174. Fort Caroline

Contrary to popular belief, the first Thanksgiving likely did not take place in New England. Today on our journey back through the archives, Dr. Stephen Nichols takes us further south.

Well, last week was our American Thanksgiving but it’s such a great holiday why not celebrate it again. So, we found another archival episode for you on Thanksgiving. We’re going to play that for you now, and as we said last week, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, thanks so much for joining us for these episodes of 5 Minutes in Church History. 

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. On this episode, we'll be talking about Fort Caroline. Now I need to distinguish this is not “Sweet Caroline”—some of you might know what that is—no, this is Fort Caroline, and this was a fort that was established along the St. Johns River in Florida in 1564.

Now, this is a bit of a trick question that I have for you. When was the first Thanksgiving on American soil? You might be tempted to think of New England, after all, Thanksgiving traditions all point us back to New England. But you actually might be wrong. The first Thanksgiving service likely occurred, or Thanksgiving day, the first Thanksgiving day, likely occurred on June 30th, 1564, at Fort Caroline, which is near the modern-day city of Jacksonville in Florida. This was a group of French Huguenots. In 1562, their leader had made a exploratory trip to the coast of Florida and found this delightful place at the St. John's River, a place for a settlement, and in 1564, 200 French Huguenot settlers landed in Florida and set up Fort Caroline. They landed in June and by June 30th, they decided to have a service of thanksgiving and celebration for coming to this new world. And this is what they said on that momentous day, "On the morrow about the break of day, I commanded a trumpet to be sounded that being assembled we might give God thanks for our favorable and happy arrival. Then we sang a psalm of Thanksgiving unto God beseeching him that it would please him of his grace to continue his accustomed goodness toward us, his poor servants, and aid us in all our enterprises that all might turn to his glory and the advancement of our king."

Now there's a fascinating line in there that I want to focus on because not only was this the first Thanksgiving, but this was also the first Protestant hymn that was sung in the new world. Notice they say that “we sang a psalm of Thanksgiving.” When these French Huguenots came, they brought with them the Genevan Psalter. Yes, this is the psalter that was produced by Calvin there in the city of Geneva, and they brought it with them, and that psalter was a significant part of their worship services there along the St. Johns River in 1564.

Well, the Spanish also had an interest in Florida, in fact the Spanish that were sent to settle Florida had a direct order to rid the colony of Florida of the French. More of the French came in 1565, in fact, another 600 arrived in the summer of 1565. And it was that fall, that September, that the Spanish, that had settled a little bit south of Fort Caroline at St. Augustine, that the Spanish there attacked the French Huguenots and captured that fort and largely wiped out the French Huguenots that had settled there at Fort Caroline. The ones that survived the war and survived the massacre made their way back to France. And that was the end of the French attempts to colonize the colony of Florida.

While they were here, the French taught the Indians how to sing these psalms. These were the Timucuan Indians, and they learned to sing the psalter. In fact, when Timucuan Indians, right around the time of this massacre and before all the French left, came into contact with the European colonists, they would hum a line from the psalter and if the person that they were meeting with was able to give the line back, they knew they were French. And if the European that they were giving that line to had no idea what they were saying, they knew that they were Spanish and they knew to avoid them.

So, there we have it at Fort Caroline, the first Thanksgiving and the first Protestant hymn sing. I'm Steve Nichols. Thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes in Church History.