Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation

Plymouth Plantation shows how the settlers celebrated the 1st Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation Narrator: Thousands of visitors a year flock to this tiny village off the coast of Capecod near Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is called Plymouth Plantation, a living history museum set in 1627, six years after the pilgrims set foot in the new world and rejoiced with a harvest festival so often called the first thanksgiving. Paula Fisher: When you’re in the 1627 Pilgrim Village, one the most fun things about it the fact that you’re not talking to historians who are telling you what happened 377 years ago. You’re talking to people who actually lived the part; they’re role playing the parts of the Pilgrim. So, when you ask them about the harvest feast with the Indians that took place in 1621, they’re able to tell you about it because some of them were there. So, the fun thing about Plymouth Plantation is the fact that you are given the chance to step back into history and actually question the people who were part of this historical event. Male: In this place I’ve come to be thankful that saved my life at all for – by our circumstance when first we arrived at here, we come late in the season and be in is this were winter and we were raising up our houses. There come a general sickness amongst us. Paula Fisher: That first year there have must have been many, many doubts. Hundred and two passengers upon arrival, only 50 left at the end of the first winter. Narrator: The one thing above all else that helped the colonist survive was maize, also called Indian corn because it was so different from the corn farmers grew in Europe. Paula Fisher: The English brought over with them English corn such as oats, peas, beans, barley. But the first harvest, the English corn came out in different good, not very well. But, the Indian corn grew well enough that it truly sustained them for that first year. Back in England of course, you use the manure from animals to from anything. Here in the New World, there were no animals, there were no cows or sheeps or pigs or anything in here in the New World. So, the Indian explained, you dig a hole and you add herring fish into the hole, cover it with dirt, then you plant your seed on top of the dirt and the herring fish create the fertilizer necessary to grow the Indian corn. Narrator: The whopping on people and their chief, Master Suet, join the Pilgrims in December of 1621 for a three day feast, giving thanks for their lives and their crops. Female: We have nothing very much fine to cook but we have so many to feed. They brought much meat, deer and what much so for fowls, the swell and we cooked those not so pleasantly as I would wish but it’s best to be cooked for so many when we saw them set out and so few women to cook, too. Narrator: A replica of the Mayflower is docked at Plymouth port. Nearby, rest the theme, Plymouth Rock where settlers are believed to have taken their first step in the New World. The truth is we may never know the real story. Paula Fisher: The history of Plymouth Rock is a little bit confusing. No one really mentioned the fact that it was a rock that the Pilgrims stepped on until the early part of the 18th century when an elderly gentleman hearing that it was going to be moved and probably even discarded said; oh no, that’s the rock that the Pilgrims first stepped on. Now, when you come in off of a ship you come in on a smaller wooden boat called the scallop. Do you steer toward a rock in a wooden scallop or do you steer away from it. On the other hand, if you have been in a row boat you would like to step on to something dry if you can get o the sand. So the story could be true, story might now be true. But the rock also has a history just before the revolution, when it was going to be moved it broke in half and a lot of the people felt it was a sign from God that it was indeed time to split with England. But the history will remain a mystery unless we can get the rock to talk. Narrator: Even in modern day Plymouth, Massachusetts, the story of Plymouth Rock symbolizes the journey and courage of a small band of people who did what millions have done since. Come and search of a better life. Paula Fisher: Courtney’s to realize that although the Pilgrims are some of the most well know immigrants to this country, they have been immigrants coming to this country from before that and beyond that and each one has an interesting history to tell of their journey over here and that’s what’s wonderful about Thanksgiving is it doesn’t matter where you came from or how long you’ve been here, it’s an American holiday for all Americans here.