Florida is first in a lot of ways. It had the first cattle industry in the U.S. The first citrus industry in America. And of course the first U.S. space industry.
Now I found that it also may have had the first Thanksgiving feast!
Thanks to the History Channel for bringing this to my attention in their post Did Florida Host the First Thanksgiving? where this following information comes from.
Did The First Thanksgiving Happen In Florida?
Some Florida historians have argued that a communal feast eaten after Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and 800 colonists arrived on Florida’s Eastern shore on September 8, 1565 was actually North America’s first Thanksgiving.
After they landed, the fleet’s captain, Father Francisco Lopez, performed a Catholic mass of thanksgiving for their safe arrival in the newly christened settlement of St. Augustine.Then the native Timucuans who were watching this — were invited to join the Spaniards for a communal meal.
“It was the first community act of religion and thanksgiving in the first permanent settlement in the land,” wrote University of Florida professor emeritus of history Michael Gannon in his book about the early Catholic Church in Florida, The Cross in the Sand.
Other historians argue that yes, America’s first Thanksgiving did take place in Florida, but it actually occurred further north of St Augustine and one year earlier in 1564. That is when French Huguenots held a service of thanksgiving and feasted with the Timucuans in celebration of the June 1564 establishment of Fort Caroline along the St. John’s River in present-day Jacksonville.
“We sang a psalm of Thanksgiving unto God, beseeching him that it would please his Grace to continue his accustomed goodness toward us,” French explorer Rene Goulaine de Laudonnière wrote in his journal.
What Did They Eat?
We wouldn’t have recognized the food shared by the Spaniards and Timucuans. Because the Spanish had just arrived, they had to make do with whatever provisions survived the long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. According to Robyn Gioia, author of the children’s book “America’s REAL First Thanksgiving,” the European colonists likely ate hard biscuits and cocido—a rich garbanzo stew made with pork, garlic, saffron, cabbage and onion—washed down with red wine.”
The Timucua ate what was available to them locally so they might have had wild turkey, alligator, bear, venison, tortoise, catfish, mullet, and seafood.
You can eat like a Timucuan too. Get fresh Florida alligator, turtle jerky, orturtle soup (actually mock turtle soup) online. (I’d rather eat these “turtles” myself.)
The Real Story
These feasts of Thanksgiving celebrated by the newly arrived Europeans were very isolated events and none were repeated or resulted in a new tradition. In fact James W. Baker, author of Thanksgiving: The Biography of an American Holiday, ”says that while America’s Thursday Thanksgiving holiday has roots in New England’s Puritan Calvinist tradition, there never was a single “first Thanksgiving”—neither in Plymouth for the three-day harvest celebration in 1621 or in any other place.”
The first time anyone claimed that the Pilgrims hosted the first Thanksgiving was in 1841. He says, “While we can argue the case for Florida or Texas or any other claimant as a true ‘first’ occurrence of a holiday of that name, it is ultimately a moot point as all of them lack any historical agency in the evolution of the modern holiday.”
So maybe Florida can’t claim to be the first in this area but then nobody else can either. We have the earliest Spanish settlers so I’m going with Florida.
I don’t know about you, but however this holiday came about, I’m going to enjoy the day with great food, a grateful heart, and good friends.
