History of the Thanksgiving day
The first Thanksgiving celebration by New World settlers in America occurred at Berkeley Hundred in Virginia on December 4, 1619, two years earlier than the far more famous Pilgrim celebration in Massachusetts.
On September 16, 1619, the “Good Ship Margaret” set sail from Bristol, England, bearing 35 settlers bound for a new colony to be established on the James River in Virginia and called “Berkeley Hundred.” After a two-and-a-half-month journey across the Atlantic, the settlers, all bound to a term of an indenture of 3 to 8 years to pay for the passage, reached Virginia. On December 4, 1619 (four hundred two years ago today), the settlers rowed to shore, then obeyed the instruction given them by the London Company, which financed the voyage: they fell to their knees and offered a prayer of thanksgiving for their safe arrival. “We ordain that this day of our ship’s arrival,” the Company’s instructions read, “at the place assigned for plantation, in the land of Virginia, shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God.”
But the Thanksgiving celebrations at Berkeley did not last long. The colony at Berkeley Hundred was destroyed by the sudden and surprise Indian Massacre of 1622, which left more than a quarter of the colonists in Virginia dead. The “day of Thanksgiving” that was to be “yearly and perpetually kept” ceased for over 300 years, before resuming again in 1958.