Black Americans free to give thanks, even during slavery

Black Americans free to give thanks, even during slavery: You'll be hard pressed to find the face of an African-American in any artistic depiction of that all-too familiar feast of 1621, like the one where a group of Plymouth colonists share an autumn harvest meal with some Wampanoag Indians.

That was just about the time when the earliest ships of Africans arrived as itemized cargo in America.

Nonetheless, African-Americans have long embraced the honored tradition of Thanksgiving, even during slavery.

When the Continental Congress delivered a 1777 decree for the 13 colonies to give thanks for a victory over the British at Saratoga, African-Americans took part in the regional celebrations, continuing in what had become a familiar custom of rejoicing for bountiful harvests and drought-breaking rains.