A Widow's Cause: Bringing Thanksgiving to Victorian America by Jo-Ann Roberts

 

During most of the 19th century, Thanksgiving was not an official holiday. Admittedly, it had its roots in the New England states, and was widely celebrated there and into the mid-West. The actual date of the holiday was left to individual states and territories. It could vary widely from September through December, but mostly celebrated in November after the harvest.

While the idea of celebrating a good harvest was an old one, it took a Victorian lady to give it its voice. Specifically, the editor of a highly popular magazine of the times, Godey's Lady's Book, Sarah Josepha Hale. 

Suddenly finding herself a widow and single mother with children to support--including a brand-new baby--Sarah wrote a book, Northwood. Its success led to a job offer for the "editorship" of a new "ladies" magazine, turning Godey's into one of the most important periodicals in 19th century America. Though it is now remembered primarily for its fashion plates, crafts, and household tidbits, it covered social issues as well.

 

Year after year, Godey's Lady's Book published the same plea. Each year the campaign brought new success. By 1851, 29 out of 31 states celebrated a day of Thanksgiving. However, not on the same day so she continued to insist the holiday be celebrated on the exact same day. 

Having thoroughly thought it out, she suggested the last Thursday in November so that "the telegraph of human happiness would move every heart to gladness simultaneously." To further her cause for a unified day of giving thanks, she pointed out that farm labor was done for the season and the election cycle was over.

 

Below is the cover of Godey's Lady's Book and the original plea from 1847.

 

“OUR HOLIDAYS.—We have but two that we can call entirely national. The New Year is a holiday to all the world, and Christmas to all Christians—but the “Fourth of July” and “Thanksgiving Day” can only be enjoyed by Americans. The annual observance of Thanksgiving Day was, to be sure, mostly confined to the New England States, till within a few years. We are glad to see that this good old puritan custom is becoming popular through the Union…Would that the next Thanksgiving might be observed in all the states on the same day. Then, though the members of the same family might be too far separated to meet around one festival board, they would have the gratification of knowing that all were enjoying the blessing of the day…

Despite her claims, she had not achieved the ultimate endorsement; a proclamation from the President. In 1861, with civil war looming, she focused on national unity as her strongest selling point. 

Finally, under these conditions and the stress of considerable loss of life, a devastated Southern economy, and public support for the holiday, President Abraham Lincoln endorsed and proclaimed "a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelt in the heavens." Furthermore, he stated, Americans should "fervently implore" blessings from the Almighty to "heal the wounds of the nations, and to restore it...to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union."

Thanksgiving in a Civil War camp

Successive presidents continued the tradition and proclaimed a yearly Thanksgiving at the end of every November.  Still not satisfied, Hale's magazine urged Congress to recognize the holiday. Unfortunately, she didn't live to see the Congressional proclamation of the Thanksgiving story (which finally took place in 1941), but by the 1870's Thanksgiving was already a part of America's culture.

The national holiday has become just what Sarah Josepha Hale envisioned: a celebration of home and hearth and the blessings for which we are grateful.

 Happy Thanksgiving!

Sources:

Read the Original Pitch for Thanksgiving, From the Editress Who Created the Holiday - Atlas Obscura

http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/blog/thanksgiving

In All Things, Give Thanks

 

 

I think it's safe to say that 2020 has been a doozy for all of us in one way or another. As many Americans gathered around their tables on Thursday, November 26th, to celebrate and enjoy being with each other, and many of them did not, I'm sure we all experienced a bittersweet feeling rather than the bounteous joy that usually accompanies such gatherings. Lately I've been reflecting on things that I am grateful for even though this year brought its own unique challenges to my life. One thing I'm especially grateful for is readers like you who support us authors. Writing for entertainment can be an entertaining endeavor in itself, but sometimes stressful, too, and this year it has been especially so. Along with that, I am also grateful to have received the inspiration I needed several times in order to finish a project on time. I am also grateful for my loved ones and pray that your loved ones are safe or that you'll find comfort if they have met misfortune this holiday season.

Notwithstanding these somber thoughts, however, I want to keep this blog post lighthearted and, yes, entertaining. I've put together a short and sweet Thanksgiving Quiz for you - don't worry, I've also provided the answers. And this isn't just a history quiz - as much as I like history, I thought it would be fun to learn a few things about Thanksgiving in this day and age (mostly). So here we go!

1) Which U.S. state grows the most corn?

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Answer: Iowa, with Illinois being a close second. This was a fun fact to look up because a few years ago, I traveled through parts of both of these states and saw cornfield after cornfield. Arizona (where I'm from) grows a decent amount of corn, too, but what I saw on that trip was on a whole new level. And even though it was just corn (as compared to a natural wonder like the Grand Canyon), the sight of all that corn against the backdrop of a perfectly blue sky brought to mind the song lyrics, "amber waves of grain". I'm thankful I got to see such a great sight!

2) Why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving?

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Answer: According to Brittanica, the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock most likely ate duck or geese at their harvest meal. Turkey, it seems, was introduced as the bird to eat in the early 1800s with the publication of Northwood, a book written by female novelist, essayist, and editor, Sarah Josepha Hale. She is remarkable for the fact that she became an editor after her husband died. She became the top influencer in the publication for ladies called Godey's Lady's Book. In 1830, she also penned a book called Poems for our Children. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was one of the poems in that collection. Anyway, Hale's book, Northwood, described in quite fascinating detail a Thanksgiving meal that featured a turkey. She eventually campaigned for Thanksgiving to be made into a national holiday, as she felt that such an event would help to ease mounting tensions in the country. (Sound familiar?) Of course, this didn't happen until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln declared the fourth Thursday in the month of November as a day of prayer and thanksgiving. Here is a picture of Mrs. Hale. Wasn't she lovely?

3) Which U.S. state grows the most pumpkins?

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Answer: Illinois, with Morton, Illinois being called the "Pumpkin Capital of the World". States like Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and California aren't far behind. However, globally, China is the real pumpkin capital of the world in that it produces the most, followed by India, Russia, Ukraine, and finally, the United States.

4) Why does the President of the United States pardon a turkey every year?

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Answer: The first unofficial pardon of a turkey came from President Ronald Reagan back in 1982. President George H. W. Bush decided it made for pretty good press, apparently, so he did the same. From there, the successive presidents have all carried on the tradition.

5) What is the record for the world's largest pumpkin pie?

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Answer: New Bremen Giant Pumpkin Growers produced a pie that weighed 3,699 pounds on September 10, 2010, in New Bremen, Ohio. But if you're looking for who produced the world's largest sweet potato pie, you'll have to travel all the way to Japan. According to this article, Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Expressway Company produced a massive 703-pound sweet potato pie in 2018. That's a lot of pie!

6) Which U.S. state consumes the most turkey?

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Answer: California. Go figure.

7) How many feathers does an adult male turkey have?

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Answer: Approximately 5,500. That's a lot of plucking before the bird gets to your dinner table!

8) What is the longest-running Thanksgiving parade in the United States? (Hint: not Macy's)

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Answer: Philadelphia's Thanksgiving Parade celebrated its 100th year this month. Macy's in New York City began four years later, in 1924. Did you know that the balloons in Macy's parade have to be painted once they are blown up? Here are two articles that share fun facts about each of the parades:

Philadelphia: https://whyy.org/articles/looking-back-on-the-nations-oldest-thanksgiving-day-parade-at-100/

Macy's: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71548/16-fun-facts-about-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade

I hope you've enjoyed this informal and informational quiz. I certainly learned a lot while putting this blog post together! And that's one of my favorite things about being an author. I come across interesting tidbits all the time. (For instance, I recently wrote a contemporary story that takes place in Georgia with the series title being called Georgia Peaches, but did you know that California is actually the U.S.'s leading peach crop producer?) 

Whether or not you celebrate Thanksgiving as a holiday, there's one thing that I think we can all be grateful for this holiday season, and it is that fictional characters get a happily ever after. If you are in the mood to read stories with characters who dream of a better life and face the odds in obtaining them, I invite you to take a look at my Amazon page and view the stories that I have to offer. A few of them are even on sale at this time, and all of my Belles of Wyoming stories have updated covers. Here is the link to my page: https://amzn.to/2GKnBUA

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

When Thanksgiving was Political

 

According to historian Michael LaCombe, Chief Massasoit and his people contributed freshly killed deer for the first Thanksgiving. Much appreciated by the Pilgrims, I’m sure. However, LaCombe asserts that the Native Americans undermined Governor William Bradford’s authority by giving the meat to the colony’s leading members, rather than to Bradford himself, for redistribution. Thereby thumbing their nose at Bradford’s rule.

"The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth"
(1914) By Jennie A. Brownscombe; public domain {{PD-US}}

Decades later, in 1675, Massasoit’s son, Philip (alias Metacom or Metacomet), gathered together several tribes who had been enemies. Faced with spreading, permanent English colonization, they fought the colonists in “King Philip’s War” – called the deadliest war in American history, in proportion to population. Doubtless, the natives did not favorably recall the first Thanksgiving.

In 1776 colonists accused King George III of allowing “the merciless Indian Savages” . . . to attack “the inhabitants of our frontiers”. In truth, these early Americans had spent more than a century taking native territory that did not belong to them. When the Revolutionary War ended with the defeat of Great Britain and her native allies, more indigenous territory was seized. How to divide so much land between southern slave interests and northerner anti-slavery forces ultimately sparked the American Civil War.

Which brings us back to Thanksgiving.

Sarah Josepha Hale, ca. 1831; public domain

In 1863, novelist and magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale convinced Abraham Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday on the last Thursday in November. She had started campaigning for the holiday in the 1840s, hoping a national day of celebration would help prevent the quarrel over slavery from erupting into Civil War. Her idea met with resistance from the southern states, as well as inconsistencies in how to celebrate the holiday.

Since colonial times, the meaning of thanksgiving days has varied greatly. Prior to 1863, thanksgiving events occurred throughout the year and could involve religious fasting and feasts to mark important events. In 1777, the Continental Congress proclaimed a day of thanksgiving for all 13 states to celebrate winning a battle against the British at Saratoga.

Professor Matthew Dennis observes that by 1850 every northern state, and several southern, Midwestern and far western states (including Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin) celebrated Thanksgiving, at least occasionally.

Sarah Josepha Hale believed an official thanksgiving date would give the states more in common than they had differences. In 1854, as editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, she wrote: “The last Thursday in November has been selected as the day best suited to the general convenience, when the people from Maine to Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, might sit down together, as it were, and enjoy in national union their feast of gladness.”

In the south, however, slaveholders viewed the holiday as an opportunity for Yankee preachers to sermonize against slavery, and in their eyes to push the country closer to war. In 1853, Governor Joseph Johnson of Virginia refused to declare Thanksgiving a holiday, and in 1859, Governor Stewart of Missouri proclaimed December 8^th instead of November 24^th a day of Thanksgiving, a deliberate act of defiance.

Despite Hale’s efforts, war broke out, and Lincoln’s decision to make the holiday a national one was intended to support the north’s cause as much as to commemorate an event in the nation’s history. Thanksgiving did not prevent the Civil War, but it was used to help bolster the Union’s cause – partially through food. Mentions of turkey, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce appear in association with Thanksgiving in 1860s editions of Godey’s Lady’s Book.

In this year of the terrible Covid pandemic, Thanksgiving may not be a subject for political debate, but it does present a challenge for all of us. Common sense calls for us to avoid large family gatherings, to stay home in our personal bubbles and, I pray, live to see next year's national day of thanks. Amen.

Lyn Horner is a multi-published, award-winning author of western historical romance and paranormal romantic suspense novels, all spiced with sensual romance. She is a former fashion illustrator and art instructor who resides in Fort Worth, Texas – “Where the West Begins” - with her husband and two very spoiled cats. As well as crafting passionate love stories, Lyn enjoys reading, gardening, genealogy, visiting with family and friends, and cuddling her furry, four-legged babies.

 

Amazon Author Page: viewAuthor.at/LynHornerAmazon (universal link)  

Website:  Lyn Horner’s Corner 

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