The booklet ''Mourt's Relation'' (full title: ''A Relation or Journal of the Beginning and Proceedings of the English Plantation Settled at Plimoth in New England'') was written between November 1620 and November 1621, and describes in detail what happened from the landing of the ''

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...

'' Pilgrims on

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of mainland Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer mont ...

Provincetown Harbor Provincetown Harbor is a large natural harbor located in the town of Provincetown, Massachusetts. The harbor is mostly deep and stretches roughly from northwest to southeast and from northeast to southwest – one large, deep basin with no dr ...

through their exploring and eventual settling of

Plymouth Colony Plymouth Colony (sometimes Plimouth) was, from 1620 to 1691, the first permanent English colony in New England and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. It was first settled by the passengers on the ...

. It was written primarily by

Edward Winslow Edward Winslow (18 October 15958 May 1655) was a Separatist and New England political leader who traveled on the ''Mayflower'' in 1620. He was one of several senior leaders on the ship and also later at Plymouth Colony. Both Edward Winslow and ...

, although William Bradford appears to have written most of the first section. The book describes their relations with the surrounding Native Americans, up to what is commonly called the first

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

and the arrival of the ship ''Fortune'' in November 1621. ''Mourt's Relation'' was first published and sold by John Bellamy in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 1622. This significant tract has often been erroneously cited as "by George Morton, sometimes called George Mourt" (hence the title ''Mourt's Relation''). Morton was an

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

Separatist who had moved to Leiden, Holland. He stayed behind when the first settlers left for Plymouth, Massachusetts, but he continued to orchestrate business affairs in Europe and London for their cause—presumably arranging for the publication of and perhaps helping write Mourt's Relation. In 1623, Morton himself emigrated to the Plymouth Colony with his wife Juliana, the sister of Governor William Bradford's wife Alice. But George Morton didn't survive long in the New World; he died the following year in 1624. George Morton's son

Nathaniel Morton Capt. Nathaniel Morton (christened 161629 June 1685) was a Separatist settler of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, where he served for most of his life as Plymouth's secretary under his uncle, Governor William Bradford. Morton wrote an account of ...

became the clerk of Plymouth Colony, a close adviser to his uncle Governor William Bradford who raised him after the death of his father, and the author of the influential early history of the Plymouth Colony "New England's Memorial." A sixty-year long tradition at ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' is to reprint the section on the "first Thanksgiving" on the Wednesday before the holiday. The booklet was summarized by other publications without the now-familiar Thanksgiving story, but the original booklet appeared to be lost or forgotten by the eighteenth century. A copy was rediscovered in Philadelphia in 1820, with the first full reprinting in 1841. In a footnote, editor Alexander Young was the first person to identify the 1621 feast as "the first Thanksgiving." In 1921, a copy sold at auction for $3,800.

Notes

References

* Reprint of the original version.

External links

''Mourt's Relation''
as transcribed by Caleb Johnson
''Mourt's Relation''
as transcribed by Caleb Johnson * A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth; Mourt's Relation as edited by Dwight B. Heath, at Project Gutenberg
''Mourt's relation or journal of the plantation at Plymouth''
Full-text copies from HathiTrust {{Authority control 1622 books History of the Thirteen Colonies Plymouth Colony Thanksgiving