The celebration on the fourth Thursday of November resonates deeply in the American psyche, but the historical source of Thanksgiving’s legacy across the centuries rests on a surprisingly thin slice of documentation. In fact, “the only surviving first-hand account of a celebration in 1621 comes from the pen of Edward Winslow,” historian Robert Tracy McKenzie explains in The First Thanksgiving
Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week.
At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, and many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.