The Mayflower Ccompact.
It does annoy me how these New Englanders ignore the existence of the REAL first colony — Jamestowne. Jamestowne settlers also celebrated the first Thanksgiving at Berkeley Plantation, but we’ll let those Taxachusetts folks revel in their day of glory! ;^)
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St. Augustine?
I too.
It’s a yankee thing, especially since apparently Lincoln recognized it permanantly.
Bear in mind there is not really a strong connection, since there was no continuous thanksgiving in memory of this event. It’s a tenuous relation. Thanksgiving was common because people saw reasons to publicly thank God for good things. It wasn’t just this once.
Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate gave thanks after crossing into what is now Texas in 1598, 23 years before the Pilgrims’ feast.
You are correct that Jamestown was indeed the first permanent English settlement on the North American continent. And my posting of The Mayflower Compact in no way takes away from that fact. Jamestown had a much harder slog, and while the Pilgrims of Plymouth organized themselves into a government before they even got off the ship, it took Jamestown twelve years to set up a functioning government, based upon that of England.
But they nevertheless got it done, setting up the first legislature in the Americas, in 1619, a full year before the Pilgrims made their first landfall.
“The most convenient place we could find to sit in was the choir of the church, where Sir George Yeardley, the governor, being set down in his accustomed place, those of the Council of Estate sat next to him on both [sides], except only the secretary, then appointed speaker, who sat right before him … all the burgesses took their places in the choir, till a prayer was said … prayer being ended … all the burgesses were entreated to retire themselves into the body of the church; which being done, before they were fully admitted, they were called in order and by name, and so every man took the oath of supremacy, and then entered the Assembly.”
A government with a governor, a council of few, and an assembly of many, a structure familiar to this day!
Within a year of each other, these first two colonies would found the origins of republican government in America.
Ditto, being of maternal Jamestown descent.
My understanding from an Emory University history professor is that this was a post War Between the States propaganda campaign to erase Virginia’s (and the South in general) claim of being the home of the first permanent European settlement (aka the birthplace of the US).
The “pilgrims” prior to the War Between the States were then known as “separatists”, not piligrims.
Re-writing history is as old as man’s 6,000 years of recorded history.
It does annoy me how the Taxachusetts and Virginians ignore the first real colony in America, Roanoke, NC!!
I do hesitate to sound off on the "First Colony" claims. Anyway being born in England I have been most interested. I went up to my attic and got my album out. I have visited the Jamestowne historical park area in 1960. I have a photograph of the recreated vessel- The Susan Constant. She looks perfectly made. The two others were "The Discovery" and the "God Speed".
I got researching again and the Parks Service show a considerable and careful park exhibition of the past days. Well worth a visit. I know there were old disagreements about being first. One diplomatic statement was that the Plymouth settlement "was the first PERMANENT settlement". The Roanoke settlement in Virginia circa 1594 has a claim to being first. Few traces of this settlement were found later by the vessels sent out to supply the settlement. No one there. Virginia Dare was the first white female born there.
I believe and stand corrected that Jamestown did not survive as a permanent colony. Disease devastated it. "The bloodie flux" is blamed for much of it. I would presume diarrhea. The listing of the 104 names and the mariners is available.
A bit of a ramble here but got carried away by old memories of my first excursions into the USA.
Be annoyed, the First Thanksgiving feast was at Plimouth in 1621 (they had a fasting Thanksgiving prior to that but where’s the fun in celebrating that every year?), additionally the New England Patriots are 10 - 0.
Thanks afraidfortherepublic.