What if I told you everything you knew about the first Thanksgiving was wrong? When you were in school, you likely heard about how a 1621 harvest celebration between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people in Plymouth, Massachusetts, set the foundation for the holiday we know and love today. However, a closer look at the evidence uncovered over the past several decades reveals that the first Thanksgiving occurred here in Virginia. In September 1619 (more than a year before the Pilgrims arrived in New England), Captain John Woodlief gathered a modest crew of approximately 40 settlers and crew members. He and his companions boarded the Margaret (a modest, 35-foot-long ship) and departed England, hoping to eventually arrive along Virginia’s James River. The ship’s 10-week journey to its destination was arduous, stormy, and risky. Once the tired crew finally set foot on Virginia soil in an area later known as Berkeley Plantation, they joined one another in prayer to give thanks for their safe arrival. Instead of indulging in traditional Thanksgiving fare, the crew is believed to have received sustenance from a meager supply of oysters and ham. This moment became known among Berkeley settlers as a “day of Thanksgiving to the Almighty God.” Within two years of that first day of prayer, natives attacked and killed hundreds of settlers, including many at the Berkeley Plantation, in a dispute over land ownership. Everyone left the area, and the history of the first Thanksgiving was lost to the sifting sands of time. That is, until the son of a former U.S. president uncovered the ship Margaret’s history more than 300 years later. While researching in 1931 for a book he was writing on early Virginia history, Dr. Lyon G. Tyler (son of John Tyler, our nation’s 10th president) uncovered British documents detailing the original Berkeley settlement’s early activities, including their Thanksgiving practices. The discovery gained historians’ attention in subsequent years, eventually prompting President John F. Kennedy to recognize the Berkeley settlers in his 1963 Thanksgiving Proclamation: “Over three centuries ago, our forefathers in Virginia and in Massachusetts, far from home in a lonely wilderness, set aside a time of thanksgiving.” So, there you have it: Virginia’s little-known but fascinating impact on the history of one of our country’s most beloved annual traditions. Virginia’s Forgotten First Feast Thanksgiving Truths
SUDOKU
Slow Cooker Brisket
INGREDIENTS • 1 (1-oz) envelope onion soup mix • 1 tbsp brown sugar • 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 lb carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces • 1 lb baby golden potatoes • 3 celery stalks, cut into 1-inch pieces • 1 large sweet onion, cut into 8 wedges • 2 1/2 cups beef stock • 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce • 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper • 1 3-lb piece of beef brisket (flat cut)
• 8 fresh thyme sprigs • 8 whole garlic cloves • 2 bay leaves
DIRECTIONS
1. In a small bowl, combine soup mix, sugar, salt, and pepper. Sprinkle over brisket. 2. Place meat, fat cap side down, into an 8-qt slow cooker. 3. Top brisket with thyme, garlic, bay leaves, carrots, potatoes, celery, and onion. 4. Whisk stock, Worcestershire sauce, and cornstarch until fully dissolved. Add to slow cooker. 5. Cover and cook on high for 5–6 hours until tender. 6. Remove to a cutting board, fat side up. Remove thyme and bay leaves. 7. Thinly slice brisket against the grain. 8. Serve with vegetables, drizzled with gravy from the slow cooker.
–Kevin Mottley
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