History books have always told us how the first official approval of the national Thanksgiving holiday came about.
On October 3, 1789, at the request of Congress, in New York City, President George Washington announced the first formal Thanksgiving Declaration in the United States, the President’s National Thanksgiving Declaration. He said the country would celebrate the day of national appreciation in the future.
Not too fast, but George: Oyster Bay’s teacher on the North Shore of Long Island has beaten you. Thanks to Zacharia Weeks’ 18th century diary entry and modern research by local historians, it was found that the first annual event of New Yorkers actually took place in 1759. Thirty years before the president’s proclamation, the president of the United States and the United States.
Evidence is being published
TThe discovery of faded ink-stained pages in November 2018 was a major discovery for Claire Bellel Joe, Education Director at the Rainham Hall Museum in Oyster Bay. The sheepskin diary entry she found in the museum’s archive, handwritten in a flowing, glamorous cursive on Sunday, November 25, 1759, is the state’s earliest known Thanksgiving Day. It is a mention.
At a time when holiday dates weren’t standardized, Weeks wrote that the first Thanksgiving took place a few days ago on November 22nd. This was declared by New York Governor James De Lancey: Our Governor for Public Thanksgiving for His Majesty’s Army Success in the United States … ”
Who was Zachariah Weeks? He was the principal of Oyster Bay for 14 years. He stayed at the Underhill House between Cove Road and Tiffany Road and was enthusiastic about observing life around him in Oyster Bay, Queens County, before Nassau County was founded. He wrote about busy maritime activities, the potential for smallpox epidemics, the Seven Years’ War between Britain and France, religion, and the church.
And he paid his children’s tuition for hardware, food, clothing and, of course, not “Oyster” but hardware, food, clothing and other merchandise, his students and their prominent LI family (Townsend,). With coins I wrote about (Underhill, Young, McCauns, etc.).
According to Bellerjeau, the weekly diary was never published, but there was other evidence (public evidence) of the date he specified.
“I found a record corresponding to the Thanksgiving date of November 22, 1759,” she said in a newspaper referring to an advertisement published on November 26, 1759. New York-Mercury.. “Sadly, it’s a runaway slave ad.”
On the menu
Why was it important for the British colony of New York, an independent state, to secure an official date? Settlers needed to boost their morale, a break from the news of the ongoing Seven Years’ War. When news of the fall of Quebec arrived in New York City, it was considered one of the great victories of the conflict and gave the colonists a reason to celebrate.
The holidays gave them the opportunity to thank them, as the settlers of all 13 colonies, including New York, also enjoyed a strong economy. By the 1770s, one observer wrote that by the 1770s, the standard of living in colonies was the highest in the world.
2018 Newsday How the article was reported Universal newspaperThe 1759 Long Island, published in Dublin, describes: “The island mainly produces British and Indian corn, beef, pork, fish, etc. and sends them to sugar colonies. There is also a whale fishery that sends oil. In exchange for cloth and furniture, it goes to England. Bone. Other fisheries here are very important. ”
These fisheries, along with fruits from local apple orchards and, of course, oysters, offered a wide variety of seafood that would have been on the menu at the 1759 feast. The ritual also included a special sermon by the pastor.
Historian nightmare
The Weeks Diary survived as the first known reference to Thanksgiving in New York, but so many declarations of so-called “official” holidays were issued-nationwide and in New York-they could be confused. The most noisy historian who even had sex. History enthusiasts sniffing around undisturbed dusty archive drawers found enough to keep them awake at night. Several declarations have been made since October 1621 during a three-day feast of pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Between 1623 and 1775, at least six Thanksgiving holidays were declared in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other colonies.
After Weeks died in 1772, his family transferred his documents to the museum. The museum has given history detectives the evidence they need to rewrite history.
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