 
Here’s a little something to think about later on this afternoon, while you’re sitting there watching the fourth quarter of the football game and loosening your belt after stuffing yourself full of turkey and mashed potatoes . . . .
What do our national holiday of Thanksgiving and the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb” have in common?
American history, as I would imagine the history of civilisation in general, is filled with forgotten notables -- individuals who have added to our common cultural consciousness but whose names have long evapourated from our memories.
This is the story of one of them.
As most of us recall, even vaguely, Thanksgiving literally began in the seventeenth century. On 04 December 1619, a group of thirty-eight English settlers landed at Berkeley Hundred, in the colony of
Virginia , about twenty miles upriver from
Jamestown . On that day, Captain John Woodleaf held a service of thanksgiving and proclaimed that their date of arrival would be observed in perpetuity as “a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.” Three years later and several hundred miles to the north, the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in
Massachusetts , following their first successful harvest, held an autumn celebration of feasting and giving thanks to God.
For well over a century, the idea of Thanksgiving was strictly a local convention, its observance, or not, depending on the traditions of individual communities. Then, in 1789, President George Washington issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation, in which he declared 26 November 1789 would be set aside as a holiday so that the people may thank God for "affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.” Note here that
Washington did not establish Thanksgiving as an annual holiday, only that Thursday, 26 November.
In fact, over the next twenty-six years, there were only five other times that a day in autumn was observed as a national holiday by Presidential proclamation.
Washington did it again; President John Adams proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving twice, as did President James Monroe. The last time was in 1815. After that, no President bothered with the idea, and the concept of Thanksgiving as a holiday probably would have died on the vine . . . .
. . . If it hadn’t been for Sarah Josepha Hale.
Sarah Josepha Hale, widow, mother of four, and milliner, wrote a collexion of poems which was published by colleagues of her late husband under the title The Genius of Oblivion and Other Original Poems. The book met with enough financial success that she was able to give up her millinery work and write a novel, Northwood. Published in 1827, Northwood was a contemporary drama based on the growing schism in the
United States over slavery, and by extension, state’s rights.
The gathering antagonism between the North and the South over the issue of slavery, as Mrs. Hale saw it, could lead only to a civil war that would tear apart the country. Northwood’s plot underscored the common heritage of all Americans and the difficult struggle in establishing a new nation. It was here that she first proposed the idea of making Thanksgiving a permanent national holiday. "We have too few holidays," she wrote in Northwood. "Thanksgiving, like the Fourth of July, should be considered a national festival and observed by all our people."
Northwood was a tremendous success, and as a result, Mrs. Hale was offered the editorship of the
Boston periodical, The Ladies Magazine. In 1837, she became the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, a national magazine. Under her hand, Godey’s became the largest-selling publication in
America .
All the while, she continued to advocate Thanksgiving as an annual holiday. She viewed Thanksgiving as a national therapy, its annual celebration serving as a reminder of the spirituality and community of Americans. "There is a deep moral influence in these periodical seasons of rejoicing, in which whole communities participate,” she wrote in her monthly column, the Editor’s Table. “They bring out . . . the best sympathies in our natures.”
As hostilities inflamed between the North and the South, she used her status and position to bombard state and Federal officials with requests to make Thanksgiving an annual, nationally observed holiday. In an 1858 column of the Editor’s Table, she wrote:
We are most happy to agree with the large majority of the governors of the different States -- as shown in their unanimity of action for several past years, and which, we hope, will this year be adopted by all -- that the LAST THURSDAY IN NOVEMBER shall be the DAY OF NATIONAL THANKSGIVING for the American people.
Let this day, from this time forth, as long as our Banner of Stars floats on the breeze, be the grand THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY of our nation, when the noise and tumult of wordliness may be exchanged for the laugh of happy children, the glad greetings of family reunion, and the humble gratitude of the Christian heart. This truly American Festival falls, this year on the twenty fifth day of this month.
Let us consecrate the day to benevolence of action, by sending good gifts to the poor, and doing those deeds of charity that will, for one day, make every American home the place of plenty and of rejoicing. These seasons of refreshing are of inestimable advantage to the popular heart; and if rightly managed, will greatly aid and strengthen public harmony of feeling. Let the people of all the States and Territories sit down together to the "feast of fat things," and drink, in the sweet draught of joy and gratitude to the Divine giver of all our blessings, the pledge of renewed love to the Union, and to each other; and of peace and good-will to all men. Then the last Thursday in November will soon become the day of AMERICAN THANKSGIVING throughout the world.
Though too late to prevent the civil war that Mrs. Hale had feared, in 1863, President Lincoln succumbed to the pressure and issued the proclamation that she had spent forty years trying to procure, establishing the last Thursday in November as an annual national holiday of “Thanksgiving and Praise”.
So, to-day, as you relax on a day off from work, to enjoy a sumptuous feast and the warmth of family and friends, to root for your favourite team and maybe toss the pigskin around a bit yourself, take a moment to reflect on the fact that we owe it all to a lady who was trying to stop a war.
And what does “Mary Had a Little Lamb” have to do with it? Oh, Sarah Josepha Hale wrote that, too.
From Cheryl and myself, to all of you, our fondest wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving Day, and many more of them.
|
Home 
All Columns 
