The Mother of Thanksgiving

Summary

Throughline: The Mother of Thanksgiving

Episode Title: The Mother of Thanksgiving
Host/Author: NPR’s Throughline, hosted by Rund Abdelfattah and Ramtin Arablouei
Release Date: November 21, 2024

---

Introduction to Thanksgiving's Myth

In the episode "The Mother of Thanksgiving," hosts Rund Abdelfattah and Ramtin Arablouei delve into the origins and evolution of the American Thanksgiving holiday. They challenge the commonly held narrative of a harmonious feast between Pilgrims and Native Americans, exploring the complexities and historical truths that underpin the celebration.

---

The True Story: Pilgrims and Wampanoag

Ramtin Arablouei begins by recounting the traditional story of Thanksgiving, highlighting the 1621 feast between the English colonists (Pilgrims) and the Wampanoag people. Historian David Silverman provides critical insight, stating:

“That’s now called the First Thanksgiving.” ([02:20])

“Remembering this meeting is just about friendship and gratitude actually robs this very real event of all of its historical context.” ([03:39])

Elizabeth James Perry, a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe, adds depth to the narrative by explaining the Pilgrims' struggles upon arrival:

“When the English first arrived, they were small in number, they were newcomers, and they were struggling badly because they weren’t necessarily all farmers back where they came from either.” ([02:52])

---

King Philip’s War and Its Aftermath

The episode transitions to the darker chapters of Native and colonial relations, focusing on King Philip’s War (1675-1678). Rund Abdelfattah narrates how tensions escalated between the Wampanoag tribe led by Chief Metacom and the English colonists, leading to a devastating conflict.

David Silverman emphasizes the imbalance of power and the brutal consequences:

“They kill thousands of them and enslave many more and sell them off to the Caribbean and to the Mediterranean.” ([05:57] - [06:04])

The war culminated in horrific acts, including the decapitation of Chief Metacom, whose head was displayed publicly for 20 years—a grim reminder of the feast's location:

“A military captain named Benjamin Church isn’t finished... And it stays there for 20 years. This is the very site where that feast took place.” ([06:10] - [06:58])

Elizabeth James Perry reflects on the marginalization of tribal nations:

“Tribal nations are such a tiny portion of the population. That’s not by accident. And nobody talks about you except when there’s a butterball on the table.” ([07:08])

---

Sarah Josepha Hale and the Campaign for a National Holiday

The narrative shifts to Sarah Josepha Hale, a pivotal figure in establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Rund Abdelfattah introduces her early life and literary achievements, with historian Melanie Kirkpatrick providing context:

“She was probably one of the most highly educated women of the first quarter of the 19th century.” ([13:56])

Hale’s relentless advocacy is highlighted through her persistent efforts to persuade governors and President Abraham Lincoln. Despite initial resistance, Hale's influence through her magazine, Godey's Ladies' Book, played a crucial role:

“She thought that if we could all come together and celebrate on the same day, that would help to bring Americans together.” ([21:42])

Her correspondence with President Lincoln culminates in the historic proclamation:

“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States... to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving.” ([34:34])

---

Mythologization of Thanksgiving

The episode examines how Thanksgiving was mythologized over time, particularly through media and education. Painter Jean Leon Jerome Ferris’s 1912 work, The First Thanksgiving, epitomizes the sanitized and idealized version of the event, portraying peaceful interaction and mutual respect, which historian David Silverman critiques:

“To have Europeans sitting at a table and Native people sitting on the ground is designed to accentuate that the English are civilized and that the natives are savage.” ([44:16])

This portrayal became entrenched in American culture, shaping generations' perceptions and overshadowing the complex and often violent history between settlers and Native Americans.

---

Perspectives from Native Americans and Historians

Elizabeth James Perry provides a contemporary Native American perspective, emphasizing resilience and the importance of authentic historical narratives:

“It wasn’t about, get a load of this turkey. Turkey wasn’t new for us. Cranberries were new. I don’t know what to say. New England wasn’t new. I mean, we kind of like...” ([47:21] - [48:16])

Historian David Silverman critiques the perpetuation of myths, advocating for a more nuanced understanding of history:

“History is not about trying to make people feel guilty or ashamed, patriotic or unpatriotic. It’s designed to capture a complex past in all of its complexity.” ([48:57])

---

Conclusion: Thanksgiving’s Legacy and Its Complex Narrative

The episode concludes by reflecting on the enduring legacy of Thanksgiving and its role in American identity. While acknowledging the holiday’s capacity to foster unity and gratitude, Throughline underscores the importance of recognizing and addressing its historical complexities.

Historian Melanie Kirkpatrick and Elizabeth James Perry highlight the ongoing struggle to balance celebration with historical truth, urging listeners to engage with Thanksgiving’s multifaceted legacy critically.

“These national holidays, they remind us of what it means to be an American number one. And then they also give us a chance to celebrate our nation.” ([49:37])

David Silverman adds a final reflection on the potential for unity amidst historical complexities:

“There will never be unity around complex historical subjects. They’re too complex.” ([49:21])

Key Takeaways:

• Thanksgiving’s traditional narrative is a simplified myth that overlooks the harsh realities of colonialism and Native American experiences.
• Sarah Josepha Hale’s advocacy was instrumental in shaping Thanksgiving into a national holiday aimed at unifying a divided nation.
• The mythologization of Thanksgiving has had lasting impacts on American cultural memory, often at the expense of historical accuracy.
• Contemporary Native American voices and historians call for a more honest and inclusive recounting of Thanksgiving’s history.

Notable Quotes:

• Elizabeth James Perry: “Tribal nations are such a tiny portion of the population. That’s not by accident. And nobody talks about you except when there’s a butterball on the table.” ([07:08])
• David Silverman: “Remembering this meeting is just about friendship and gratitude actually robs this very real event of all of its historical context.” ([03:39])
• Sarah Josepha Hale (Excerpt): “Let us consecrate the day to benevolence of action by sending good gifts to the poor...” ([29:03])
• David Silverman: “History is not about trying to make people feel guilty or ashamed, patriotic or unpatriotic. It’s designed to capture a complex past in all of its complexity.” ([48:57])

---

Final Thoughts

"Throughline's" episode on Thanksgiving provides a compelling exploration of how national narratives are constructed and the importance of critically engaging with history. By unraveling the layers of myth and reality, the podcast encourages listeners to reflect on the stories we tell ourselves and the histories we choose to remember.

Transcript

[Mattress Firm Ad]

This message comes from Mattress Firm. How do you sleep at night? If aches and pains are keeping you up, upgrade with Mattress Firm's selection of high quality mattresses at every price for your best rest. Get matched at Mattress Firm's Black Friday sale and sleep at night.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Hey, it's rund here before the show today. We want to take a minute and say hi if you're a new listener. I host the show with my co host Ramtin Adabloui. We have new episodes every Thursday, and in each one we reopen a story from the past to try to understand something about the present and how we got here. Throughline is an NPR podcast, which means we're nonprofit, independent public media. You can support us and get sponsor free versions of every episode as well as bonus content by signing up for [e-mail] and sidebar shout out to our supporters hearing this right now and that's it. Thanks for being here and hope you enjoyed the show.

[Ginny]

Our good ancestors were wise even in their mirth. We have standing proof of this in the season they chose for the celebration of our annual festival, the Thanksgiving, the funeral faced month of November, is thus made to wear a garland of joy.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Let me tell you a story of Thanksgiving, the traditional one. In 1621, when the English colonists now known as the Pilgrims were newcomers to.

[David Silverman]

This continent, there was a major feast between the Wampanoags and the English of Plymouth. That's a very real event, the event.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

That'S now called the First Thanksgiving.

[David Silverman]

The suggestion is that the two parties got together for this feast out of innate friendship.

[Elizabeth James Perry]

It's this odd little frozen in time fantasy moment of folks getting together and eating, but you don't really know why.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

This is Elizabeth James Perry.

[Elizabeth James Perry]

I'm a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe of Gay Head, Martha's Vineyard, and I'm an artist and I'm an exhibit consultant as well.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

She says that when the English first.

[Elizabeth James Perry]

Arrived, they were small in number, they were newcomers, and they were struggling badly because they weren't necessarily all farmers back where they came from either.

[David Silverman]

All these Englishmen are trying to do is survive. The Wampanoags outnumber them by a factor of, at minimum, 20 to 1. So the Wampanoags are the bosses here.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

This is David Silverman.

[David Silverman]

I'm professor of history at George Washington.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

University, and he's also the author of.

[David Silverman]

The book this Land Is Their Land, the Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

David says remembering this meeting is just about friendship and gratitude actually robs this.

[David Silverman]

Very real event of all of its historical context.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Now let me tell you another Thanksgiving story. This one happens more than 50 years later. In June of 1675, the indigenous Wampanoag people of what is now southern New England were on the brink of war with the English colonists of Massachusetts and Rhode island, the descendants of those Pilgrims. Metacom, a Wampanoag chief, met with Rhode Island's attorney General.

[David Silverman]

What he said was, you know, when.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

My father, a chief named USA Miquin.

[David Silverman]

Met your ancestors, the Plymouth colonists, he was a great man, and you were a little child, and he gave you land to live on, more land than we, the Wampanoags, have today. He taught you how to plant. He taught you where to fish. But now here we are, 50 plus years later. Now you're the great man and we're the little child, and you don't treat us with that kind of respect. That's why I'm going to ward.

[Ginny]

Make ready.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Present. Fire.

[David Silverman]

The odds are really stacked. A tribe. They top out at 15,000 people. England is 5 million people.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

It would come to be known as King Philip's War, the name the English colonists gave the Wampanoag chief, Metacom. But the English show the Wampanoag and their allies very little respect.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Let's be clear.

[David Silverman]

They kill thousands of them.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

And enslave.

[David Silverman]

Many more and sell them off to the Caribbean and to the Mediterranean.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

The war goes on for nearly three years, and the colonists win. But a military captain named Benjamin Church isn't finished.

[David Silverman]

He orders the head of King Philip Wampanoag chief Metacom to be decapitated and his head piked outside of Plymouth Colony. And it stays there for 20 years. This is the very site where that feast took place.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

The first Thanksgiving in 1621.

[David Silverman]

Afterwards, Plymouth in Massachusetts, they hold the Thanksgiving for their victory over the native people.

[Elizabeth James Perry]

Tribal nations are such a tiny portion of the population. That's not by accident. And nobody talks about you except when there's a butterball on the table.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Tomorrow's Thanksgiving.

[Elizabeth James Perry]

M. Turkey and dressing and pie and cakes.

[David Silverman]

Turkey or no turkey, we've still got all the freedoms and privileges the Pilgrims gave us. And out of those privileges have come a lot of things.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

Things the Pilgrims never even dreamed.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Now, let me tell you a third story of Thanksgiving, one that's very different and that you may have never heard.

[David Silverman]

The dogmas of the quiet past are.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Inadequate to the stormy present.

[David Silverman]

The occasion is piled high with difficulty.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

And we must rise. Nearly two centuries after King Philip's War. In 1863, a darkness had set over the Union. The Confederate army was advancing into Pennsylvania, threatening places like Philadelphia and Baltimore. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. The country was as divided as it had ever been. War and destruction was everywhere. Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. Abraham Lincoln and in this moment, a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale sent President Abraham Lincoln a letter.

[Ginny]

Sir, permit me, as editress of the Ladies Book, to request a few minutes of your precious time while laying before you a subject of deep interest to myself and, as I trust, even to the president of our republic. Of some importance. This subject is to have the day of our annual Thanksgiving made a national and fixed Union Festival.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

The reason we celebrate Thanksgiving as we do today is because of this letter from Sarah Josepha Hale. It was her dream, her belief in our need for a national unifying story to bind us together. But what is that story? How did it come together? And what does it leave out?

[Rund Abdelfattah]

I'm Rund Abdelfattah.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

And I'm Ramtin Arablouei on this episode of Throughline from npr, the mother of Thanksgiving.

[Ginny]

Hi, my name is Ginny and I'm from Connecticut. And if you want to be more interested at parties, you should do what I do and listen to Sirlein from npr.

[NPR Sponsor Message]

This message comes from Schwab. It's easy to invest in ideas you believe in with Schwab, investing themes like online music and videos, artificial intelligence and electric vehicles. Choose from over 40 customizable themes. [e-mail] this message comes from our sponsor, Grainger. This is the story of the one As a maintenance engineer, he hears things differently. To the untrained ear. Everything on his shop floor might sound fine, but he can hear gears grinding or a belt slipping. So he steps in to fix the problem at hand before it gets out of hand. And he knows Grainger's got the right product he needs to get the job done, which is music to his ears. Call click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. This message comes from Noom. Using psychology and biology to build personal meal plans to fit your lifestyle, taking into account dietary restrictions, medical issues and other personal needs, with daily lessons that are personalized to you and your goals. Noom's flexible program focuses on progress instead of perfection to help you build new habits for a healthier lifestyle. Sign up for your trial [e-mail].

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

Part.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

1 Hales Crusade Sarah Josepha Hale was born in New Hampshire in 1788, not too far away from where the Pilgrims first landed.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

She was the daughter of Revolutionary War.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Heroes at a time when many women couldn't read. Sarah had access to plenty of education.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

Thanks to a mother who homeschooled her and a brother who went off to Dartmouth and then came home and taught her everything he knew.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

This is Melanie Kirkpatrick.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

I'm a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a think tank in Washington D.C.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Melanie also wrote a book called called Lady Editor, which is a biography of Sarah Josepha Hale.

[Ginny]

I owe my early predilection for literary pursuits to the teaching and example of my mother. She possessed a mind clear as rock water and a most happy talent of communicating knowledge.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

Sarah really loved to read and she taught herself a lot of things too.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

She wrote poetry, she wrote essays. She was just obsessed with writing.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

She was probably one of the most highly educated women of the first quarter of the 19th century.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

When she was 25, she married a local lawyer named David Hale very happily.

[Ginny]

We commenced, soon after our marriage, a system of study and reading. It seemed the aim of my husband to enlighten my reason, strengthen my judgment and give me confidence in my own powers of mind, which he estimated much higher than I.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

Her husband helped her develop her prose style and he also helped her get poetry published in local newspapers.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

They had a quiet, idyllic marriage for.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

Eight years and then he died suddenly, leaving her with four children and a fifth on the way.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Her life was crumbling around her.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

They were relatively well off, but they didn't have any savings. So here was Mrs. Hale nearly penniless. And the tradition of the time was when that happened to a woman that her children were parceled off to relatives and she didn't want to do that.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Desperate to keep her family together, Hale started a business with her sister in law making hats, and she hated it. So she poured her energy into writing and publishing prose poems and short stories.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

And then she wrote a novel which was an anti slavery novel and it came out in 1827.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

The novel was called A Tale of New England.

[Ginny]

The southern slaveholder is as absolute in his dominions or plantation rather as the Grand Signor.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

This is a passage from the novel describing life on a southern plantation.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

It's the story of a boy from a hometown that seems very similar to the one she grew up in, whose parents effectively give him to relatives in the south who don't have any children. They're rich and give him lots of benefits that he wouldn't otherwise have.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

And eventually this main character writes back to his hometown in the north and tells everyone exactly what he saw in the South.

[Ginny]

The change of masters is frequently a terrible evil to the poor slave. And that system must be inhuman and unchanged.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Just.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

It's clear that the author and the main character believe slavery is wrong.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Now. Sarah also used her main character to argue that the best thing for black Americans would be to return to Africa. She believed total separation of the races was the only way out of a system of domination which subjects man to.

[Ginny]

The occurrence of such an outrage.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Even though she'd never been to the south herself, Sarah's portrayal of life there struck a nerve with readers. Northwood was a big hit and one of the first anti slavery novels of its kind.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

It kind of made her reputation among a group of intellectuals in Boston, including one man who was starting up a magazine for women. And he asked her out of the blue if she would come to Boston to edit it.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

It was called Ladies Magazine.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

It was a very difficult decision for her because she would have to leave four of her children behind. She took the baby with her. Also. She was chastised by people for thinking that she could maintain her family, make enough money to maintain her family. It was wrong to go off and become a professional.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

And there were some people who doubted that a magazine geared towards women could gain a big following.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

In 1828, when her magazine debuted, half of American women were illiterate.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

But Sarah didn't let any of that get in her way. She moved to Boston and accepted the job at Ladies Magazine. And her gamble paid off. The magazine was a hit and soon merged with another magazine to become Godey's Ladies Book, based in Philadelphia.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

And it was once she became the editor, or she preferred the term editress of Godey's Lady's Book, that things really took off for her. She expanded her focus to culinary things. She also wrote about art and architecture. She reviewed many books.

[Ginny]

The Lady's Book was the first avowed advocate of the holy cause of women's intellectual progress. It has been the pioneer in the wonderful change of public sentiment respecting female education and the employment of female talent in educating the young.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Godey's achieved popular and critical success. Sarah's writing was praised by Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

She became very famous. She became a celebrity in 19th century America. So much so that there was a phrase, Mrs. Hale says, meaning that she was like the arbiter of behavior and housekeeping and education and culinary issues.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Like almost Like, I dare say this, but it's given me, like, Oprah vibes. Like OPRAH in the 90s vibes.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

Yes. Very, very similar. She really connected with people and she had a fabulous sense of was important and what wasn't important.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Sarah used her platform to push for the things she believed in. She supported women's education, though not women's suffrage. She opposed slavery and thought free black people should be repatriated to Africa. And she had a vision for creating a united national culture.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

She thought that the revolution had united the American colonies politically, but not culturally, and that the new country needed to develop its own culture and the new country needed its own stories. They needed something to coalesce around.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

And for Sarah, there was no better day to coalesce around than her favorite holiday, Thanksgiving.

[Ginny]

Everything that contributes to bind us in one vast empire together, to quicken the sympathy that makes us feel from the icy north to the sunny south, that we are one family, each a member of a great and free nation, not merely the unit of a remote locality, is worthy of being cherished.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Thanksgiving in the early to mid-1800s was mostly celebrated in northern states and generally on different days. It was not a national holiday, and Sarah wanted to change that.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

She thought that if we could all come together and celebrate on the same day, that would help to bring Americans together.

[Ginny]

There is a deep moral influence in these periodical seasons of rejoicing in which a community participates. They bring out and together, as it were, the best sympathies of our nature.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

And as the Civil War approached, she also had the hope that it would forestall war.

[Ginny]

We believe our Thanksgiving Day, if fixed and perpetuated, will be a great and sanctifying promoter of this national spirit.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Coming up, Sarah takes her appeal all the way to the top. My name is Fredensen Desravines from Silver Spring, Maryland, and you're listening to Throughline from npr.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

The reason why I love Throughline is.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Because it really does illuminate and also debunk a lot of myths in American.

[NPR Sponsor Message]

History that we once thought to be true.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Part 2 One heart, one voice on.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

A farm in Maryland, a group of 22 men, some of them enslaved and some of them not, hide in an attic.

[Mattress Firm Ad]

This message comes from sun and Ski Sports, helping families make memories on the mountain. This Black Friday, save up to 50% on top brands for the outdoor adventurer in your life with an extra 10% off select items online. From November 19 to December 2, visit your local sun and Ski sports to shop exclusive in store offers like enter to win a $200 shopping spree or explore sunandski.com find yourself outside with sun and ski sports.

[NPR Sponsor Message]

This message comes from Shipstation, your e commerce command center. Take control of your growing order volume with Shipstation's all in One shipping software that centralizes your fulfillment, automates repetitive tasks and delivers the best carrier rates all in one place. Integrate effortlessly with over 180e commerce platforms and marketplaces. Save time and scale efficiently with features like inventory synchronization. For a free 60 day trial, go to shipstation.com NPR this message comes from Viking, committed to exploring the world in comfort. Journey through the heart of Europe on an elegant Viking longship with thoughtful service, destination focused dining and cultural enrichment on board and on shore. And every Viking voyage is all inclusive with no children and no casinos. Discover [e-mail].

[Ramtin Arablouei]

They spend their days reading, writing letters, cleaning their rifles, waiting. Then, on October 16, 1859, their leader, a white abolitionist named John Brown, gathers them together. He prays with them, then afterwards says, men, get on your arms. We'll proceed to the ferry. They start a five mile march towards a Virginia town called Harper's Ferry. They plan to capture the federal armory there and start a massive revolt against slavery. Within just a couple of hours, John Brown's forces take control of two bridges, the armory and a rifle factory. They take slave owners and armory employees hostage. I have possession now of the United States armory and if the citizens interfere with me, I must only burn the town and have blood. Eventually, U.S. marines led by Colonel Robert E. Lee arrive. Brown's men are surrounded. The Marines storm the armory. If you die, you die in a good cause. Several of John Brown's men are killed, including his own son. Those who haven't escaped are captured fighting for liberty. John Brown is tried and later hanged. If you must die, die like a man. Even though John Brown's raid failed, it caused shockwaves in Virginia and beyond. It amplified the tension between north and south over the question of slavery. The following year the country would elect Abraham Lincoln, and soon Southern states would start to secede.

[Ginny]

If every state should join in Union Thanksgiving on the 24th of this month, would it not be a renewed pledge of love and loyalty to the Constitution of the United States States?

[Ramtin Arablouei]

The same year of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, as the country was barreling towards Civil War, Sarah Josepha Hale had been using her powerful pulpit as editor of one of the country's most read magazines, Godey's Lady's Book, reaching around a million readers from north to south, arguing that Thanksgiving could unite the country.

[Ginny]

The flag of our country now numbers 32 stars on its crown of blue. And some half dozen or more additional starlets are shining out of the depths of our wilderness continent.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Sarah Josepha Hale had been on a mission to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Before the Civil War, it was celebrated by most states across the country. But when and if it was celebrated was decided by the governors of each state.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

At first she thought if she could just get the governors all to agree on a date, that would be good enough.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

So for years leading up to the Civil War, Godey's ladies book ran editorials and recipes and stories about Thanksgiving. And she was making the argument that an annual holiday would be good for everyone. The poor.

[Ginny]

Let us consecrate the day to benevolence of action by sending good gifts to the poor. The depressed wasting despondency cripples the feeble limbs.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Prisoners.

[Ginny]

Even the poor prisoner is cheered in his solitary cell.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

But she knew the audience of a woman's magazine wouldn't be enough. She had to convince the men in power.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

She had a huge network and she would hand write personal letters to governors.

[Ginny]

Will you use the influence of your high official status congressmen to establish the last Thursday in November members of the Senate as the annual American Thanksgiving?

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

Trying to get their support for her idea of a national holiday? And she did have success. She got many of the governors to agree on a given date, but not all of them. So then she thought that the better idea would be to get the president to proclaim a national day of Thanksgiving.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

So she made her case again and again. And at first the response from lawmakers.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

Was, we love this idea, but no, the Constitution won't let us do it.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

There were two main objections.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

They believed it wasn't a federal responsibility, it was the state responsibility. And second, that it was a religious matter. Thanksgiving day was a religious holiday, and therefore the president needs to stay out of it.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

But remember, this was happening during the buildup to the Civil War. So of course, Thanksgiving did become political.

[William Apess]

This theatrical national clap trap of Thanksgiving.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Has aided other causes in setting thousands.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Of pulpits to preaching Christian politics instead.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Of humbly letting the carnal kingdom alone. The Southern governor of Virginia, Henry Wise, wrote back to Sarah Josepha Hale in 1856 after receiving one of her letters about making Thanksgiving a national holiday.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

And he replied saying that basically it was a damn Yankee holiday that you had preachers in the north preaching abolitionism, which was political.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Some southerners feared that Thanksgiving could be a Trojan horse. For abolitionism. I mean, there were examples of ministers in new england preaching abolitionist messages.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

That Virginia governor was correct that the anti slavery movement was very closely connected to religion. Needless to say, Virginia didn't celebrate thanksgiving that year.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

But Sarah Josepha Hale didn't necessarily believe thanksgiving would end slavery. She thought it could prevent a civil war war.

[Ginny]

Such social rejoicings tend greatly to expand the generous feelings of our nature and strengthen the bond of union that binds us, brothers and sisters, in that true sympathy of american patriotism.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Hale seemed to genuinely believe that if americans could just get together on thanksgiving and get back in touch with the founding values of this country, they could resolve their differences. But despite all her efforts, Thanksgiving didn't become a national holiday. And beginning in 1860, 11 Southern states seceded. The Confederacy formed the Civil War. BE 1863 was a hard year for Abraham lincoln. Tens of thousands of people had already died in a civil war. The confederate army had notched a couple of major victories. And in june of that year, the confederate general Robert e. Lee began invading the union state of Pennsylvania. One battle would help turn the tide of the war. Over the course of three days in July, tens of thousands of union and confederate soldiers fought on a field in Pennsylvania near a town called gettysburg. There were more than 50,000 casualties. But in the end, the union beat the confederate army back and they retreated to the south, where they would lose the war. Gettysburg was considered a major turning point and victory for the north. And this is where Sarah Josepha Hale comes back in our story.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

So finally, in 1863, she wrote to Lincoln.

[Ginny]

Sir, permit me, as editress of the ladies book, to request a few minutes of your precious time.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Just five days after reading hale's letter.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

Lincoln agreed and issued a proclamation making.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Thanksgiving a national holiday. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States.

[David Silverman]

And also those who are at sea and those who are sojourned in foreign.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Lands to set apart and observe the last Thursday of november next as a day of thanksgiving. Abraham lincoln.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

He asked americans to come together with one heart and one voice. And he was again talking about northerners and southerners stopping the war and moving toward peace and reunification.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Thanksgiving would be celebrated in local hospitals where soldiers were recovering from their wounds. They would be served turkey, goose, ham, chicken pie, cranberry sauce, and sweet potato potatoes.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

It energized people in the north. It was the message, come on, we just have to keep at it. We're going to win this war.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

And the union did win. In 1865, the Confederates surrendered and Lincoln was assassinated.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

It was Lincoln's decision in 1863 that started the tradition of a national Thanksgiving that continues to this day.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Sarah Josepha Hale's years of persistence had paid off.

[Ginny]

Let us see to it that on this one day there shall be no family or individual within the compass of our means to help who shall not have some portion prepared and some reason to join in the general Thanksgiving.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Coming up after the Thanksgiving holiday is established, the Thanksgiving myth takes hold. Hello, I am Zeko and I am from Rockville, Maryland, and you are listening to Throughline from npr.

[NPR Sponsor Message]

This message comes from the University of Kansas Health System. Understanding a patient's concerns starts with one thing listening. Their doctors work to build trust and understanding with every patient to help them feel more confident with their healthcare journey. No matter your condition or treatment needs, the University of Kansas Health System remembers, you are a person first and always because a better relationship means better care. Learn how clinical excellence delivered with compassion can help [e-mail].

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Part 3 the Thanksgiving.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

Myth.

[William Apess]

I do not arise to spread before you the fame of a noted warrior. There are many who are said to be honorable warriors who think it no crime to wreak their vengeance upon whole nations and communities until the fields are covered with blood and the rivers turned into purple fountains while a loud response is heard floating through the air from the 10,000 Indian Children and orphans who are left to mourn the honorable acts of a few civilized men.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

William APIs lifts his eyes up from his speech. More than a thousand auditorium seats rise in a circle around him. APIs stares into the audience. A sea of white northerners stares back. It's 1836, 25 years before the start of the Civil War, more than two centuries after the Wampanoag leader USA Miquin and the Pilgrims in Plymouth shared a meal and signed a peace treaty. And William APIs, a Pequot minister and orator, is spelling out for a theater full of Bostonians what happened next. How the Pilgrims came to the Wampanoags for help. How the Wampanoags gave them venison and sold them corn.

[William Apess]

And for all this they were denounced as being savages by those who received all these acts of kindness.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Northeasterners know about the cruelties happening against Native Americans in other parts of the country, the Trail of Tears, the violence on the Great Plains. But they aren't used to seeing themselves as part of the problem.

[David Silverman]

The epicenter for criticism of the United States violent approach to subjugating Native people is New England.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

This is historian David Silverman if you.

[David Silverman]

Want a critique of the evils of the United states in the 19th century, it is almost always going to come out of Boston in the 19th century. The criticism of US Indian affairs coming out of New England is very, very sharp. As part of that positioning, New Englanders style their region as free of the national sins of violent Indian affairs and slavery. Neither of which is true.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

As early as 1769, New Englanders began celebrating what they called forefathers day. On December 22, the anniversary of the day the Pilgrims made landfall at Plymouth Rock, they were honoring what New Englanders were building up as a foundational moment in the American story. But already in 1836, William APIs was poking holes in that story.

[William Apess]

Let the children of the Pilgrims blush. Let the day be dark. Let it be forgotten in your celebration, in your speeches, and by the burying of the rock that your fathers first put their foot upon. For the 22nd of December and the 4th of July are days of mourning and not of joy.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

You'll notice that APIs does not name check Thanksgiving. And that's because in 1836, most Americans didn't know about the mythical meeting between the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims. They didn't have an image in their head of everyone getting together around a big turkey and holding hands. That story wasn't part of American lore.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Yet when does the element of this sort of friendship and handshaking between the native people and the European settlers emerge as the story of Thanksgiving?

[David Silverman]

In the 1840s, a minister in New England publishes one of the two primary sources that documents that feast between the Wampanoags and the Plymouth colonists. And to that primary source account, he adds a footnote. And the footnote read, this was the first Thanksgiving.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Wow.

[David Silverman]

Now, as far as we can tell, up to that point, no one is talking about friendly Indians and Pilgrims during celebrations of Thanksgiving in the 1600s, 1700s, or even early 1800s. But with that footnote, the myth starts to grow over time. It then really takes hold in American society after Abraham Lincoln declares Thanksgiving to be a national holiday during the Civil War.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Lincoln's 1863 proclamation meant that Americans got into the habit of celebrating Thanksgiving every year on the same day. But the free the first national Thanksgivings in the wake of the Civil War were rocky. Sarah Josepha Hale, as editor of the widely popular Godey's Ladies Book magazine, dedicated a lot of real estate to her Thanksgiving columns, selling Southern women on the.

[Ginny]

Holiday when joining in prayers for the same blessings and in thanksgivings for the same good gifts, of the season can Americans feel otherwise than as brethren whose interests are united, whose aims should be to ennoble their common country, whose lives, liberties, and fortunes are safe only under the same glorious flag?

[Ramtin Arablouei]

But while Sarah Josepha Hale kept writing about a holiday that revolved around pie, family, and faith, outside Godey's Ladies book, Thanksgiving was starting to take on a life of its own. The holiday was amassing new spokespeople, and by the late 1800s and early 1900s, those people were increasingly looking to the rediscovered story about the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims for inspiration. In 1912, a painter named Jean Leon Jerome Ferris finished one of the most famous works of his career, an oil painting called the First Thanksgiving.

[David Silverman]

The mythologized Thanksgiving, the one most of.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Us were taught in school.

[David Silverman]

Pilgrims and Indians making friends.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

In the painting, a group of white English settlers stands around a table. To their left, a group of Native Americans are sitting on the ground next to the family dog. They're not wearing traditional Wampanoag clothing, but instead what Ferris imagined they would wear feather headdresses and decorative beads. An English settler, a woman, holds a tray of food in front of a native man. He reaches for a loaf of bread.

[David Silverman]

To have Europeans sitting at a table and Native people sitting on the ground is designed to accentuate that the English are civilized and that the natives are savage. And that's a basic binary that has shaped white Americans views of themselves and of indigenous people, really, for 400 years.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

By the in the early 1900s, acting out that fantasy had become part of the curriculum at many schools.

[David Silverman]

There are black and white photos all over from the early 20th century, you know, and you'll see the kids in Plains feathered headdresses and these pilgrim costumes, which have these obscenely large buckles on every conceivable article of clothing. It's a whitewashed of the bloodiness of the ruthlessness of colonialism.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Around the time where this myth that we've been talking about so hard has started to take hold about Thanksgiving. What were the lives of actual descendants of those people from the 1600s, the Wampanoag people? What were their lives like in the early 1900s?

[Elizabeth James Perry]

I can talk about my family.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

This is Aquinnah Wampanoag artist and educator Elizabeth James Perry.

[Elizabeth James Perry]

My great grandmother was a widow, and so her life was very much about taking care of her family as a sole provider.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

This was all happening during a period of upheaval for the Wampanoags in Martha's Vineyard. They had persisted despite the U.S. government's aggressive policy of Indian removal in the 1830s, when many Native people were forced off their land and moved west. But by the 1860s and 70s, the state government in Massachusetts had gotten involved and was dividing up the tribe's land into taxable allotments. That effectively made it much more difficult for people like Elizabeth's great grandmother to continue to afford living there. But they found ways to make it work.

[Elizabeth James Perry]

And when you're a tribe for thousands of years, just because some guy goes, oh, you're not. It doesn't mean you stop. You know, it's not a switch.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Elizabeth's community passed down their own stories. Stories about their history with white settlers and also about things that had actually happened to them. Adventures and misadventures. Funny childhood memories.

[Elizabeth James Perry]

Unbelievable. Ship locked in ice. Using your crazy gay head navigation skills to walk across the ice. Cause you remember a community in this direction carrying the captain's wife who had to come on the voyage for some odd reason. You know that just like I think the underpinning was here we are these survivors. Strong senses of humor, full of hope. Also holding on to these stories of, hey, you know what? Everybody jokes about us, but we've got some serious skills. That's why we're here today. It wasn't about, get a load of this turkey. You know, it just. Turkey wasn't new for us. Cranberries were new. I don't know what to say. New England wasn't new. I mean, we kind of like.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Yeah, I mean, you're like, we're kind of from here.

[Elizabeth James Perry]

Yeah, it's.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

For many of us, Thanksgiving is a pretty straightforward holiday. It's really fun and easy to enjoy. The food, the friends and family, the lazy afternoon watching football. But beneath the surface of all of this is a question about how we choose to remember our history and define ourselves as a country.

[David Silverman]

History is not about trying to make people feel guilty or ashamed, patriotic or unpatriotic. It's designed to capture a complex past in all of its complexity. National celebrations are another kettle of fish. They are designed to cultivate unity. There will never be unity around complex historical subjects. They're too complex.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Whether it is the inaccurate, rosy colored view of the first Thanksgiving in 1621, or using the day as a vessel for national unity, what we are thankful for is a choice. A choice with consequences.

[Melanie Kirkpatrick]

These national holidays, they remind us of what it means to be an American number one. And then they also give us a chance to celebrate our nation. I should say there are critics of Thanksgiving, people who won't celebrate it because they wrongly think that it is celebrating the destruction of Native culture. I can't disagree with that more strongly. I think it is a time of celebration, of people of different cultures coming together.

[David Silverman]

I think it's true that most adults don't give pilgrims and Indians much of a thought, but that's part of the point. The point is that we're indoctrinated with this idea as children, and then we're never asked to revisit it as we become more mature and capable of complex thought. I would prefer to see Thanksgiving continue without invoking pilgrims and Indians at all. I don't trust any ritual to capture complexities of any sort, never mind violent complexities that strike at the heart of the desire to have the United States be a beacon of light in the world. That is asking too much.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

As for Sarah Josepha Hale, she had her mind made up that Thanksgiving could bring the U.S. together, and she lived long enough to see it take hold. Hale spent the rest of her life making sure Thanksgiving would outlive her, and.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Before she died in April 1879, she had one last word to say about Thanksgiving and her own legacy in the magazine she dedicated much of her life to.

[Ginny]

This idea was very near to my heart, for I believe that this celebration would be a bond of union throughout our country as well as a source of happiness in the homes of the people.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

That's it for this week's show. I'm Rund Abdelfatah.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

I'm Ramtin Arab Louis, and you've been listening to throughline from npr.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

This episode was produced by me and.

[Ginny]

Me and Sarah Wyman, Devon Kadayama, Casey.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Minor, Lawrence Wu, Julie K, Anya Steinberg.

[Ginny]

Lina Muhammad, Christina Kim, Irene Noguchi.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Thank you to Nina Buchalski, Puneet Matiwala, Johannes Dergi, Edith Chapin and Colin Campbell.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Voiceover work in this episode was done by Sarah Wyman, Ryan Escalas, Devin Katayama, Mark Smith and Sam Yellow Horse Kessler. Fact checking for this episode was done by Kevin Voelkel. It was mixed by Maggie Luthar.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

Music for this episode was composed by Ramtin and his band Drop Electric, which.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Includes Navid Marvi, Sho Fujiwara, Anya Mizani.

[Rund Abdelfattah]

We would love to hear from you. Send us a voicemail to 872-588-8805 and leave your name where you're from and say the line you're listening to Throughline from NPR and tell us what you think of the show. We might even feature your voicemail in a future episode. That Number again is 87258.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Thanks for listening.

[Mattress Firm Ad]

This message comes from NPR sponsor Shopify, the global commerce platform that helps you sell and show up exactly the way you want to customize your online store to your style. Sign up for a $1 per month trial [e-mail] NPR support for NPR and the following message come from GiveWell. Over 100,000 donors have used GiveWell to donate more than $1 billion. Find out more or make a [e-mail] select how you heard about GiveWell by choosing podcast and enter NPR at checkout.

[NPR Sponsor Message]

This message comes from Jackson Seek clarity in retirement [e-mail] Jackson is short for Jackson Financial, Inc. Jackson National Life Insurance Co. Lansing, Michigan and Jackson National Life Insurance Co. Of New York, Purchase, New York.