What's the History of Thanksgiving?

A lot of what's taught about 'the first Thanksgiving' is actually more Civil-War-era propaganda than true fact. Learn how this brief moment of peace might've gone down, plus how we got today's traditions, in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/holidays-other/10-thanksgiving-history-myths.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here.
I love a feast day, any excuse to get together
with chosen family and share food and stories. But the
stories behind the holiday Thanksgiving involve a lot of myths.
The way that this holiday developed over the past few

(00:24):
centuries is twistier than your favorite puff pastry recipe. So today,
let's talk about what we know and don't know about
how our modern concept of Thanksgiving evolved. Okay, the story
that a lot of us grew up within school is
that the first Thanksgiving was a fall harvest celebration that
brought together British colonists and Native Americans in what's now

(00:47):
Massachusetts in the sixteen hundreds. And it does seem that
something like this actually happened. Let's talk about the Pilgrims.
In the early sixteen hundreds, a group of people in
England broke away from the Church of England and left
seeking religious freedom. They wound up in the Netherlands, and
from Amsterdam, one hundred and one people interested in a

(01:09):
new life boarded the Mayflower and set sail for North America.
They landed in December of sixteen twenty and established the
Plymouth Colony along the coast of what's now Massachusetts. Their
first year didn't go too well. They had landed in
the winter, only about half of them survived to see
the spring. When they tried to grow familiar European crops

(01:33):
from seeds they had brought, the crops failed, luckily for them.
Some of the locals were interested in forging a treaty
of mutual protection and well being. The Peduxit band of
the Wampanog Confederation negotiated with the Pilgrims to basically leave
each other alone, but also act as allies in defending
against any attack on either group. One native man was

(01:58):
really crucial in these negotiations, to Squantum, often known by
the nickname Squanto. He had actually been sold into slavery
by European explorers a few years prior, but regained his
freedom and made his way back to the Americas as
an interpreter. It was thanks to him that this treaty
happened in March of sixteen twenty one, and he also

(02:20):
taught the remaining pilgrims a lot of survival skills, including
how to grow corn. By that fall, they had a
successful harvest, and around fifty three Pilgrims and ninety ptuxit
held a three day celebration of that bounty. The Pilgrim's
hunted birds probably ducks, geese, swan, and pigeons, maybe even turkey,

(02:43):
and brought in enough to feed the colony for a week.
The ptuxit brought a heroic amount of venison. Historians think
there might have been roasts and stews, a seafood like clams, lobsters,
cod and eels, a bread or porridge made from cornmeal
and fruit and vegetables like onions, carrots, turnips, greens, and

(03:03):
possibly even cranberriers or pumpkin. There was also beer and singing, dancing, games, races,
and a bunch of firing of firearms. A Most of
what we now know about that harvest festival comes from
a letter that one of the pilgrim leaders, one Edward Winslow,
later wrote to a friend. Similar feasts likely happened in

(03:27):
any number of places at any number of times, though
relationships between colonists and Native Americans were often strained, which
is understandable because colonialism is often horrific. But this one
became enshrined in our concept of Thanksgiving due to the
extensive work of one lady named Sarah Josepha Hale. About

(03:50):
two centuries after the event. In the eighteen forties, Hale
was the editor of a popular women's magazine called Goody's
Lady's Book. She had author the nursery rhyme Mary had
a Little Lamb, and she was witnessing her nation become
more and more divided as it inched towards Civil War.

(04:11):
Back in the seventeen eighties, the Continental Congress had floated
the idea of a national day of thanks but nothing
had come of it. But Hale decided that this was
exactly what the country needed. A Boston clergyman had found
and published Edward Winslow's letter a calling the sixteen twenty
one feast the first Thanksgiving, and Hale loved this. She

(04:35):
started publishing articles and recipes for families to create their
own Thanksgivings, and in eighteen forty six she started a
letter writing campaign to America's presidents asking them to make
it a national holiday. She bugged Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore,
Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and finally Abraham Lincoln. The idea

(04:59):
finally caught with Lincoln because it was eighteen sixty three
and the Civil War was raging. He made a proclamation
that all Americans should set aside the last Thursday in
November as a day of Christian thanks for quote, the
blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies, and to implore
God to again quote heal the wounds of the nation,

(05:21):
and to restore it as soon as may be consistent
with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility,
and union. A. Lincoln and each president after him made
a yearly declaration designating the holiday until Congress made it
permanent in nineteen forty two as the fourth Thursday of November.

(05:45):
But it was Sarah Josepha Hale's concepts about the holiday
that caught on and stuck with us. She wrote these
fictionalized accounts of the love and peace between the Native
Americans and the Pilgrims. She created our modern image of
the pilgrim. You know, black and white clothing, tall hats,
lots of big buckles. Those were actually fashions being worn

(06:06):
by the Puritans, a whole separate group of colonists living
up in Boston at the time, pilgrims might have had
some similar formal wear, but were more likely to be
in more casual clothing in a range of earth tones
and bright colors. And Haile created our basic Thanksgiving menu
that's persisted for going on two hundred years. Those dishes

(06:29):
that we eat are what Victorian era Americans thought of
as fall feast dishes. Your roast turkey and gravy, roasted
root vegetables, a stuffing or dressing, mashed potatoes, sugar sweet
and cranberry sauce, and a custardy pumpkin pie baked in
a flaky crust. Hale even dictated the day of the

(06:49):
week a Thursday, to give home cooks time to prepare
this feast between Sundays, as it was common for families
to have big weekly Sunday suppers. Other traditions came along later.
The first Thanksgiving Day football game happened in eighteen seventy
six when Yale played Princeton. The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day

(07:09):
Parade marched in nineteen twenty four. The first National Day
of Mourning as an Indigenous and Allied observance of remembrance
and awareness of the true history of colonialism was held
the fourth Thursday of November in nineteen seventy. However, you
may be observing this day, we hear a brainstuff whish

(07:30):
you piece and knowledge. Today's episode is based loosely on
the article ten historical untruths about the First Thanksgiving on
how stuffworks dot com, written by Chrisoffer, with additional material
by me and Annie Reese, my co host on my
other podcast Saver the brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio

(07:53):
in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and is produced
by Tyler Klang. For four more podcasts my heart Radio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
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