There is of course much debate about when the first true Thanksgiving was. Was it in November of 1621, or was it just simply a spontaneous harvest festival?

Was it in July 1623 when they set a feast of Thanksgiving in anticipation of the arrival of the Anne and the Little James?

The two ships were bringing much needed supplies to the colony as well as additional settlers. Supplies were running very low and when they heard that the ships would soon arrive they held a fast for several days and then a feast of Thanksgiving.

You may wonder how they knew that the ships were arriving. They had been spotted out to sea and a small craft brought the news to the colony. It took the ships a bit longer to arrive than anticipated and the feast was held before they arrived. Therefore, several of my ancestors were late for Thanksgiving.

At least three of my ancestors were on the Anne which arrived the day after the Thanksgiving feast. The Little James arrived about a week or so later.

Mary Becket later married George Soule who is my Mayflower ancestor.

Francis Sprague and his daughter Mercy Sprague were also my ancestors. Mercy later married William Tubbs.

Even though they missed the feast, I am sure that there were leftovers just like today. They were probably glad to finally eat something different than what they had on the ship.

The arrival of Ann also sets a historical precedence of going to the stores on the day after Thanksgiving?

Most likely the colonists were digging into the stores on the Anne that same day as they were really anticipating the supplies that were sent.

Was this the first Black Friday? I looked up the day of the week that the Anne arrived and it was a Thursday, so perhaps not 🙂

Steven