Pilgrim Edward Winslow recorded in Mourt's Relation that in the Fall of 1621:"God be praised we had a good increase ... Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week."
Traitor Benedict Arnold's plot to betray West Point was thwarted. The Continental Congress proclaimed a Day of Thanksgiving, October 18, 1780:"In the late remarkable interposition of His watchful providence, in the rescuing the person of our Commander-in-Chief and the army from imminent dangers, at the moment when treason was ripened for execution ... it is therefore recommended ... a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer ... to confess our unworthiness ... and to offer fervent supplications to the God of all grace ... to cause the knowledge of Christianity to spread over all the earth."
Bradford described: "They began to consider how to raise more corn, and obtain a better crop ... that they might not continue to endure the misery of want ... After much debate, the Governor, with the advice of the chief among them, allowed each man to plant corn for his own household ... So every family was assigned a parcel of land ... This was very successful."
James Madison, March 2, 1819: "The English Church was originally the established religion ... Of other sects there were but few adherents, except the Presbyterians who predominated on the west side of the Blue Mountains ... Previous to the Revolutionary struggle, the Baptists sprang up, and made very rapid progress ...At present the population is divided, with small exceptions, among the Protestant Episcopalians, the Presbyterians, the Baptists and the Methodists."
