by Molly McGuire

Created on: November 05, 2009

The First New World Thanksgiving

A conventional history of the United States tells us the first Thanksgiving feast to celebrate survival in the New World was that of the Pilgrim colony at Plymouth. It was, of course, an English colony, and our heritage for more than two centuries was Eurocentric, particularly in the British tradition. Today historians write of other thanksgivings that occurred much earlier. After all, the Spanish arrived in the Americas a century prior to the English settlement at Plymouth, and held much of the continent as La Florida, a territory that stretched from the tip of the Florida peninsula north to the Canadian border, and westward to the Mississippi.

The first celebration of gratitude happened in May of 1541, held by the conquistador Fernandez Vasquez de Coronado and his 1,500 men with a feast at Palo Duro Canyon in today's Texas panhandle, just south of Amarillo. They feasted because of their successful return from Mexico, during Coronado's quixotic search for the Seven Cities of Cibola, and had good fortune finding supplies after the arduous expedition. It was Ascension Day, a major Catholic feast day, and they rejoiced with an abundance of game. The gathering included men from many nations, as well as some natives who joined with Coronado. However, few historians recognize this as the first traditional feast to thank God in the New World because it did not occur in a permanent European settlement.

Next, the Huguenot settlers held a Thanksgiving feast in June of 1564 at Fort Caroline, just south of Jacksonville on Florida's east coast. Their leader, Rene de Laudonniere, brought the French Protestant refugees to escape the religious persecution sweeping across Europe during the tumultuous years of the Reformation. Today, most historians recognize this celebration as a noteworthy feast of gratitude because Fort Caroline was a permanent European settlement, and the peaceful Huguenots invited the local natives to enjoy the meal. Today a historic marker at the Fort Caroline site documents this feast and the colony that later fell to the Spanish.

But the real honor remains with the Spanish at St. Augustine, according to University of Florida professor emeritus Michael Gannon, who documents a feast in September of 1565. Pedro Menendez de Aviles, governor of La Florida, and about 300 Spanish settlers celebrated their safe arrival, sharing their bounty with the local natives. Of course, Aviles soon turned his attention to the Huguenots at Fort

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