The 1621 harvest event at Plymouth included the English colonists who had settled at Plymouth and a large group of Wampanoag participants over three days of entertainment and feasting.

There were 53 Pilgrims present. They were all Mayflower survivors as no other ships arrived in Plymouth until after the celebration, when the Fortune arrived in November of 1621.

There were at least 90 Wampanoag people present.

THE PILGRIMS AT THE FIRST THANKSGIVING

Depending on how you count them –as some ages are uncertain – the 53 Mayflower Pilgrims at the “First Thanksgiving” included:

4 MARRIED WOMEN: Eleanor Billington, Mary Brewster, Elizabeth Hopkins, Susanna White Winslow.

5 ADOLESCENT GIRLS: Mary Chilton, Constance Hopkins, Priscilla Mullins, Elizabeth Tilley, and Dorothy, the Carver’s unnamed maidservant.

9 ADOLESCENT BOYS: John Billington, Francis Billington, John Cooke, John Crackston, Samuel Fuller (2d), Giles Hopkins, William Latham, Joseph Rogers, Henry Samson.

13 YOUNG CHILDREN: Bartholomew Allerton, Mary Allerton, Remember Allerton, Love Brewster, Wrestling Brewster, Humility Cooper, Samuel Eaton, Damaris Hopkins, Oceanus Hopkins, Desire Minter, Richard More, Resolved White, Peregrine White.

22 MEN: John Alden, Isaac Allerton, John Billington, William Bradford, William Brewster, Peter Brown, Francis Cooke, Edward Doty, Francis Eaton, [first name unknown] Ely, Samuel Fuller, Richard Gardiner, John Goodman, Stephen Hopkins, John Howland, Edward Lester, George Soule, Myles Standish, William Trevor, Richard Warren, Edward Winslow, Gilbert Winslow.

FAMILY GROUPS:

ALDEN: John

ALLERTON: Isaac with children Bartholomew, Mary, Remember; the Allerton servant William Latham

BILLINGTON: John & Elinor with sons Francis, John Jr.

BRADFORD: William

BREWSTER: William & Mary with sons Love, Wrestling; their ward Richard More

BROWNE/BROWN: Peter

CARVER: The Carver ward Desire Minter; the Carver servant John Howland; the Carver maidservant Dorothy.

CHILTON: Mary

COOKE: Francis with son John

CRACKSTON: John

EATON: Francis with son Samuel

ELY: Unknown adult man

FULLER: Samuel with nephew Samuel 2d

GARDINER: Richard

GOODMAN: John

HOPKINS: Stephen & Elizabeth with Giles, Constance, Damaris, Oceanus; their servants Edward Doty and Edward Leister.

MULLINS: Priscilla

ROGERS: Joseph

STANDISH: Myles

TILLEY: Elizabeth

TILLEY: Tilley wards Humility Cooper and Henry Samson

TREVOR/TREVORE: William

WARREN: Richard

WINSLOW: Edward & Susanna with her sons Resolved White & Peregrine White; Winslow servant George Soule

WINSLOW: Gilbert

One of the first artistic depictions to show the correct proportion of Wampanoag people at the 1621 harvest gathering in early Plymouth, this painting by Cape Cod artist Karen Rinaldo was commissioned by the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches and first exhibited at Pilgrim Hall Museum, where it remains on display.

Karen Rinaldo, The First Thanksgiving – 1621
Oil on Canvas, 1995
Courtesy of the Artist

THE WAMPANOAG AT THE FIRST THANKSGIVING

There were about twice as many Indigenous people as colonists at the 1621 harvest event in early Plymouth, with some 90 Wampanoag men present.

According to Edward Winslow’s letter written in December 1621:

“many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoyt, with some ninetie men whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted …”
– Mourt’s Relation (London, 1622)

Massasoit was the title of Ousamequin, the great sachem of the Wampanoag people in the region of southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island. He is the only Wampanoag individual identified by name in primary source accounts of the event. However, Tisquantum and Hobbomock, who served as emissaries and translators, were almost certainly present.

The count of 90 Wampanoag men may underestimate the total Indigenous presence. Wampanoag women and children may also have been there, though they are not mentioned in the original sources that document this event.

The English colonial men who recorded Plymouth’s early accounts typically overlooked Indigenous women in their writing, as it was their relationship with male leaders that they considered of importance. There is a rare reference in Mourt’s Relation, however, to the presence of “all their wives and women” with Massasoit’s entourage during his first visit to the English colony, which took place earlier in the spring of 1621. It is possible that Indigenous women also accompanied the Massasoit and his 90 men who visited Plymouth that fall.
There may have been more than 90 Indigenous men. Winslow says that “many of the Indians” attended, and among them Massasoit with some 90 men.

The Wampanoag nation encompassed many individual villages, each having its own leadership, its own sachem and clan leaders, and interconnected through ties of kinship and community. The English were beginning to connect with different Native leaders within the Wampanoag confederation. It’s entirely possible that Ousamequin’s great entourage was primarily of his own village of Sowams and there were additional attendees from other communities in the Plymouth and Cape Cod area.

As they celebrated the fruits of the harvest with their new neighbors, the English would have been visibly outnumbered – underscoring the new colony’s precarious position at this early stage.