This Thanksgiving, we look back across four centuries to rediscover the story that helped shape the soul of America. From the Pilgrims’ courageous flight from England, to their 66-day voyage across the North Atlantic, to the friendship of Samoset, Squanto, and Massasoit, this message traces the remarkable ways God’s providence guided the earliest chapters of our nation’s history. We explore the hardships of that first winter, the signing of the Mayflower Compact, the first Thanksgiving feast, and the miracle of answered prayer during the drought of 1623. We also consider how William Bradford interpreted these events, how the Founding Fathers looked to the Pilgrims as a model of faith and self-government, and what these lessons still mean for us today.

Thanksgiving is more than a holiday—it is a reminder that God is faithful in suffering, sovereign in uncertainty, and present in every generation.

To follow are the primary sources for the historical account of the Pilgrims and the Plymouth Plantation.

• Of Plymouth Plantation (1630–1650) — William Bradford
• Mourt’s Relation (1622) — Edward Winslow & William Bradford
• Good Newes from New England (1624) — Edward Winslow
• The Mayflower Compact (1620) — The Mayflower passengers
• Plymouth Colony Records (1630s–1690s) — Various Plymouth Colony clerks and governors
• Letters of Robert Cushman, John Robinson, Samuel Fuller, and other early leaders