Whitney Branagan Mike and Annette Poston wrote: > I'm getting ancient, it's true, but even I wasn't present in Jamestown. I > added that bit of nonesense to stir the pot a bit. Virginians get quite > huffy when non-Virginians blythely assume that the Pilgrims had a lock on > the first Thanksgiving. Apparently, Jamestown offered one in 1608 or > 1609--I don't know exactly. > > Of course, the Pilgrims have the better story and have had the better PR > people, after all. In many respects, an argument can be made that the New > England settlements were more successful over all. Virginia's approach to > settlement was generally land oriented, whereas New England's was town > oriented. By that I mean that New England's political organization was much > more democratic (small "d") with each town having real control over its own > life. Virginia seems to have been more autocratic and elitist in the > beginning, although some would argue that has not changed. > > I had best leave this discussion there, else I will be surely skewered by > someone who has more knowledge, sharper wit, or shorter fuse. > > Happy Thanksgiving everyone. > > Mike Poston > Rockville, Maryland > > [What was on the Jamestown menu? Grits, for sure, and maybe crow.] > > ----Original Message---- > > Dear Mike, > > I do not think I said the first Thanksgiving was in Plymouth. > > I was wondering, what was on your Thanksgiving table in Jamestown? > > Thank you for any information you can share, > > Maureen