Plymouth, Massachusetts up trading posts for furs. Chief Massasoit later formed a Peace Treaty with the Pilgrims. Upon growing a plentiful harvest in the fall of 1621, the Pilgrims gathered with Squanto, Samoset, Massasoit, and ninety other Wampanoag men in a celebration of thanksgiving to God for their plentiful harvest. This celebration is known today as the First Thanksgiving, and is still commemorated annually in downtown Plymouth with a parade and a reenactment. Since 1941, Thanksgiving has been observed as a federal holiday in the United States. Plymouth served as the capital of Plymouth Colony (which consisted of modern-day Barnstable, Bristol, and
History of Plymouth with the purpose of establishing settlements on the coast of North America. A few years later, Plymouth was also the departure point of the "Mayflower" in 1620, aboard which the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World, establishing the second permanent English colony in the United States of America. They eventually landed at a site which Captain John Smith had already named New Plymouth in a map published in his 1616 work "A Description of New England" and the Pilgrims accepted this name. Twin flags of the US and UK now fly at the Mayflower Steps to commemorate the