“Blaring trumpets and thundering artillery serenaded Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés as he waded ashore on September 8, 1565. The Spanish admiral kissed a cross held aloft by the fleet’s captain, Father Francisco Lopez, then claimed Florida for both his God and his country.
“As curious members of the indigenous Timucua tribe looked on, the 800 newly arrived colonists gathered around a makeshift altar as Father Lopez performed a Catholic mass of thanksgiving for their safe arrival in the newly christened settlement of St. Augustine. At the invitation of Menéndez, the Timucuans then joined the newcomers in a communal meal.”
(Christopher Klein. “Did Florida Host the First Thanksgiving?” History.com. November 21, 2019.)
What if I told you the real first Thanksgiving was in Florida, not the one held 56 years later by the Pilgrims and Wampanoags in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Some historians argue that this was, indeed, the case.
I'll share the story with you although I'm sure my entry will upset those fine folks so intent on preventing schools from teaching any remnant of critical race theory and understanding how American racism has shaped public policy and a divisive discourse that pits people of color against white people.
But, perhaps, it is the ideal time to expose the truth that Spanish exploration and influence was just as important (possibly more?) as the British and Puritan settlement in the United States. Even before Jamestown or the Plymouth Colony, the oldest permanent European settlement in what is now the United States was founded in Florida.
St. Augustine became a key center for Spanish power in Florida, which, in turn, made it a frequent target of attacks by the English and other enemies. In 1586, Sir Francis Drake raided and burned St. Augustine, but residents eventually came back and rebuilt it. In 1672, the Spanish erected Castillo de San Marcos – the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States – that still stands watch over the city.
The Real First Thanksgiving
Here is the account.
Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles – Spanish Captain General of the Indies Fleet and Adelantado of Florida – left Spain in June 1565 with 19 ships and 1,500 men. Severe storms dogged the voyage, and by the time they arrived in Florida on August 28, more than two-thirds of the force had disappeared.
(Gillian Brockell. “Thanksgiving’s hidden past: Plymouth in 1621 wasn’t close to being the first celebration.” The Washington Post. November 22, 2017.)
According to University of Florida professor emeritus of history Michael Gannon in his book The Cross in the Sand, a Spanish colony was established at the village of Seloy, which the captain renamed the area St. Augustine – the nation's oldest port.
After hugging the coastline for a time and detouring briefly to fire on the French, Menendez landed. Of the landing and meal Gannon writes, first quoting Father Lopez:
“On Saturday the eighth the General landed with many banners spread, to the sounds of trumpets and the salutes of artillery. As I had gone ashore the evening before, I took a cross and went to meet him, singing the hymn Te Deum Laudamus. The General, followed by all who accompanied him, marched up to the cross, knelt and kissed it. A large number of Indians watched these proceedings and imitated all that they saw done.”
(Michael Gannon. The Cross in the Sand: The Early Catholic Church in Florida, 1513-1870. 1965.)
A “Thanksgiving” took place on September 8, 1565, Gannon wrote, when Menendez joined in the celebration of a Catholic Mass of Thanksgiving in the St. Augustine area.
At the mass, about 800 newly arrived colonists from Spain gathered around a rough altar giving thanks for their safe voyage to La Florida, and invited the indigenous Timucuans – a tribe that had called the land their home for over 4,000 years – to join them in a communal meal that followed.
“It was the first community act of religion and thanksgiving in the first permanent settlement in the land,” wrote Gannon.
The event took happened just 300 yards north of the Castillo de San Marcos, at what is now the Mission of Nombre de Dios. It is commemorated today by a 250 foot cross which stands on the original landing site.
How do historians know that this was the first Thanksgiving to take place on American soil?
Gannon based his history on two written narratives of the events, according to the Florida Historical Society. One eyewitness account is from the diary of the chaplain, Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, and a second by the voyage’s physician, Dr. Gonzalo Solís de Merás, Menendez’s brother-in-law.
Robyn Goia’s book, America’s Real First Thanksgiving: St. Augustine, Florida, September 8, 1565, offers a kids’ version with a menu the Spanish colonists likely ate: hard biscuits and cocido, (a garbanzo stew made with pork, garlic, saffron, cabbage and onion), and lots of red wine.
The Timucuans contributed their local fare of alligator, gopher tortoise, venison, small game, and of course the traditional vegetables of corn, squash and beans. Fish and shellfish also featured prominently in their diet.
The
1565 celebration wasn’t even the first Thanksgiving, Gannon said.
Numerous Thanksgivings for a safe voyage and landing had been made in
Florida by such explorers as Juan Ponce de Leon in 1513 and 1521;
Panfilo de Narvaez in 1528; Hernando de Soto in 1529; Father Luis
Cancer de Barbastro in 1549; and Tristan de Luna in 1559.
The
French, who came to the St. Johns River near Jacksonville in 1562 and
Rene de Laudonniere in 1564, also offered prayers of Thanksgiving –
well before the Pilgrims, Gannon said. And in Texas, some claim that
Spanish explorer Don Juan de Onate celebrated the first Thanksgiving
in America in 1598.
Historical Note:
“For most of the 16th century, the indigenous peoples of what is now Florida repelled at least six well-planned attempts at Spanish settlement on the peninsula. There was the conquistador Juan Ponce de León, whom, in 1521, the Calusa people dispatched from their land – and from this earth – by use of a poisoned arrow. There was Hernando de Soto, who landed in Florida in 1539, but soon left upon learning the hostile territory held no gold, and who, after wandering the southeast for years, fighting constantly with Native Americans, died of disease, likely in what is now Arkansas. And there was poor Father Luis Càncer de Barbastro, who, in 1549, became convinced he could peacefully settle the area, and was beaten to death by locals within a month.
“By 1561, Spain’s King Phillip II vowed that his minions were not going to waste any more money or lives trying to colonize Florida, although he continued to claim it.
“That decision lasted all of three years, until French Huguenots landed in a different area of Florida, near what is now Jacksonville, and received a very different welcome. The Timucuan people actually helped the French build a fort, according to the National Park Service,”
(Gillian Brockell. “Thanksgiving’s hidden past: Plymouth in 1621 wasn’t close to being the first celebration.” The Washington Post. November 22, 2017.)
Why Is This Not Celebrated As “Thanksgiving”?
So, if the Spanish were
first, why do Pilgrims and Plymouth get all the credit?
“It
is the victors who write the histories,” Gannon said. “England
won out over Spain for the mastery of the North American continent,
so the early English ceremonies achieved wide currency in history
books and eclipsed our knowledge of the earlier Spanish celebrations
on Thanksgiving.”
(Nano Riley. “Was Florida the Site of the First Thanksgiving?” The Gabber. November 25. 2020.)
The Significance
Kathleen Deagan, distinguished research curator emerita of historical archaeology at th Florida Museum of Natural History, says …
“The holiday we celebrate today is really something that was invented in a sense. By the time the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, the people who settled America’s first colony with Menéndez probably had children and grandchildren living there.”
This little-known chapter of history challenges the traditional Thanksgiving story, which reflects an Anglicized version of history and supports America’s colonial origins being viewed as solely, or at least primarily, British, said Gifford Waters, historical archaeology collection manager at the Florida Museum.
“The fact is, the first colony was a melting pot and the cultural interactions of the many groups of people in the colony were much more like the U.S. is today than the British colonies ever were,” Waters said. “I think the true story of the first Thanksgiving is especially important, since there is a growing Hispanic population in the U.S. and the role of the Spanish colony in La Florida is often neglected in the classroom.”
(Staff Reporters. “Before the Pilgrims, Floridians celebrated the ‘real’ first Thanksgiving.” Florida Politics via University of Florida News. November 26, 2020.)
“The same reason we don’t think of a lot of things as first in Florida but in fact they are. That’s because this was a Spanish celebration and the Puritans and what we think of as the first Thanksgiving and the founding of Thanksgiving were English. We, the United States, grew out of the thirteen English colonies and so Florida history, Spanish history, even French history those stories just weren’t maintained as the history of our country was being written in the 19th century. The English stories won out.”
– Rodney Kite-Powell, Historian
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Southern States: St. Augustine, Fla. |
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St. Augustine |
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Nathaniel Morton Safford (b. 1848) |
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