The Federalist By: Emily Pinette and Jerry M. Roper
History rides the currents of Virginia’s James River. America’s oldest settlements and cities, Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Richmond, were fed by her waters and prospered on her banks. Tucked away between these colonial American cities is the stately red brick Georgian manor house of Berkeley Plantation, the family home of Founding Father Benjamin Harrison and birthplace of President William Henry Harrison. During the Civil War, the military bugle call Taps was composed at Berkeley Plantation and first played for the Union troops quartered there.
But Berkeley Plantation’s history goes back much further. It was also the site — in 1619 — of America’s first Thanksgiving, nearly two years before the Pilgrims in New England held their more famous and celebrated feast. What would become Berkeley Plantation was a tract of land, given by England’s King James I to a group of settlers led by Captain John Woodlief. Their sponsor, the Berkeley Company, directed the settlers to offer a holy “day of Thanksgiving to the Almighty God” to mark their arrival in the new world. So on Dec. 4, 1619, the settlers held a prayer service to mark the event. The anniversary of this arrival was celebrated each year, until an Indian attack brought the Berkeley settlement to an end…
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