Thanksgiving Day has a mother, a proper Victorian woman, arguably one of most powerful magazine editors in the mid-1800s–Sarah Josepha Hale, who gave birth to her fifth child two weeks after her husband David died of pneumonia.
The year was 1822, and Hale "was left poor" at a time of few ways for a woman to earn a living. She tried sewing, then she turned to writing. In 1827 her first book Northwood: Life North and South was published, one of the first novels that dealt with slavery.
The book also reflected Hale's passion for Thanksgiving Day.
A dialogue between Mr. Frankford, an Englishman, and Sidney Romilly, an American, foreshadowed what would be Hale's forty-year crusade to make Thanksgiving an official holiday.
"Is Thanksgiving Day universally observed in America?" inquired Mr. Frankford.
Not yet, but I trust it will become one."
A resounding success, Nortthwood, launched Sarah Josepha Hale's career as the editor of what became the hugely popular Godey's Lady's Book.
For forty years, up to 1877, when she retired at the age of eighty-nine, Sarah Josepha Hale used her position and prominence to promote the official establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday. She wrote editorials and articles and countless letters to presidents, governors, local and national politicians, generals and citizens alike. She ceaselessly campaigned.
In 1876, the centennial anniversary of the United States, Sarah Josepha Hale wrote: “It is a holiday especially worthy of our people. All its associations and all its influences are of the best kind. It unites families and friends. It awakens kindly and generous sentiments. It promotes peace and good-will among our mixed population . . .”
Today, Thanksgiving, is seemingly overwhelmed by Christmas decorations in stores, city streets, yards, and houses, and exhortations to buy buy buy on “Black Friday” Amidst all that, I hold out the hope of Sarah Josepha Hale's vision that Thanksgiving Day "awakens kindly and generous sentiments, promotes peace and good-will among our mixed population."
Tomorrow, with family and friends, Linda and I will be happily celebrating with Stephen and Alvina in Brooklyn. Today, Stephen said that the turkey in in the brine and Alvina is making her signature sky-high apple pie!
I ended my book, Thanksgiving: The True Story, with a series of questions: “Questions about the food on our table . . . .Questions about thankfulness . . . . Questions about how we spend Thanksgiving . . . . Questions about the wider community . . . . .” That book was published in 2008, and those questions remain even more salient, and I would add even more. It is easy to be overwhelmed, but instead, I remain heartened, knowing that a vast number of people, including you my dear readers, are determined to find answers, to seek justice and equity, and sustainability. So, Happy Thanksgiving and Onward!
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