Thanksgiving to God Alone: William Bradford, William Brewster, and the True First Thanksgiving of 1623
Most people picture the long table in 1621, Pilgrims and Native Americans sitting side by side, when they think of the very first Thanksgiving. That feast was real and important, but it was not called a “Day of Thanksgiving” in their records.
The day that was formally set apart as a Day of Thanksgiving to God came later, on November 29, 1623, when Governor William Bradford called the colony to stop their work, gather, worship, and give public thanks to the Great Father who had saved their crops and their lives.
This article retells that story using Bradford’s older English flavor, then puts it into clear modern American English. We will look at why the Pilgrims believed Thanksgiving belonged first to God, why they thanked Him for rain, food, and freedom to worship according to their own conscience, and how their Bible view of God shaped that day.
We will also look at who God was to them in the language of their English Bible, why they left England, what King James did to men like William Brewster, how Brewster’s quiet strength helped shape that 1623 Thanksgiving, and how these things helped lay early American foundations of faith and freedom.
The Drought, the Rain, and Bradford’s 1623 Thanksgiving Proclamation
In 1623, the young Plymouth colony almost lost everything again.
For many weeks, the sky stayed clear and hard. The fields turned gray. Corn leaves curled up. The ground split with cracks. The Pilgrims remembered the “hungry time” of the first winter and felt that dark fear rise again. If the crops died, many of them would not live to see spring.
William Bradford wrote that their corn “began to languish sore,” and that a “great drought” held the land. They were not rich farmers with deep storehouses. They were fragile settlers, surrounded by forest and sea, holding to God with empty hands.
So what did they do when the fields looked dead?
They did not just complain, blame each other, or give up. Bradford, as governor, called the people to a day of fasting and prayer. They stopped their normal work. They gathered. They humbled themselves before God. They asked Him to send rain and to forgive any pride or sin that had crept into their hearts.
According to later accounts of Bradford’s words, after this day of prayer, the weather changed. Soft, steady rain began to fall. Not a violent storm that would beat the young corn flat, but a gentle soaking that brought life back to the fields. As one popular summary of the history puts it, their crops were “refreshed” and saved by God’s kindness.
Pilgrim Hall Museum notes that this answered prayer in 1623 led to the first recorded religious Day of Thanksgiving in Plymouth, a formal time set to “give thanks” after deliverance, not just to enjoy a meal after planting or harvest. You can see more background in their article on Pilgrim Hall Museum’s “Giving Thanks” page.
Out of dry dust and quiet rain came a new kind of Thanksgiving, focused on God Himself.
From Dead Fields to Gentle Rain: Why the Pilgrims Cried Out to God
Try to picture that scene in your mind.
Stiff, dry corn stalks. Soil like powder. Mothers counting the last handfuls of meal. Children watching the sky and asking, “When will it rain?”
To the Pilgrims, this was not just bad luck or “nature.” Their Bible told them that God rules the clouds, the wind, and the seasons. In their older English way of speaking, they believed God “sendeth rain on the earth” and “giveth bread to the eater.”
So, when the fields looked dead, they responded with worship.
Bradford’s style was simple and reverent. He might say something like, “We set apart a solemn day of humiliation, to seek the Lord by humble and fervent prayer.” In modern American English, that means:
They took a serious day to admit their need, bow low in heart, and ask God earnestly for help.
That season of fasting and prayer was the spiritual ground under the 1623 Day of Thanksgiving. They first went low before God, then later lifted their voices high in thanks when the rain came.
Real Thanksgiving, in their mind, started with real dependence.
Old English to Modern English: Bradford’s Thanksgiving Words
A well-known form of Bradford’s 1623 style proclamation has been passed down and shared in many places, including collections like “First Thanksgiving Proclamation William Bradford”. Here is the older flavor, followed by a simple modern translation.
“Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables,”
Modern: Since our great Father in Heaven has given us plenty of corn, wheat, peas, beans, squash, and garden food this year,
“and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams,”
Modern: and has filled the woods with animals and the sea with fish and clams,
“and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages,”
Modern: and since He has kept us safe from attacks and danger,
“has spared us from pestilence and disease,”
Modern: has kept away heavy sickness and death,
“has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience;”
Modern: and has given us freedom to worship Him according to what our own conscience, guided by Scripture, tells us is right,
“now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones,”
Modern: now I, your governor, declare that all you Pilgrims, with your families,
“do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the daytime on Thursday, November 29 of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three,”
Modern: will gather at the meeting house on the hill, from 9 in the morning to noon, on Thursday, November 29, 1623,
“and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock,”
Modern: the third year since we landed here on Plymouth Rock,
“there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.”
Modern: to listen to the pastor and give thanksgiving to Almighty God for all His blessings.
Notice the key phrases. “The great Father.” “Freedom to worship God.” “Thanksgiving to the Almighty God.” This was not just a farm festival. It was a worship service.
A Day of Thanksgiving Worship, Not Just a Harvest Feast
This is where we often get it wrong in modern stories.
The 1623 Thanksgiving was not built around tables and guests. It was built around prayer, preaching, and public praise. They met in their simple meeting house. They listened to the Word of God. They sang. They gave thanks for rain, for food, for health, for peace, and for liberty to worship.
Native Americans do not appear in this proclamation. The focus is vertical, not horizontal. They were not ignoring people around them, but on that day, the written record points only to God as the source of every gift.
So if we want to be honest with history, we have to say it clearly: this early Plymouth Thanksgiving was first about the Pilgrims and our God, not the Pilgrims and their neighbors.
Who God Was to the Pilgrims and Why They Risked Everything to Come to America
To understand their Thanksgiving, you have to understand our God.
Most of the Pilgrims used the Geneva Bible, an older English translation rich with notes. Some would also have known the newer King James Bible. In both, they saw one holy, personal, covenant-keeping God, who made heaven and earth, ruled kings and storms, judged sin, and saved sinners through Jesus Christ.
To them, God was not distant. He was near. He watched their small colony the way a father watches his children. He heard their prayers in the drought. He sent the rain in mercy. He opened a way for them to worship without a king sitting over their church.
Their idea of Thanksgiving grew straight out of that Bible-shaped faith.
The Pilgrims’ Bible: How Scripture Shaped Their View of God
Picture a simple wooden table, a worn English Bible open, a candle burning low.
They read verses that said God “giveth rain” and “heareth prayer.” They read “in every thing give thanks.” These words soaked into their thinking. So, when Bradford called God the “great Father,” he was not being poetic. He was speaking the way Scripture had taught him.
They believed that:
- God rules nature, so rain is not random.
- God rules kings, so even King James sits under His hand.
- God cares for the lowly, so a tiny colony on the edge of a continent still matters to Him.
That is why a Day of Thanksgiving felt necessary. To leave such mercy without thanks would be like a child grabbing a gift and never looking up at the Giver.
Why the Pilgrims Left England: Freedom to Worship God by Conscience
In England, church and state were tightly joined. King James I wanted religious uniformity. He expected people to follow the Church of England’s forms, prayers, and bishops. The Pilgrims’ pastor, John Robinson, and elder William Brewster believed that only Jesus Christ should be head of the church.
They first fled to Holland to worship according to Scripture and conscience. Over time they feared their children would lose their English language and identity, so they chose a harder path and sailed to America. The whole point was simple: to worship God freely and to raise their children in that faith.
So when Bradford’s proclamation thanked God for “liberty to worship Him according to our conscience,” he was naming the deep reason they had crossed the ocean in the first place.
King James, William Brewster, and the Spiritual Leadership Behind the First Thanksgiving
Behind the scenes of this Thanksgiving history stands quiet pressure and quiet courage.
How King James Pressured and Persecuted the Pilgrims’ Faith
King James I wanted one national church. Men and women who met in “separatist” congregations like the Pilgrims were seen as troublemakers. William Brewster helped lead secret Bible meetings at Scrooby Manor. When he later printed writings that challenged church authority, government agents hunted for him.
Fines, prison, loss of property, and fear were real for people like Brewster. Stories of this pressure helped push the group toward leaving England. So, when they thanked God in 1623, they were not only grateful for food. They were thankful to be out from under a king who tried to rule their conscience.
Thanksgiving, for them, was praise for both bread on the table and freedom for the soul.
William Brewster’s Quiet Influence on Pilgrim Worship and Thanksgiving
Who was William Brewster on that Day of Thanksgiving?
He was not the governor. He was the elder of their church, a spiritual shepherd, Bible teacher, and gentle guide. In hard winters and in hopeful springs, Brewster led them in psalms, Scripture, and prayer. On days of fasting, he helped them cry out to God. On days of Thanksgiving, he helped them lift their eyes in praise.
Even if he did not write the proclamation, his teaching shaped how they heard it. When Bradford called them to thank the “great Father,” Brewster would have opened the Bible, read to them, and helped them see their suffering and blessings in the light of God’s promises.
His influence reminds us that Thanksgiving is not just a public order. It is a habit of the heart, formed over many quiet days of worship.
Thanksgiving to God, Not to Man: What the 1623 Pilgrims Can Teach Us Today
The heart of the 1623 Thanksgiving was simple and sharp.
Why the Pilgrims Thanked God Above Everyone Else
The Pilgrims did receive help from Native Americans, and from friends in England, and they were grateful. But in the written words of this Day of Thanksgiving, they speak only to God.
They believed every good gift came from His hand. Rain, food, health, safety, freedom to worship, all of it. Without God, there would be no harvest, no colony, and no liberty of conscience.
Their pattern is clear. Real Thanksgiving points first upward. Then, out of that, we can rightly thank people around us. But if we skip God, we miss the Source.
Want God’s Blessing? Put God at the Center of Your Thanksgiving
If you want God’s Blessing in your life, start the way they did.
Blessings come from God, so thanks belongs to God. That is not complicated, but it is deep. You can begin by:
- Setting aside time each day to thank God in simple prayer.
- Reading the Bible and noticing how often God ties blessing to trust and obedience.
- Speaking openly with your family about how God has helped you.
- Letting Thanksgiving Day be a day of worship, not only food, football, and shopping.
You do not need to copy every Pilgrim custom. But you can share their heart: a deep, honest, God-first Thanksgiving.
How Pilgrim Faith and Thanksgiving Helped Shape Early American Foundations
This small colony did not stay small in its influence.
Liberty of Conscience: From Pilgrim Church to American Principle
“Liberty of conscience” meant the right and duty to worship God according to the best understanding of Scripture, without a king or state church forcing outward religious acts.
When Bradford thanked God in 1623 for “liberty to worship Him according to our conscience,” he was celebrating more than private comfort. He was speaking about the moral frame of their whole community. Over time, this idea helped shape wider American views of religious freedom, where the government was not supposed to reach inside the conscience.
Our national habit of public Thanksgiving has roots in that same soil. A people under God, not under a king’s control of the soul.
From a Small Plymouth Gathering to a National Thanksgiving Tradition
From that meeting house on the hill, the pattern spread.
Other colonies called for days of fasting in hard times and days of Thanksgiving after deliverance. Later, leaders like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln called the nation to public days of prayer and thanks. Writers and historians, such as those who preserve documents on The First Thanksgiving Declaration, Governor William Bradford, help keep the memory alive.
Every year, when America pauses for Thanksgiving, there is still an echo of that November day in 1623. Even when our culture forgets it, the holiday still carries an older call: remember the Giver, not just the gifts.
Conclusion
The 1623 Thanksgiving in Plymouth came after real fear, real drought, and real prayer. Governor William Bradford called a Day of Thanksgiving to God for gentle rain, saved crops, health, peace, and the precious freedom to worship by conscience. The Pilgrims’ Bible-shaped view of God, their struggle with King James, and the quiet strength of men like William Brewster all flowed into that moment of public praise.
They did not build that day around human heroes. They lifted their thanks to Almighty God. If you let your own Thanksgiving center on Him, you step into the same stream. You remember that every breath, every meal, every bit of freedom is a gift. And as you give thanks to God above all else, you tie your life to one of the strongest and most beautiful roots of American history.
