Berkeley Plantation
| Location | Charles City, Virginia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37.3217, -77.1817 |
| Access | Public - house museum and grounds, ticketed |
The first page of Berkeley Plantation’s story survives as a set of instructions. In 1619, the Virginia Company directed that the day the settlers arrived at Berkeley Hundred be kept each year as a day of thanksgiving. The record describes an English colonial observance, not the beginning of every Thanksgiving tradition in North America. Its later label as “America’s first Thanksgiving” is a modern claim that compresses a much broader history into a contest over precedence.
The rest of this file is sealed. 3 more sections: what happened next, what people still report, and how to visit.
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