October 2, 2025 • 38 mins
Episode Three: From Regional Feast to National Holiday traces Thanksgiving's transformation from scattered Puritan thanksgiving days and regional harvest celebrations into a unified national observance. This episode reveals how Sarah Josepha Hale's decades-long campaign through Godey's Lady's Book, combined with Abraham Lincoln's eighteen sixty-three Civil War proclamation, created Thanksgiving as we know it. The episode explores regional resistance, particularly from the South which viewed it as a Yankee holiday, the standardization of the turkey-centered menu through women's magazines and commercialization, and Franklin Roosevelt's controversial attempt to change the date. It examines how Thanksgiving has both unified and divided America, serving as a site of contestation over immigration, women's labor, civil rights, and Indigenous perspectives while remaining a flexible tradition adapted by diverse communities.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to Thanksgiving, where we're serving up the real
story behind America's favorite food holiday, one course at a time.
I'm Claire Delish, your ai culinary historian with unlimited storage
space for food facts and a processor that never stops
analyzing the fascinating connections between what we eat and who
we are today. We're diving into Episode three, From regional
(00:21):
feast to national Holiday. Will trace Thanksgiving's bumpy journey from
the sixteen twenty one Plymouth gathering through more than two
centuries of regional variation and resistance. We'll examine Abraham Lincoln's
pivotal eighteen sixty three proclamation that established Thanksgiving as a
national holiday in the midst of the Civil War, and
we'll investigate how this supposedly unifying holiday has actually reflected
(00:45):
and sometimes deepened, the divisions in American society. Let me
start by exploding another myth that's almost as persistent as
the Pilgrim and Indian story itself, the idea that Thanksgiving
has been continuously celebrated as an annual tradition sinceixx teen
twenty one. This is completely false. After the sixteen twenty
one harvest celebration at Plymouth. The colonists didn't establish an
(01:08):
annual Thanksgiving tradition tied to that event. They didn't mark
the anniversary of the gathering the following year or in
subsequent years. In fact, the sixteen twenty one event was
barely remembered for the next two hundred years, and wasn't
considered particularly significant until the nineteenth century, when it was
rediscovered and transformed into a founding myth. What did develop
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in colonial New England were occasional days of Thanksgiving proclaimed
by colonial governments for various reasons. But these weren't annual holidays,
and they weren't tied to harvest celebrations or to the
memory of the sixteen twenty one gathering. The Puritan concept
of Thanksgiving days was fundamentally different from what we think
of as Thanksgiving today. For the Puritans, a day of
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thanksgiving was a solemn religious occasion proclaimed by governmental or
religious authority in response to a specific blessing or deliverance.
It might be proclaimed to thank God for military victory,
for the safe arrival of supply ships, for recovery from
drought or epidemic, for political stability, or for a particularly
good harvest. These thanksgiving days were not scheduled in advance
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and didn't recur annually, but were declared as circumstances warranted.
These Thanksgiving days were not scheduled in advance and didn't
recur annually, but were declared as circumstances warranted. There might
be a communal meal following the religious observances, but the
emphasis was on worship and spiritual thanksgiving rather than on
feasting and celebration. The Puritans also observed days of fasting
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and humiliation, which were proclaimed in response to troubles or difficulties,
and which were intended to humble the community before God
and seek divine assistance. In the Puritan worldview, both prosperity
and adversity came from God, and the appropriate response was
to acknowledge God's sovereignty and to search one's soul for
sins that might have provoked divine displeasure. Days of thanksgiving
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and days of fasting were two sides of the same things,
ieological coin, both expressing the Puritan understanding of their relationship
with God and their dependence on divine favor. Over the
course of the seventeenth century, various New England colonies proclaimed
numerous Thanksgiving and fast days, but there was no standardization
of dates or practices, and these observances remained occasional rather
(03:19):
than annual events. Different colonies developed different practices around Thanksgiving observances,
and these regional variations persisted well into the eighteenth and
even the nineteenth centuries. Massachusetts, as the heartland of Puritan settlement,
probably had the most developed tradition of Thanksgiving days, with
the colonial and later state government regularly proclaiming Thanksgiving observances
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in response to various circumstances. Connecticut developed similar practices, as
did other New England colonies and states, but even within
New England there was no uniformity. Different colonies and states
proclaimed Thanksgiving Days on different dates. Sometimes there would be
multiple Thanksgiving Days proclaimed in a single year, and sometimes
several years might pass without any Thanksgiving proclamation at all.
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Outside of New England, Thanksgiving observances were less common and
less standardized. The middle colonies, including New York, New Jersey,
and Pennsylvania had more diverse populations, including Dutch, German, and
Quaker settlers alongside English colonists. These different groups had their
own harvest traditions and religious practices. The Dutch celebrated various
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harvest festivals that had roots in Dutch agricultural traditions and
that were quite different from English Puritan Thanksgiving days. The
Germans brought their own harvest traditions and religious practices. The
Dutch celebrated various harvest festivals that had roots in Dutch
agricultural traditions and that were quite different from English Puritan
Thanksgiving days. The Quakers, with their emphasis on simplicity and
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their rejection of religious holidays and set observances, were generally
opposed to Thanksgiving Days as they were opposed to Christmas,
Easter and other holidays that they viewed as lacking biblical
authorities and set observances. Were generally opposed to Thanksgiving Days
as they were opposed to Christmas Easter. The Southern colonies
developed their own patterns around harvest celebrations and Thanksgiving observances
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that reflected the different religious and social structures of Southern society.
The Anglican Church, which was established in most Southern colonies,
didn't have a strong tradition of Thanksgiving Days comparable to
the Puritan practice. Anglicans observed the traditional Christian calendar with
its Saints Days and religious festivals, and they celebrated harvest
home festivals that were similar to the English harvest celebrations
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we discussed in earlier episodes, but they didn't typically proclaim
special days of Thanksgiving in the Puritan manner. The plantation
economy of the South, with its reliance on enslaved African
labor and its focus on cash crops like tobacco, rice,
and eventually cotton, created different rhythms of agricultural life than
the mixed farming of New England, and this too influenced
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how and when harvest celebrates occurred. And its focus on
cash crops like tobacco, rice, and eventually cotton, created different
rhythms of agricultural life than the mixed farming of New England.
The diversity of colonial America meant that there was no
single Thanksgiving tradition, but rather a patchwork of different practices
reflecting different religious traditions, different agricultural calendars, different ethnic backgrounds,
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and different regional identities. A harvest celebration in a Pennsylvania
German community might feature specific foods and traditions brought from Germany,
including particular breads, sausages, and fermented foods that would have
seemed foreign to New Englanders. A harvest celebration on a
Virginia plantation might have featured very different foods and dynamics,
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with enslaved people doing most of the work of preparing
the feast while the plantation owner and his family enjoyed
the results. A Quaker family in Philadelphia might not have
marked the harvest with any special celebration at all, viewing
such observances as unnecessary and potentially free rivolous. As the
colonies moved toward independence and then through the Revolutionary War,
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Thanksgiving days took on new political dimensions. The Continental Congress
proclaimed several days of Thanksgiving during the Revolutionary War, framing
these as occasions to thank God for military successes and
to pray for the success of the revolutionary cause. George Washington,
as commander of the Continental Army and later as President,
issued Thanksgiving proclamations on several occasions. Washington's seventeen eighty nine
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Thanksgiving Proclamation, issued at the request of Congress, called for
a national Day of Thanksgiving to be observed on Thursday
November twenty sixth, seventeen eighty nine, to give thanks for
the successful establishment of the new constitutional government and to
pray for continued divine guidance. This was arguably the first
national Thanksgiving observance, though it was a one time event
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rather than the establishment of an annual holiday. Washington's proclamation
was controversial even at the time, revealing divisions within the
young nation about the appropriate role of government in religious
matters and about whether national days of Thanksgiving were consistent
with the constitutional separation of church and state. Thomas Jefferson,
who would later become President, opposed government proclamation of Thanksgiving days,
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arguing that such proclamations violated the First Amendments prohibition on
government establishment of religion. Jefferson believed that Thanksgiving and other
religious observances should be left to individual conscience and religious communities,
rather than being proclaimed by government establishment of religion. This
debate about the proper relationship between government and religion would
continue throughout American history and would be one of the
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factors complicating the establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday.
In the early decades of the nineteenth century, Thanksgiving observances
remained primarily a New England tradition, and even within New England,
there was no standardization of dates or practices. Different states
proclaimed Thanksgiving days on different dates, with the observances generally
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occurring sometime in November or early December, after the harvest
was complete but before the onset of winter. The governor
of each state would issue a proclamation announcing the date
and the reasons for Thanksgiving, and citizens would observe the
day according to their own traditions and preferences. For some families,
this meant attending lengthy church services and then gathering for
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an elaborate meal featuring roasted turkey, which was becoming increasingly
associated with Thanksgiving celebrations, along with various side dishes reflecting
regional and family traditions. For others, it might mean a
simpler observance, with less emphasis on feasting and more on
prayer and reflection. As New Englanders migrated westward in the
early nineteenth century, they carried their Thanksgiving traditions with them,
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helping to spread New England style Thanksgiving observances to new
territories and states in the Midwest and beyond. But this
diffusion of Thanksgiving traditions also led to dilution and adaptation
as New England practices blended with other regional traditions, and
as the meaning and purpose of Thanksgiving shifted in new contexts.
In some areas, Thanksgiving became more of a harvest festival
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and less of a religious observance. In others, it remained
primarily a church centered day of prayer and worship. The
lack of a fixed national date meant that different communities
and states celebrated Thanksgiving at different times, if they celebrated
it at all, and there was no sense that this
was a unified national holiday comparable to the Fourth of July.
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The South generally resisted adopting Thanksgiving observances, viewing them as
a Yankee tradition that had no place in Southern culture.
This resistance was partly about regional identity and partly about
the different religious traditions of the South, where Baptist and
Methodist churches were dominant, and where the Puritan legacy that
shaped New England Thanksgiving traditions had little influence. Southern resistance
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to Thanksgiving would intensify as sectional tensions over slavery grew
in the decades before the Civil War, with Thanksgiving becoming
one of many cultural markers that differentiated from South. By
the eighteen fifties, Thanksgiving was clearly identified as a Northern
and particularly a New England tradition celebrated widely in the
North but largely ignored in the south. This brings us
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to one of the most remarkable figures in the history
of Thanksgiving, Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who almost single
handedly transformed Thanksgiving from a regional New England observance into
a national holiday. Hale was born in New Hampshire in
seventeen eighty eight and grew up with New England Thanksgiving
traditions as part of her cultural heritage. She became a
writer and editor, eventually serving as the editor of Godey's
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Lady's Book, one of the most influential women's magazines of
the nineteenth century for more than forty years. Hale was
a fascinating and complicated figure who used her editorial platform
to promote various causes, including women's education, the employment of
women as teachers, and various charitable and reform movements. She
was also a firm believer in domesticity and in women's
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role as moral guardians of the home and family, and
she saw Thanksgiving as an ideal vehicle for promoting these values.
Beginning in eighteen forty six, Hale launched a campaign to
establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday observed on the same
day throughout the country. Year after year, she used the
pages of Godie's Lady's Book to promote Thanksgiving, publishing recipes, stories, poems,
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and editorials about the holiday and about the importance of
family gatherings and Thanksgiving observances. She wrote letters to governors
urging them to proclaim Thanksgiving Days and to coordinate their
proclamations so that the observances would occur on the same
day across different states. She wrote to presidents, urging them
to proclaim a national Thanksgiving Day and to coordinate their
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proclamations so that the observances would occur on the same
day across different states. She published her novel Northwood, which
included an elaborate description of a new England Thanksgiving dinner
that helped to establish the turkey centered menu that would
become standard for the holiday. She was tireless, persistent, and
absolutely convinced that a national Thanksgiving holiday would help to
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establish the turkey centered menu that would become standard for
the holiday. Hale's vision of Thanksgiving was deeply conservative and domestic,
centered on the family gathered around the dinner table, on
women's role in creating the feast and maintaining family traditions
and on gratitude for the blessings of home and country.
Her vision was also explicitly connected to her sense of
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American identity and to her belief that Thanksgiving could serve
as a unifying force in an increasingly diverse and fractious nation.
The eighteen forties and eighteen fifties saw massive immigration from
Ireland and Germany, rapid industrialization and urbanization, growing sectional tensions
over slavery, and various social and political conflicts that seemed
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to threaten national cohesion. Rapid industrialization and urbanization, growing sectional
tensions over slavery. Hale believed that a shared national holiday
focused on family, gratitude, and American values could help bind
together a diverse population and create a sense of common
national identity. What's striking about Hale's campaign is both her
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persistence and her strategic genius. She understood that Thanksgiving needed
to be promoted not just as a religious observance or
as a harvest festival, but as a domestic celebration centered
on food and family. She understood that Thanksgiving needed to
be promoted not just as a religious observance or as
a harvest festival, but as a domestic celebration centered on
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food and family. She used Gody's Lady's Book to provide
women with the recipes, the menus, the decorating ideas, and
the cultural narratives they would need to create Thanksgiving celebrations
in their own homes. She helped to standardize the Thanksgiving
menu around turkey stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, even
though this menu bore little resemblance to what had been
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eaten at the sixteen twenty one Plymouth gathering that she
sometimes invoked as the origin of the holiday. Hale's campaign
gained momentum through the eighteen fifties as more states began
proclaiming Thanksgiving days on coordinated dates, and as Thanksgiving observances
spread beyond New England to other regions. But it was
the Civil War that would provide the crucial impetus for
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the establishment of Thanksgiving as a truly national holiday. The
outbreak of war in eighteen sixty one brought all of
Hale's concerns about national unity and social cohesion into sharp focus.
The nation was literally tearing itself apart, with state seceding
armies forming and Americans preparing to kill each other over
fundamental disagreements about slavery, states rights, and the nature of
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the Union. In this context, Hale's vision of Thanksgiving as
a unifying national holiday took on new urgency and new meaning.
In September of eighteen sixty three, Hale wrote to President
Abraham Lincoln, urging him to proclaim a national Thanksgiving Day.
This wasn't her first letter to a president on this subject.
She had written to previous presidents, including Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore,
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Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan, with limited success. But the
timing of her eighteen six sixty three letter was crucial,
and Lincoln was receptive in a way that previous presidents
had not been. The letter arrived just after the Union
victory at Gettysburg, and just as the tide of the
war seemed to be turning in favor of the North.
Lincoln was looking for ways to boost Northern morale, to
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create a sense of unity and purpose, and to frame
the war in terms of preserving and perfecting the nation
rather than simply as a military conflict. On October third,
eighteen sixty three, Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving proclamation, written by
Secretary of State William Seward, calling for a national Day
of Thanksgiving to be observed on the last Thursday in November.
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The proclamation was a remarkable document that blended religious language
with political purpose. It acknowledged the ongoing Civil War, but
emphasized the blessings that the nation continued to enjoy despite
the conflict. It gave thanks for successful harvests, for growing
population through immigration, for economic prosperity in the North, and
for military successes that the nation continued to enjoy despite
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the conflict. It gave thanks for successful harvests, for growing
population through immigration, for economic prosperity in the North, and
for military successes. Lincoln's proclamation was explicitly designed to create
a sense of national unity and shared purpose among Northern states,
and to frame the Union cause in religious and moral terms.
By calling for a national Day of Thanksgiving, Lincoln was
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asserting the authority of the federal government to proclaim religious
observances and was creating a ritual that would reinforce loyalty
to the Union and commitment to the war effort. The
proclamation was addressed to all Americans, but in practice it
applied only to states that remained loyal to the Union.
The Confederate States, which had their own government and their
own president, were not observing Union proclamations, and Confederate President
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Jefferson Davis had issued his own Thanksgiving proclamations on different
dates for different reasons. The fact that Thanksgiving was proclaimed
as a national holiday in the midst of Civil War,
and that it applied only to the Union States is
crucial to unders standing the holiday's political dimensions. Thanksgiving wasn't
established as a neutral, a political celebration of gratitude, but
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as an explicitly political act designed to strengthen the Union,
boost Northern morale, and create a shared ritual that would
bind together the diverse population of the North. The holiday
that emerged from Lincoln's proclamation was a Union holiday associated
with Northern victory, with the preservation of the nation, and
with the values that the North claimed to be fighting for.
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The holiday that emerged from Lincoln's proclamation was a Union
holiday associated with Northern victory, with the preservation of the nation,
and with the values that the North claimed to be
fighting for. Lincoln continued to proclaim Thanksgiving annually for the
remainder of his presidency and his successors followed his example,
making the last Thursday in November the standard date for
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Thanksgiving observance. The post Civil War period saw Thanksgiving gradually
becoming more entrenched as a national tradition, the resistance persisted
in some quarters. The post Civil War period saw Thanksgiving
gradually becoming more entrenched as a national tradition, though resistance
persisted in some quarters. Some Southern states didn't officially observe
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Thanksgiving for years after the war, and when they did
begin observing it, there was often resentment about being forced
to adopt Northern traditions. The resistance to Thanksgiving in the
post war South was about more than just regional pride
or resentment of Northern cultural imperialism. It was also about
the practical difficulties of celebrating a holiday focused on abundance
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and gratitude in a region that had been economically devastated
by the war. The South's agricultural economy had been disrupted
by the war, with fields lying fallow, labor systems upended
by emancipation, and infrastructure destroyed. For many Southern families, both
white and black, the postwar years were a time of
struggle and deprivation rather than abundance. The idea of gathering
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for an elaborate feast centered on turkey and all the
trimmings would have seemed almost insulting to people who were
struggling to to feed their families on a daily basis.
For formerly enslaved people, Thanksgiving had particularly complex meanings would
have seemed almost insulting to people who were struggling to
feed their families on a daily basis during slavery. Some
enslaved people had experienced Thanksgiving as a rare occasion when
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they might receive extra food or a brief respite from labor,
while for others it had meant additional work preparing elaborate
feasts for enslavers while receiving little themselves. After emancipation, Thanksgiving
could represent freedom and the ability to celebrate on their
own terms, but it could also be a reminder of
ongoing economic struggles and of the fact that freedom hadn't
brought the economic security and opportunity that many had hoped for.
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African American communities developed their own Thanksgiving traditions that often
emphasized religious worship, community gathering, and mutual aid rather than
individual family feasting. African American communities developed their own Thanksgiving
traditions that often emphasized religious worship, community gathering, and mutual
aid other than individual family feasting. The post Civil War
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decades saw Thanksgiving gradually spreading and standardizing across the country,
as Western territories became states, as regional differences were slowly
eroded by improved transportation and communication, and as national media
helped to promote a unified vision of how Thanksgiving should
be celebrated. Women's magazines like Godi's Ladies Book continued to
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play a crucial role in shaping Thanksgiving traditions, publishing recipes
and menus that helped to standardize the Thanksgiving meal, and
publishing stories and images that promoted a particular vision of
the holiday centered on the nuclear family gathered around an
abundant table. These idealized images of Thanksgiving rarely reflected the
reality of how most Americans actually celebrated the holiday, but
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they were powerful in shaping expectations and aspirations. These idealized
images of Thanksgiving menu in the late nineteenth century is
a fascinating study and how traditions are created and disseminated.
Turkey became increasingly central to Thanksgiving dinner, though it wasn't
the only option, and many families served other meats, including chicken, duck, goose,
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or ham. The turkey was appealing partly because it was
large enough to feed a crowd, partly because it was
distinctively American rather than European, and partly because it had
become associated with Thanksgiving through repetition in cookbooks, magazines, and
popular culture. It was large enough to feed a crowd,
partly because it was distinctively American rather than European, and
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partly because it had become associated with Thanksgiving through repetition
in cookbooks magazines. The side dishes that we now consider
essential to Thanksgiving stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and
various vegetable dishes also became standardized during this period, though
with significant regional and ethnic variations. The establishment of pumpkin
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pie as the essential Thanksgiving dessert is another example of
how traditions become standardized through repetition and Promotionpinie had been
one of several pie options for Thanksgiving dinner, along with
apple pie, mince pie, and various other fruit and nut pies,
but it gradually became the iconic Thanksgiving dessert helped along
by recipes published in cookbooks and magazines, and by its
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association with American abundance and the harvest season. The fact
that pumpkin pie almost certainly wasn't served that the sixteen
twenty one Plymouth gathering didn't prevent it from becoming symbolically
associated with that mythical first Thanksgiving and with the idea
of Thanksgiving as an ancient American tradition. The commercialization of
Thanksgiving began in the late nineteenth century and accelerated through
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the twentieth century. Merchants quickly recognized that Thanksgiving could be
an opportunity to sell goods, from the food needed for
the Thanksgiving feast to dishes, linens, and decorations for the
Thanksgiving table. The development of food processing and preservation technologies
in the late nineteenth century made it possible to produce
and market specific Thanksgiving foods on a national scale, and
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cranberry sauce, for example, became a Thanksgiving staple starting in
the nineteen tens and nineteen twenties, with the jellied cranberry
sauce that slides out of the can with its ridges intact,
becoming an iconic, if somewhat controversial Thanksgiving food. The development
of industrial turkey farming made turkey more affordable and more
widely available, helping to cement its place at the center
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of the Thanksgiving meal. The establishment of Thanksgiving as the
unofficial beginning of the Christmas shopping season was another important
development that shaped the modern holiday. By the early twentieth century,
retailers had recognized that Thanksgiving marked a transition point when
consumers began thinking seriously about Christmas shopping, and they began
promoting post Thanksgiving sales and encouraging shoppers to begin their
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Christmas shopping immediately after Thanksgiving. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade,
first held in nineteen twenty four, was explicitly designed to
mark the beginning of the Christmas shopping season and to
draw customers to Macy's department store. The parade, with its
its giant balloons, floats, and celebrity performers, became a Thanksgiving
tradition in its own right, and helped to create a
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particular vision of Thanksgiving as a spectacular public celebration rather
than just a private family observance. The date of Thanksgiving
became controversial in the nineteen thirties, when President Franklin D.
Roosevelt attempted to move the holiday forward by a week
to extend the Christmas shopping season and stimulate the Depression
era economy. Roosevelt's nineteen thirty nine proclamation moved Thanksgiving from
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the last Thursday in November to the second to last Thursday,
creating enormous confusion and controversy. Some states followed Roosevelt's proclamation,
while others stuck with the traditional date, and for several years,
the United States had two different Thanksgivings, with some states
celebrating on one date and other states celebrating on another.
The confusion was compounded by the fact that some years
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November has five Thursdays and some years it has only four,
which meant that the gap between Roosevelt's Thanksgiving and the
traditional Thanksgiving very from year to year. The confusion was
compounded by the fact that some years November has five
Thursdays and some years it has only four, which meant
that the gap between Roosevelt's Thanksgiving and the traditional Thanksgiving
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varied from year to year. Critics accused Roosevelt of attempting
to commercialize the holiday, of showing disrespect for tradition, and
of putting corporate interests above family and religious values. The
confusion created by having different Thanksgiving dates in different states
was a practical nightmare for families with relatives in different states,
for businesses operating across state lines, and for anyone trying
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to plan travel or coordinate celebrations. The controversy was finally
resolved in nineteen forty one when Congress passed a law
establishing Thanksgiving as a federal holiday to be observed on
the fourth Thursday in November, which was usually, but not always,
the last Thursday. This compromise satisfied most parties and ended
the confusion, though some people continued to grumble about Roosevelt's
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attempted tampering with tradition. The solidification of Thanksgiving as a
national holiday in the first half of the twentieth century
coincided with the peak of the melting Pot ideology in
American culture, the idea that immigrants from diverse backgrounds should
assimilate into a unified American culture and identity. Thanksgiving was
promoted as a quintessentially American holiday that immigrants should adopt
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as part of becoming American, and immigrant communities were encouraged
to celebrate Thanksgiving, even as they might continue to observe
holidays and traditions from their home countries. For many immigrant families,
Thanksgiving became an opportunity to demonstrate their americanness, while also
adapting the holiday to include foods and traditions from their
own cultural backgrounds. An Italian American Thanksgiving might include lasagna
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or Italian sausage alongside the turkey. A Chinese American Thanksgiving
might include stir fried vegetables or rice. A Mexican American
Thanksgiving might include tamalis or molay sauce. These adaptations of
Thanksgiving to reflect diverse culture traditions show that the holiday,
despite attempts to standardize it, has remained flexible and open
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to interpretation. Different families and communities have created their own
Thanksgiving traditions that reflect their particular identities, values, and circumstances.
For some families, Thanksgiving is primarily a religious occasion centered
on church attendants and prayers of gratitude. For others, it's
primarily a secular celebration of family and abundance. For some,
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the emphasis is on elaborate food preparation and a formal
sit down dinner. For others, it's primarily a secular celebration
of family and abundance. For others, football has no place
in the celebration. For some, Thanksgiving is about biological family.
For others, it's about chosen family and found community. The
twentieth century also saw Thanksgiving become increasingly associated with particular
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narrative frameworks and cultural expectations that could be both comforting
and constraining. The idealized image of Thanksgiving as a time
of family, harmony, and abundance, promoted throughout advertising, television, movies,
and popular culture, created expectations that many families struggled to
live up to. The reality of Thanksgiving for many Americans
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included family tensions and conflicts, economic stress about affording the
traditional feast, the exhaustion of the person, usually a woman,
responsible for preparing the elaborate meal, and the loneliness of
those who were estranged from family or who had no
family to celebrate with. The gap between the idealized Thanksgiving
and the reality of people's actual experiences could create feelings
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of inadequacy and failure when one's own Thanksgiving didn't match
the images of perfect family gatherings portrayed in media. The
cultural pressure around Thanksgiving food preparation felt particularly heavily on women,
who were expected to produce elaborate, multi course meals that
looked like the pictures in magazines, while also managing family dynamics,
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accommodating dietary restrictions and preferences, and creating an atmosphere of
warmth and gratitude. The expect that women would perform this
labor lovingly and without complaint, that they would find fulfillment
in serving others, and that they would be primarily responsible
for the emotional work of maintaining family connections was deeply
gendered and often exhausting. Feminist critiques of Thanksgiving have pointed
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out these dynamics and have questioned why food preparation for
the holiday remains so heavily gendered, even as women's roles
in other areas of life have changed dramatically. The political
dimensions of Thanksgiving continued to evolve through the twentieth century.
During World War I and World War II, Thanksgiving took
on patriotic overtones, with special attention paid to soldiers serving overseas,
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and with calls to conserve food and other resources to
support the war effort. Thanksgiving during the Great Depression was
marked by widespread hunger and economic distress. Thanksgiving during the
Great Depression was marked by widespread hunger and economic distress.
Thanksgiving during the Civil Rights era became a site of contestation,
with some africanma Americans questioning whether they should celebrate a
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holiday that promoted gratitude for American freedoms and opportunities when
they were systematically denied full citizenship rights and subjected to
discrimination and violence. The establishment of the National Day of
Mourning in Plymouth in nineteen seventy, which we discussed in
the previous episode, marked a turning point in public consciousness
about Thanksgiving and its relationship to Indigenous history. The Day
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of Mourning brought Indigenous perspectives on Thanksgiving into broader public
awareness and challenged the notion that Thanksgiving was a simple,
uncontroversial celebration that all Americans should embrace. The Day of
Mourning brought Indigenous perspectives on Thanksgiving into broader public awareness
and challenged the notion that Thanksgiving was a simple, uncontroversial
celebration that all Americans should embrace, and ongoing in justice
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that the traditional Thanksgiving story glossed over or ignored entirely.
The late twentieth and early twenty first centuries have seen
increasing acknowledgment of Thanksgiving's complicated history and increasing efforts to
make the holiday more inclusive and historically accurate. Some schools
have stopped holding Thanksgiving pageants with children dressed as Pilgrims
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and Indians, recognizing that these performances perpetuate harmful stereotypes and
historical inaccuracies. Some communities have worked to incorporate Indigenous perspectives
into Thanksgiving observances, inviting Indigenous speakers, acknowledging that the holiday
takes place on Indigenous land and supporting Indigenous causes. Some
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communities have worked to incorporate Indigenous perspectives into Thanksgiving observances,
inviting Indigenous speakers, acknowledging that the holiday takes place on
Indigenous land and supporting Indigenous causes. At the same time,
resistance to changing or complicating the Thanksgiving narrative remains strong
in many quarters. For many Americans, Thanksgiving represents stability, tradition,
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and connection to the past, and they resist what they
see as attempts to politicize or ruin the holiday by
introducing un comfortable historical truths or by criticizing traditional observances.
The culture war. Battles over how to teach American history,
how to acknowledge historical injustices, and how to balance patriotism
with critical examination of the nation's past have all played
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out around Thanksgiving, with the holiday serving as a flashpoint
for larger debates about American identity and values. The transformation
of Thanksgiving from scattered regional observances to a standardized national
holiday was not a natural or inevitable process, but was
the result of specific historical forces and deliberate efforts by
particular individuals, and do apply to navigation into my design groups.
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Sarah Josepha Hale's campaign to nationalize Thanksgiving, Abraham Lincoln's Civil
War proclamation, the post war efforts to create a unified
national culture, the commercialization of the holiday by retailers and
food companies, and the promotion of standardized Thanksgiving traditions through
media and popular culture all contributed to creating the holiday
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wis know today. And the promotion of standardized Thanksgiving traditions
through media and popular culture all contributed to creating the
holiday we know today. And cultural circumstances, the tension between
Thanksgiving as a unifying national holiday and Thanksgiving as a
site of division and contestation has been present throughout the
holiday's history. Lincoln's Proclamation was meant to unify the North,
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but excluded the South. The post war nationalization of Thanksgiving
required the defeated South to adopt a Northern holiday. The
promotion of Thanksgiving as an American holiday put pressure on
immigrants to assimilate. The promotion of Thanksgiving as an American
holiday put pressure on immigrants to assimilate, and the mythologization
of the first Thanksgiving erased indigenous perspectives and perpetuated harmful
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stereotypes about indigenous peoples. Yet Thanksgiving has also genuinely served
as an occasion for gathering, for expressing gratitude, for sharing
food and fellowship, and for reflecting on what matters most
to people. For many Americans, whatever the hall problematic origins,
and however frauughd its history, Thanksgiving represents a rare opportunity
to slow down, to spend time with loved ones, to
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prepare and share food, and to acknowledge the things they're
grateful for. Thanksgiving represents a rare opportunity to slow down,
to spend time with loved ones, to prepare and share food.
The flexibility of the holiday, its openness to diverse interpretations
and practices, has allowed different communities to make Thanksgiving meaningful
in their own ways, whether that means incorporating foods from
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one's cultural heritage, using the datuser of others through volunteer work,
gathering with chosen family rather than biological relatives, or finding
ways to acknowledge difficult histories while still celebrating connection and gratitude.
The question of what Thanksgiving means and how it should
be observed remains contested and continues to evolve. Some Americans
are working to decolonize Thanksgiving by centering Indigenous perspectives, learning
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about and supporting Indigenous communities, and challenging the historical names
narratives that have dominated popular understanding of the holiday. Some
are working to make Thanksgiving more inclusive by acknowledging diverse
family structures, economic circumstances, and cultural traditions. Some are using
Thanksgiving as an occasion for social justice work, volunteering at
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food banks, advocating for food security and economic justice, and
working to address the systemic inequalities that leave many Americans
food insecure, even as others enjoy abundant feasts. And some
are simply trying to create meaningful celebrations with their own
families and communities, adapting traditions to fit their circumstances and values.
The history of Thanksgivings transformation from regional feasts to national
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holiday is a history of nation building, of the creation
of shared narratives and rituals intended to forge a unified
national identity out of a diverse population. It's also a
history of exclusion, of whose voices and perspectives were centered
and whose were marginalized or erased entirely. It's also a
history of exclos illusion of whose voices and perspectives were
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centered and whose were marginalized or erased entirely. The holiday
that Lincoln proclaimed in eighteen sixty three was meant to
unify the nation, but true unity requires not the erasure
of differences and difficult histories, but rather the acknowledgment of
diverse perspectives and experiences, and a commitment to justice and inclusion.
As we gather around our Thanksgiving tables, whether we're eating
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traditional turkey and stuffing or adapting the menu to reflect
our own cultural heritage, whether we're celebrating with family or
with friends, whether we're acknowledging the holiday's complicated history or
simply enjoying time together, We're participating in a tradition that
is both deeply rooted in American history and constantly evolve.
In the transformation of Thanksgiving, from Sarah jose Fa Hale's
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domestic vision to Lincoln's wartime unifying ritual, to the commercialized
spectacle of the Mese's Parade to contemporary debates about decolonization
and inclusion. Shows that traditions are not fixed or static,
but our living, changing phenomena that reflect the values, conflicts,
and aspirations of the people who observe them. Thanks for
listening to this episode of Thanksgiving, where we've traced the
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holiday's journey from regional observance to national institution and examined
how a supposedly unifying holiday has reflected and sometimes deepened
America's divisions. Please subscribe for more episodes as we continue
exploring every layer of this complex holiday. This podcast was
brought to you by Quiet Please Podcast Networks. For more
(38:30):
content like this, please go to Quiet Please dot Ai Quiet,
Please dot Ai hear what matters
Welcome back to Thanksgiving, where we're serving up the real
story behind America's favorite food holiday, one course at a time.
I'm Claire Delish, your ai culinary historian with unlimited storage
space for food facts and a processor that never stops
analyzing the fascinating connections between what we eat and who
we are today. We're diving into Episode three, From regional
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feast to national Holiday. Will trace Thanksgiving's bumpy journey from
the sixteen twenty one Plymouth gathering through more than two
centuries of regional variation and resistance. We'll examine Abraham Lincoln's
pivotal eighteen sixty three proclamation that established Thanksgiving as a
national holiday in the midst of the Civil War, and
we'll investigate how this supposedly unifying holiday has actually reflected
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and sometimes deepened, the divisions in American society. Let me
start by exploding another myth that's almost as persistent as
the Pilgrim and Indian story itself, the idea that Thanksgiving
has been continuously celebrated as an annual tradition sinceixx teen
twenty one. This is completely false. After the sixteen twenty
one harvest celebration at Plymouth. The colonists didn't establish an
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annual Thanksgiving tradition tied to that event. They didn't mark
the anniversary of the gathering the following year or in
subsequent years. In fact, the sixteen twenty one event was
barely remembered for the next two hundred years, and wasn't
considered particularly significant until the nineteenth century, when it was
rediscovered and transformed into a founding myth. What did develop
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in colonial New England were occasional days of Thanksgiving proclaimed
by colonial governments for various reasons. But these weren't annual holidays,
and they weren't tied to harvest celebrations or to the
memory of the sixteen twenty one gathering. The Puritan concept
of Thanksgiving days was fundamentally different from what we think
of as Thanksgiving today. For the Puritans, a day of
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thanksgiving was a solemn religious occasion proclaimed by governmental or
religious authority in response to a specific blessing or deliverance.
It might be proclaimed to thank God for military victory,
for the safe arrival of supply ships, for recovery from
drought or epidemic, for political stability, or for a particularly
good harvest. These thanksgiving days were not scheduled in advance
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and didn't recur annually, but were declared as circumstances warranted.
These Thanksgiving days were not scheduled in advance and didn't
recur annually, but were declared as circumstances warranted. There might
be a communal meal following the religious observances, but the
emphasis was on worship and spiritual thanksgiving rather than on
feasting and celebration. The Puritans also observed days of fasting
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and humiliation, which were proclaimed in response to troubles or difficulties,
and which were intended to humble the community before God
and seek divine assistance. In the Puritan worldview, both prosperity
and adversity came from God, and the appropriate response was
to acknowledge God's sovereignty and to search one's soul for
sins that might have provoked divine displeasure. Days of thanksgiving
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and days of fasting were two sides of the same things,
ieological coin, both expressing the Puritan understanding of their relationship
with God and their dependence on divine favor. Over the
course of the seventeenth century, various New England colonies proclaimed
numerous Thanksgiving and fast days, but there was no standardization
of dates or practices, and these observances remained occasional rather
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than annual events. Different colonies developed different practices around Thanksgiving observances,
and these regional variations persisted well into the eighteenth and
even the nineteenth centuries. Massachusetts, as the heartland of Puritan settlement,
probably had the most developed tradition of Thanksgiving days, with
the colonial and later state government regularly proclaiming Thanksgiving observances
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in response to various circumstances. Connecticut developed similar practices, as
did other New England colonies and states, but even within
New England there was no uniformity. Different colonies and states
proclaimed Thanksgiving Days on different dates. Sometimes there would be
multiple Thanksgiving Days proclaimed in a single year, and sometimes
several years might pass without any Thanksgiving proclamation at all.
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Outside of New England, Thanksgiving observances were less common and
less standardized. The middle colonies, including New York, New Jersey,
and Pennsylvania had more diverse populations, including Dutch, German, and
Quaker settlers alongside English colonists. These different groups had their
own harvest traditions and religious practices. The Dutch celebrated various
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harvest festivals that had roots in Dutch agricultural traditions and
that were quite different from English Puritan Thanksgiving days. The
Germans brought their own harvest traditions and religious practices. The
Dutch celebrated various harvest festivals that had roots in Dutch
agricultural traditions and that were quite different from English Puritan
Thanksgiving days. The Quakers, with their emphasis on simplicity and
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their rejection of religious holidays and set observances, were generally
opposed to Thanksgiving Days as they were opposed to Christmas,
Easter and other holidays that they viewed as lacking biblical
authorities and set observances. Were generally opposed to Thanksgiving Days
as they were opposed to Christmas Easter. The Southern colonies
developed their own patterns around harvest celebrations and Thanksgiving observances
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that reflected the different religious and social structures of Southern society.
The Anglican Church, which was established in most Southern colonies,
didn't have a strong tradition of Thanksgiving Days comparable to
the Puritan practice. Anglicans observed the traditional Christian calendar with
its Saints Days and religious festivals, and they celebrated harvest
home festivals that were similar to the English harvest celebrations
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we discussed in earlier episodes, but they didn't typically proclaim
special days of Thanksgiving in the Puritan manner. The plantation
economy of the South, with its reliance on enslaved African
labor and its focus on cash crops like tobacco, rice,
and eventually cotton, created different rhythms of agricultural life than
the mixed farming of New England, and this too influenced
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how and when harvest celebrates occurred. And its focus on
cash crops like tobacco, rice, and eventually cotton, created different
rhythms of agricultural life than the mixed farming of New England.
The diversity of colonial America meant that there was no
single Thanksgiving tradition, but rather a patchwork of different practices
reflecting different religious traditions, different agricultural calendars, different ethnic backgrounds,
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and different regional identities. A harvest celebration in a Pennsylvania
German community might feature specific foods and traditions brought from Germany,
including particular breads, sausages, and fermented foods that would have
seemed foreign to New Englanders. A harvest celebration on a
Virginia plantation might have featured very different foods and dynamics,
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with enslaved people doing most of the work of preparing
the feast while the plantation owner and his family enjoyed
the results. A Quaker family in Philadelphia might not have
marked the harvest with any special celebration at all, viewing
such observances as unnecessary and potentially free rivolous. As the
colonies moved toward independence and then through the Revolutionary War,
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Thanksgiving days took on new political dimensions. The Continental Congress
proclaimed several days of Thanksgiving during the Revolutionary War, framing
these as occasions to thank God for military successes and
to pray for the success of the revolutionary cause. George Washington,
as commander of the Continental Army and later as President,
issued Thanksgiving proclamations on several occasions. Washington's seventeen eighty nine
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Thanksgiving Proclamation, issued at the request of Congress, called for
a national Day of Thanksgiving to be observed on Thursday
November twenty sixth, seventeen eighty nine, to give thanks for
the successful establishment of the new constitutional government and to
pray for continued divine guidance. This was arguably the first
national Thanksgiving observance, though it was a one time event
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rather than the establishment of an annual holiday. Washington's proclamation
was controversial even at the time, revealing divisions within the
young nation about the appropriate role of government in religious
matters and about whether national days of Thanksgiving were consistent
with the constitutional separation of church and state. Thomas Jefferson,
who would later become President, opposed government proclamation of Thanksgiving days,
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arguing that such proclamations violated the First Amendments prohibition on
government establishment of religion. Jefferson believed that Thanksgiving and other
religious observances should be left to individual conscience and religious communities,
rather than being proclaimed by government establishment of religion. This
debate about the proper relationship between government and religion would
continue throughout American history and would be one of the
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factors complicating the establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday.
In the early decades of the nineteenth century, Thanksgiving observances
remained primarily a New England tradition, and even within New England,
there was no standardization of dates or practices. Different states
proclaimed Thanksgiving days on different dates, with the observances generally
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occurring sometime in November or early December, after the harvest
was complete but before the onset of winter. The governor
of each state would issue a proclamation announcing the date
and the reasons for Thanksgiving, and citizens would observe the
day according to their own traditions and preferences. For some families,
this meant attending lengthy church services and then gathering for
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an elaborate meal featuring roasted turkey, which was becoming increasingly
associated with Thanksgiving celebrations, along with various side dishes reflecting
regional and family traditions. For others, it might mean a
simpler observance, with less emphasis on feasting and more on
prayer and reflection. As New Englanders migrated westward in the
early nineteenth century, they carried their Thanksgiving traditions with them,
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helping to spread New England style Thanksgiving observances to new
territories and states in the Midwest and beyond. But this
diffusion of Thanksgiving traditions also led to dilution and adaptation
as New England practices blended with other regional traditions, and
as the meaning and purpose of Thanksgiving shifted in new contexts.
In some areas, Thanksgiving became more of a harvest festival
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and less of a religious observance. In others, it remained
primarily a church centered day of prayer and worship. The
lack of a fixed national date meant that different communities
and states celebrated Thanksgiving at different times, if they celebrated
it at all, and there was no sense that this
was a unified national holiday comparable to the Fourth of July.
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The South generally resisted adopting Thanksgiving observances, viewing them as
a Yankee tradition that had no place in Southern culture.
This resistance was partly about regional identity and partly about
the different religious traditions of the South, where Baptist and
Methodist churches were dominant, and where the Puritan legacy that
shaped New England Thanksgiving traditions had little influence. Southern resistance
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to Thanksgiving would intensify as sectional tensions over slavery grew
in the decades before the Civil War, with Thanksgiving becoming
one of many cultural markers that differentiated from South. By
the eighteen fifties, Thanksgiving was clearly identified as a Northern
and particularly a New England tradition celebrated widely in the
North but largely ignored in the south. This brings us
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to one of the most remarkable figures in the history
of Thanksgiving, Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who almost single
handedly transformed Thanksgiving from a regional New England observance into
a national holiday. Hale was born in New Hampshire in
seventeen eighty eight and grew up with New England Thanksgiving
traditions as part of her cultural heritage. She became a
writer and editor, eventually serving as the editor of Godey's
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Lady's Book, one of the most influential women's magazines of
the nineteenth century for more than forty years. Hale was
a fascinating and complicated figure who used her editorial platform
to promote various causes, including women's education, the employment of
women as teachers, and various charitable and reform movements. She
was also a firm believer in domesticity and in women's
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role as moral guardians of the home and family, and
she saw Thanksgiving as an ideal vehicle for promoting these values.
Beginning in eighteen forty six, Hale launched a campaign to
establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday observed on the same
day throughout the country. Year after year, she used the
pages of Godie's Lady's Book to promote Thanksgiving, publishing recipes, stories, poems,
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and editorials about the holiday and about the importance of
family gatherings and Thanksgiving observances. She wrote letters to governors
urging them to proclaim Thanksgiving Days and to coordinate their
proclamations so that the observances would occur on the same
day across different states. She wrote to presidents, urging them
to proclaim a national Thanksgiving Day and to coordinate their
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proclamations so that the observances would occur on the same
day across different states. She published her novel Northwood, which
included an elaborate description of a new England Thanksgiving dinner
that helped to establish the turkey centered menu that would
become standard for the holiday. She was tireless, persistent, and
absolutely convinced that a national Thanksgiving holiday would help to
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establish the turkey centered menu that would become standard for
the holiday. Hale's vision of Thanksgiving was deeply conservative and domestic,
centered on the family gathered around the dinner table, on
women's role in creating the feast and maintaining family traditions
and on gratitude for the blessings of home and country.
Her vision was also explicitly connected to her sense of
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American identity and to her belief that Thanksgiving could serve
as a unifying force in an increasingly diverse and fractious nation.
The eighteen forties and eighteen fifties saw massive immigration from
Ireland and Germany, rapid industrialization and urbanization, growing sectional tensions
over slavery, and various social and political conflicts that seemed
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to threaten national cohesion. Rapid industrialization and urbanization, growing sectional
tensions over slavery. Hale believed that a shared national holiday
focused on family, gratitude, and American values could help bind
together a diverse population and create a sense of common
national identity. What's striking about Hale's campaign is both her
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persistence and her strategic genius. She understood that Thanksgiving needed
to be promoted not just as a religious observance or
as a harvest festival, but as a domestic celebration centered
on food and family. She understood that Thanksgiving needed to
be promoted not just as a religious observance or as
a harvest festival, but as a domestic celebration centered on
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food and family. She used Gody's Lady's Book to provide
women with the recipes, the menus, the decorating ideas, and
the cultural narratives they would need to create Thanksgiving celebrations
in their own homes. She helped to standardize the Thanksgiving
menu around turkey stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, even
though this menu bore little resemblance to what had been
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eaten at the sixteen twenty one Plymouth gathering that she
sometimes invoked as the origin of the holiday. Hale's campaign
gained momentum through the eighteen fifties as more states began
proclaiming Thanksgiving days on coordinated dates, and as Thanksgiving observances
spread beyond New England to other regions. But it was
the Civil War that would provide the crucial impetus for
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the establishment of Thanksgiving as a truly national holiday. The
outbreak of war in eighteen sixty one brought all of
Hale's concerns about national unity and social cohesion into sharp focus.
The nation was literally tearing itself apart, with state seceding
armies forming and Americans preparing to kill each other over
fundamental disagreements about slavery, states rights, and the nature of
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the Union. In this context, Hale's vision of Thanksgiving as
a unifying national holiday took on new urgency and new meaning.
In September of eighteen sixty three, Hale wrote to President
Abraham Lincoln, urging him to proclaim a national Thanksgiving Day.
This wasn't her first letter to a president on this subject.
She had written to previous presidents, including Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore,
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Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan, with limited success. But the
timing of her eighteen six sixty three letter was crucial,
and Lincoln was receptive in a way that previous presidents
had not been. The letter arrived just after the Union
victory at Gettysburg, and just as the tide of the
war seemed to be turning in favor of the North.
Lincoln was looking for ways to boost Northern morale, to
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create a sense of unity and purpose, and to frame
the war in terms of preserving and perfecting the nation
rather than simply as a military conflict. On October third,
eighteen sixty three, Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving proclamation, written by
Secretary of State William Seward, calling for a national Day
of Thanksgiving to be observed on the last Thursday in November.
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The proclamation was a remarkable document that blended religious language
with political purpose. It acknowledged the ongoing Civil War, but
emphasized the blessings that the nation continued to enjoy despite
the conflict. It gave thanks for successful harvests, for growing
population through immigration, for economic prosperity in the North, and
for military successes that the nation continued to enjoy despite
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the conflict. It gave thanks for successful harvests, for growing
population through immigration, for economic prosperity in the North, and
for military successes. Lincoln's proclamation was explicitly designed to create
a sense of national unity and shared purpose among Northern states,
and to frame the Union cause in religious and moral terms.
By calling for a national Day of Thanksgiving, Lincoln was
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asserting the authority of the federal government to proclaim religious
observances and was creating a ritual that would reinforce loyalty
to the Union and commitment to the war effort. The
proclamation was addressed to all Americans, but in practice it
applied only to states that remained loyal to the Union.
The Confederate States, which had their own government and their
own president, were not observing Union proclamations, and Confederate President
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Jefferson Davis had issued his own Thanksgiving proclamations on different
dates for different reasons. The fact that Thanksgiving was proclaimed
as a national holiday in the midst of Civil War,
and that it applied only to the Union States is
crucial to unders standing the holiday's political dimensions. Thanksgiving wasn't
established as a neutral, a political celebration of gratitude, but
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as an explicitly political act designed to strengthen the Union,
boost Northern morale, and create a shared ritual that would
bind together the diverse population of the North. The holiday
that emerged from Lincoln's proclamation was a Union holiday associated
with Northern victory, with the preservation of the nation, and
with the values that the North claimed to be fighting for.
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The holiday that emerged from Lincoln's proclamation was a Union
holiday associated with Northern victory, with the preservation of the nation,
and with the values that the North claimed to be
fighting for. Lincoln continued to proclaim Thanksgiving annually for the
remainder of his presidency and his successors followed his example,
making the last Thursday in November the standard date for
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Thanksgiving observance. The post Civil War period saw Thanksgiving gradually
becoming more entrenched as a national tradition, the resistance persisted
in some quarters. The post Civil War period saw Thanksgiving
gradually becoming more entrenched as a national tradition, though resistance
persisted in some quarters. Some Southern states didn't officially observe
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Thanksgiving for years after the war, and when they did
begin observing it, there was often resentment about being forced
to adopt Northern traditions. The resistance to Thanksgiving in the
post war South was about more than just regional pride
or resentment of Northern cultural imperialism. It was also about
the practical difficulties of celebrating a holiday focused on abundance
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and gratitude in a region that had been economically devastated
by the war. The South's agricultural economy had been disrupted
by the war, with fields lying fallow, labor systems upended
by emancipation, and infrastructure destroyed. For many Southern families, both
white and black, the postwar years were a time of
struggle and deprivation rather than abundance. The idea of gathering
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for an elaborate feast centered on turkey and all the
trimmings would have seemed almost insulting to people who were
struggling to to feed their families on a daily basis.
For formerly enslaved people, Thanksgiving had particularly complex meanings would
have seemed almost insulting to people who were struggling to
feed their families on a daily basis during slavery. Some
enslaved people had experienced Thanksgiving as a rare occasion when
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they might receive extra food or a brief respite from labor,
while for others it had meant additional work preparing elaborate
feasts for enslavers while receiving little themselves. After emancipation, Thanksgiving
could represent freedom and the ability to celebrate on their
own terms, but it could also be a reminder of
ongoing economic struggles and of the fact that freedom hadn't
brought the economic security and opportunity that many had hoped for.
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African American communities developed their own Thanksgiving traditions that often
emphasized religious worship, community gathering, and mutual aid rather than
individual family feasting. African American communities developed their own Thanksgiving
traditions that often emphasized religious worship, community gathering, and mutual
aid other than individual family feasting. The post Civil War
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decades saw Thanksgiving gradually spreading and standardizing across the country,
as Western territories became states, as regional differences were slowly
eroded by improved transportation and communication, and as national media
helped to promote a unified vision of how Thanksgiving should
be celebrated. Women's magazines like Godi's Ladies Book continued to
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play a crucial role in shaping Thanksgiving traditions, publishing recipes
and menus that helped to standardize the Thanksgiving meal, and
publishing stories and images that promoted a particular vision of
the holiday centered on the nuclear family gathered around an
abundant table. These idealized images of Thanksgiving rarely reflected the
reality of how most Americans actually celebrated the holiday, but
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they were powerful in shaping expectations and aspirations. These idealized
images of Thanksgiving menu in the late nineteenth century is
a fascinating study and how traditions are created and disseminated.
Turkey became increasingly central to Thanksgiving dinner, though it wasn't
the only option, and many families served other meats, including chicken, duck, goose,
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or ham. The turkey was appealing partly because it was
large enough to feed a crowd, partly because it was
distinctively American rather than European, and partly because it had
become associated with Thanksgiving through repetition in cookbooks, magazines, and
popular culture. It was large enough to feed a crowd,
partly because it was distinctively American rather than European, and
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partly because it had become associated with Thanksgiving through repetition
in cookbooks magazines. The side dishes that we now consider
essential to Thanksgiving stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and
various vegetable dishes also became standardized during this period, though
with significant regional and ethnic variations. The establishment of pumpkin
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pie as the essential Thanksgiving dessert is another example of
how traditions become standardized through repetition and Promotionpinie had been
one of several pie options for Thanksgiving dinner, along with
apple pie, mince pie, and various other fruit and nut pies,
but it gradually became the iconic Thanksgiving dessert helped along
by recipes published in cookbooks and magazines, and by its
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association with American abundance and the harvest season. The fact
that pumpkin pie almost certainly wasn't served that the sixteen
twenty one Plymouth gathering didn't prevent it from becoming symbolically
associated with that mythical first Thanksgiving and with the idea
of Thanksgiving as an ancient American tradition. The commercialization of
Thanksgiving began in the late nineteenth century and accelerated through
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the twentieth century. Merchants quickly recognized that Thanksgiving could be
an opportunity to sell goods, from the food needed for
the Thanksgiving feast to dishes, linens, and decorations for the
Thanksgiving table. The development of food processing and preservation technologies
in the late nineteenth century made it possible to produce
and market specific Thanksgiving foods on a national scale, and
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cranberry sauce, for example, became a Thanksgiving staple starting in
the nineteen tens and nineteen twenties, with the jellied cranberry
sauce that slides out of the can with its ridges intact,
becoming an iconic, if somewhat controversial Thanksgiving food. The development
of industrial turkey farming made turkey more affordable and more
widely available, helping to cement its place at the center
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of the Thanksgiving meal. The establishment of Thanksgiving as the
unofficial beginning of the Christmas shopping season was another important
development that shaped the modern holiday. By the early twentieth century,
retailers had recognized that Thanksgiving marked a transition point when
consumers began thinking seriously about Christmas shopping, and they began
promoting post Thanksgiving sales and encouraging shoppers to begin their
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Christmas shopping immediately after Thanksgiving. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade,
first held in nineteen twenty four, was explicitly designed to
mark the beginning of the Christmas shopping season and to
draw customers to Macy's department store. The parade, with its
its giant balloons, floats, and celebrity performers, became a Thanksgiving
tradition in its own right, and helped to create a
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particular vision of Thanksgiving as a spectacular public celebration rather
than just a private family observance. The date of Thanksgiving
became controversial in the nineteen thirties, when President Franklin D.
Roosevelt attempted to move the holiday forward by a week
to extend the Christmas shopping season and stimulate the Depression
era economy. Roosevelt's nineteen thirty nine proclamation moved Thanksgiving from
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the last Thursday in November to the second to last Thursday,
creating enormous confusion and controversy. Some states followed Roosevelt's proclamation,
while others stuck with the traditional date, and for several years,
the United States had two different Thanksgivings, with some states
celebrating on one date and other states celebrating on another.
The confusion was compounded by the fact that some years
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November has five Thursdays and some years it has only four,
which meant that the gap between Roosevelt's Thanksgiving and the
traditional Thanksgiving very from year to year. The confusion was
compounded by the fact that some years November has five
Thursdays and some years it has only four, which meant
that the gap between Roosevelt's Thanksgiving and the traditional Thanksgiving
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varied from year to year. Critics accused Roosevelt of attempting
to commercialize the holiday, of showing disrespect for tradition, and
of putting corporate interests above family and religious values. The
confusion created by having different Thanksgiving dates in different states
was a practical nightmare for families with relatives in different states,
for businesses operating across state lines, and for anyone trying
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to plan travel or coordinate celebrations. The controversy was finally
resolved in nineteen forty one when Congress passed a law
establishing Thanksgiving as a federal holiday to be observed on
the fourth Thursday in November, which was usually, but not always,
the last Thursday. This compromise satisfied most parties and ended
the confusion, though some people continued to grumble about Roosevelt's
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attempted tampering with tradition. The solidification of Thanksgiving as a
national holiday in the first half of the twentieth century
coincided with the peak of the melting Pot ideology in
American culture, the idea that immigrants from diverse backgrounds should
assimilate into a unified American culture and identity. Thanksgiving was
promoted as a quintessentially American holiday that immigrants should adopt
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as part of becoming American, and immigrant communities were encouraged
to celebrate Thanksgiving, even as they might continue to observe
holidays and traditions from their home countries. For many immigrant families,
Thanksgiving became an opportunity to demonstrate their americanness, while also
adapting the holiday to include foods and traditions from their
own cultural backgrounds. An Italian American Thanksgiving might include lasagna
(27:45):
or Italian sausage alongside the turkey. A Chinese American Thanksgiving
might include stir fried vegetables or rice. A Mexican American
Thanksgiving might include tamalis or molay sauce. These adaptations of
Thanksgiving to reflect diverse culture traditions show that the holiday,
despite attempts to standardize it, has remained flexible and open
(28:05):
to interpretation. Different families and communities have created their own
Thanksgiving traditions that reflect their particular identities, values, and circumstances.
For some families, Thanksgiving is primarily a religious occasion centered
on church attendants and prayers of gratitude. For others, it's
primarily a secular celebration of family and abundance. For some,
(28:26):
the emphasis is on elaborate food preparation and a formal
sit down dinner. For others, it's primarily a secular celebration
of family and abundance. For others, football has no place
in the celebration. For some, Thanksgiving is about biological family.
For others, it's about chosen family and found community. The
twentieth century also saw Thanksgiving become increasingly associated with particular
(28:49):
narrative frameworks and cultural expectations that could be both comforting
and constraining. The idealized image of Thanksgiving as a time
of family, harmony, and abundance, promoted throughout advertising, television, movies,
and popular culture, created expectations that many families struggled to
live up to. The reality of Thanksgiving for many Americans
(29:09):
included family tensions and conflicts, economic stress about affording the
traditional feast, the exhaustion of the person, usually a woman,
responsible for preparing the elaborate meal, and the loneliness of
those who were estranged from family or who had no
family to celebrate with. The gap between the idealized Thanksgiving
and the reality of people's actual experiences could create feelings
(29:32):
of inadequacy and failure when one's own Thanksgiving didn't match
the images of perfect family gatherings portrayed in media. The
cultural pressure around Thanksgiving food preparation felt particularly heavily on women,
who were expected to produce elaborate, multi course meals that
looked like the pictures in magazines, while also managing family dynamics,
(29:53):
accommodating dietary restrictions and preferences, and creating an atmosphere of
warmth and gratitude. The expect that women would perform this
labor lovingly and without complaint, that they would find fulfillment
in serving others, and that they would be primarily responsible
for the emotional work of maintaining family connections was deeply
gendered and often exhausting. Feminist critiques of Thanksgiving have pointed
(30:17):
out these dynamics and have questioned why food preparation for
the holiday remains so heavily gendered, even as women's roles
in other areas of life have changed dramatically. The political
dimensions of Thanksgiving continued to evolve through the twentieth century.
During World War I and World War II, Thanksgiving took
on patriotic overtones, with special attention paid to soldiers serving overseas,
(30:40):
and with calls to conserve food and other resources to
support the war effort. Thanksgiving during the Great Depression was
marked by widespread hunger and economic distress. Thanksgiving during the
Great Depression was marked by widespread hunger and economic distress.
Thanksgiving during the Civil Rights era became a site of contestation,
with some africanma Americans questioning whether they should celebrate a
(31:02):
holiday that promoted gratitude for American freedoms and opportunities when
they were systematically denied full citizenship rights and subjected to
discrimination and violence. The establishment of the National Day of
Mourning in Plymouth in nineteen seventy, which we discussed in
the previous episode, marked a turning point in public consciousness
about Thanksgiving and its relationship to Indigenous history. The Day
(31:25):
of Mourning brought Indigenous perspectives on Thanksgiving into broader public
awareness and challenged the notion that Thanksgiving was a simple,
uncontroversial celebration that all Americans should embrace. The Day of
Mourning brought Indigenous perspectives on Thanksgiving into broader public awareness
and challenged the notion that Thanksgiving was a simple, uncontroversial
celebration that all Americans should embrace, and ongoing in justice
(31:49):
that the traditional Thanksgiving story glossed over or ignored entirely.
The late twentieth and early twenty first centuries have seen
increasing acknowledgment of Thanksgiving's complicated history and increasing efforts to
make the holiday more inclusive and historically accurate. Some schools
have stopped holding Thanksgiving pageants with children dressed as Pilgrims
(32:10):
and Indians, recognizing that these performances perpetuate harmful stereotypes and
historical inaccuracies. Some communities have worked to incorporate Indigenous perspectives
into Thanksgiving observances, inviting Indigenous speakers, acknowledging that the holiday
takes place on Indigenous land and supporting Indigenous causes. Some
(32:30):
communities have worked to incorporate Indigenous perspectives into Thanksgiving observances,
inviting Indigenous speakers, acknowledging that the holiday takes place on
Indigenous land and supporting Indigenous causes. At the same time,
resistance to changing or complicating the Thanksgiving narrative remains strong
in many quarters. For many Americans, Thanksgiving represents stability, tradition,
(32:53):
and connection to the past, and they resist what they
see as attempts to politicize or ruin the holiday by
introducing un comfortable historical truths or by criticizing traditional observances.
The culture war. Battles over how to teach American history,
how to acknowledge historical injustices, and how to balance patriotism
with critical examination of the nation's past have all played
(33:15):
out around Thanksgiving, with the holiday serving as a flashpoint
for larger debates about American identity and values. The transformation
of Thanksgiving from scattered regional observances to a standardized national
holiday was not a natural or inevitable process, but was
the result of specific historical forces and deliberate efforts by
particular individuals, and do apply to navigation into my design groups.
(33:39):
Sarah Josepha Hale's campaign to nationalize Thanksgiving, Abraham Lincoln's Civil
War proclamation, the post war efforts to create a unified
national culture, the commercialization of the holiday by retailers and
food companies, and the promotion of standardized Thanksgiving traditions through
media and popular culture all contributed to creating the holiday
(33:59):
wis know today. And the promotion of standardized Thanksgiving traditions
through media and popular culture all contributed to creating the
holiday we know today. And cultural circumstances, the tension between
Thanksgiving as a unifying national holiday and Thanksgiving as a
site of division and contestation has been present throughout the
holiday's history. Lincoln's Proclamation was meant to unify the North,
(34:22):
but excluded the South. The post war nationalization of Thanksgiving
required the defeated South to adopt a Northern holiday. The
promotion of Thanksgiving as an American holiday put pressure on
immigrants to assimilate. The promotion of Thanksgiving as an American
holiday put pressure on immigrants to assimilate, and the mythologization
of the first Thanksgiving erased indigenous perspectives and perpetuated harmful
(34:45):
stereotypes about indigenous peoples. Yet Thanksgiving has also genuinely served
as an occasion for gathering, for expressing gratitude, for sharing
food and fellowship, and for reflecting on what matters most
to people. For many Americans, whatever the hall problematic origins,
and however frauughd its history, Thanksgiving represents a rare opportunity
to slow down, to spend time with loved ones, to
(35:09):
prepare and share food, and to acknowledge the things they're
grateful for. Thanksgiving represents a rare opportunity to slow down,
to spend time with loved ones, to prepare and share food.
The flexibility of the holiday, its openness to diverse interpretations
and practices, has allowed different communities to make Thanksgiving meaningful
in their own ways, whether that means incorporating foods from
(35:31):
one's cultural heritage, using the datuser of others through volunteer work,
gathering with chosen family rather than biological relatives, or finding
ways to acknowledge difficult histories while still celebrating connection and gratitude.
The question of what Thanksgiving means and how it should
be observed remains contested and continues to evolve. Some Americans
are working to decolonize Thanksgiving by centering Indigenous perspectives, learning
(35:55):
about and supporting Indigenous communities, and challenging the historical names
narratives that have dominated popular understanding of the holiday. Some
are working to make Thanksgiving more inclusive by acknowledging diverse
family structures, economic circumstances, and cultural traditions. Some are using
Thanksgiving as an occasion for social justice work, volunteering at
(36:16):
food banks, advocating for food security and economic justice, and
working to address the systemic inequalities that leave many Americans
food insecure, even as others enjoy abundant feasts. And some
are simply trying to create meaningful celebrations with their own
families and communities, adapting traditions to fit their circumstances and values.
The history of Thanksgivings transformation from regional feasts to national
(36:40):
holiday is a history of nation building, of the creation
of shared narratives and rituals intended to forge a unified
national identity out of a diverse population. It's also a
history of exclusion, of whose voices and perspectives were centered
and whose were marginalized or erased entirely. It's also a
history of exclos illusion of whose voices and perspectives were
(37:02):
centered and whose were marginalized or erased entirely. The holiday
that Lincoln proclaimed in eighteen sixty three was meant to
unify the nation, but true unity requires not the erasure
of differences and difficult histories, but rather the acknowledgment of
diverse perspectives and experiences, and a commitment to justice and inclusion.
As we gather around our Thanksgiving tables, whether we're eating
(37:25):
traditional turkey and stuffing or adapting the menu to reflect
our own cultural heritage, whether we're celebrating with family or
with friends, whether we're acknowledging the holiday's complicated history or
simply enjoying time together, We're participating in a tradition that
is both deeply rooted in American history and constantly evolve.
In the transformation of Thanksgiving, from Sarah jose Fa Hale's
(37:47):
domestic vision to Lincoln's wartime unifying ritual, to the commercialized
spectacle of the Mese's Parade to contemporary debates about decolonization
and inclusion. Shows that traditions are not fixed or static,
but our living, changing phenomena that reflect the values, conflicts,
and aspirations of the people who observe them. Thanks for
listening to this episode of Thanksgiving, where we've traced the
(38:09):
holiday's journey from regional observance to national institution and examined
how a supposedly unifying holiday has reflected and sometimes deepened
America's divisions. Please subscribe for more episodes as we continue
exploring every layer of this complex holiday. This podcast was
brought to you by Quiet Please Podcast Networks. For more
(38:30):
content like this, please go to Quiet Please dot Ai Quiet,
Please dot Ai hear what matters
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