The Pilgrim Proclamation

Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes and garden vegetables, and has made the forest to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all you Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at your meeting house, on the hill between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November 29th of the year of our Lord, one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, in the third year since you Pilgrims landed on Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to your pastor and render thanksgiving to your Almighty God for all His blessings.

William Bradford

Governor of Plymouth Colony

Brothers and Sisters in Christ;