In 1827, the noted magazine editor and prolific writer Sarah Josepha Hale launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday.
For 36 years, she published numerous editorials and sent scores of letters to governors, senators, presidents and other politicians.
Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation calling on all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.”
So who was this Sarah Josepha Hale also known as the “Mother of Thanksgiving?
Sarah Josepha Buell was born in New Hampshire in 1788. She and her siblings were schooled at home. In her autobiography. written in 1837, she stated that
”I owe my early predilection for literary pursuits to the teaching and example of my mother. She had enjoyed uncommon advantages of education for a female of her times – possessed a mind clear as rock-water, and a most happy talent of communicating knowledge.”
A voracious reader of whatever books were available, Sarah noticed that ”of all the books I saw, few were written by Americans, and none by women and she was inspired, at a very early age, to “promote the reputation of my own sex, and do something for my own country.”
The Ladies Wreath (Boston: Marsh, Capen & Lyon, 1837) was one of a number of “gift books” of uplifting poetry for women that Sarah edited throughout her long career.
Sarah’s brother, Horatio Gates Buell, was schooled at home with her. Unlike Sarah, however, Horatio could go to college.
He shared his Dartmouth textbooks with his sister, Sarah noting that “he seemed very unwilling that I should be deprived of all his collegiate advantages.”
This self-educated young woman began teaching school at age 18. She also began, in her spare time, to write poetry.
After six years of independent living, she married David Hale, a lawyer with strong literary interests of his own and an appreciation for his bride’s intelligence.
This idyllic life ended after only 9 years. In 1822, David Hale died of a stroke, leaving Sarah with 5 children; the oldest was 7 and the youngest was born two weeks after David’s death. Sarah was 34.
David Hale did not leave a large estate. Sarah now had 5 children – 3 sons and 2 daughters – to raise on her own, to educate and prepare for life. How was she to do this?
Sarah considered deeply and decided that the “very few employments in which females can engage with any hope of profit, and my own constitution and pursuits, made literature appear my best resource. I prepared a small volume of Poems, mostly written before my husband’s death; these were published, by the aid of the Free Masons, of which order he was a distinguished member.”
Sarah Josepha Hale’s second book of poetry, Poems for Our Children, published in 1830, contained one of the most famous poems in the English language – “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
The poem became even more famous when it was republished in Juvenile Miscellany (an interesting note, the editor of Juvenile Miscellany was Lydia Maria Child, who would later write a famous Thanksgiving poem that began “Over the river and through the woods, to grandfather’s house we go…”)
Even before Sarah had published her famous poem, however, she had written a novel, Northwood, published in Boston in 1827.
Northwood, which was descriptive of New England character and manners, first introduced to the American public what would become one of Sarah’s lifelong obsessions: the promotion of the holiday of Thanksgiving.
In Northwood, she gave the first detailed description to be found anywhere of this New England tradition:
“The provision is always sufficient for a multitude, every farmer in the country being, at this season of the year, plentifully supplied, and every one proud of displaying his abundance and prosperity. The roasted turkey took precedence on this occasion, being placed at the head of the table; and well did it become its lordly station, sending forth the rich odor of its savory stuffing, and finely covered with the froth of the basting. At the foot of the board, a sirloin of beef, flanked on either side by a leg of pork and loin of mutton, seemed placed as a bastion to defend innumerable bowls of gravy and plates of vegetables disposed in that quarter. A goose and pair of ducklings occupied side stations on the table; the middle being graced, as it always is on such occasions, by that rich burgomaster of the provisions, called a chicken pie. This pie, which is wholly formed of the choicest parts of fowls, enriched and seasoned with a profusion of butter and pepper, and covered with an excellent puff paste, is, like the celebrated pumpkin pie, an indispensable part of a good and true Yankee Thanksgiving”.
Several years later, in 1835, Sarah Josepha published a book of short stories entitled Traits of American Life. In one of those stories, “The Thanksgiving of the Heart,” she wrote:
”Our good ancestors were wise, even in their mirth. We have a 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… There is a deep moral influence in these periodical seasons of rejoicing, in which a whole community participate. They bring out, and together, as it were, the best sympathies of our nature. The rich contemplate the enjoyments of the poor with complacency, and the poor regard the entertainments of the rich without envy, because all are privileged to be happy in their own way.”
In these two books are the beginnings of what would grow to be one of Sarah Josepha Hale’s lifelong crusades.
The platform from which she would wage her holy war for a national Day of Thanksgiving was that of editor of Godey‟s Lady‟s Book.
In 1828, Sarah took on the editorship of the Ladies‟ Magazine of Boston, the first magazine edited for women by a woman.
In 1837, the Ladies‟ Magazine was united with the Lady‟s Book, a magazine published in Philadelphia by Louis Godey.
Sarah became literary editor of the magazine that would become known as Godey‟s Lady‟s Book. Under her guidance, Godey‟s would become the most widely-read magazine of the 19th century and Sarah one of America’s most influential voices.
Sarah was, by no means a feminist. “God,” she said “has given to man authority, to woman he gave influence.”
A firm believer in separate spheres of activity for men and women, she was opposed to women’s suffrage and did not believe that most of the masculine professions should be opened to women.
She did, however, strongly believe that the status of women should be improved and that girls should be well educated.
As she expressed in an 1856 editorial “The companion of man should be able thoroughly to sympathize with him and her intellect should be as well developed as his. We do not believe in the mental inequality of the sexes, we believe that the man and the woman have each a work to do, for which they are specially qualified, and in which they are called to excel. Though the work is not the same, it is equally noble, and demands an equal exercise of capacity.”
Sarah used her editorial position as a platform to gently but persistently advocate for measures that she believed would improve family life in America.
Having experienced firsthand the difficulties faced by a widow raising a family, she fought for property rights for married women and improvements in women’s wages.
Her approach was conservative and diplomatic – Sarah realized that the support of masculine America was vital to her success. Her 1853 book, Woman‟s Record; or, sketches of all distinguished women from “the beginning” till A.D. 1850… , is inscribed
”to the men of America; who show, in their laws and customs, respecting women, ideas more just and feelings more noble than were ever evinced by men of any other nation: may “Woman‟s Record” meet the approval of the sons of our great republic; the world will then know the daughters are worthy of honour.”
As editor, Sarah chose the features to be found in each monthly issue of Godey‟s Lady‟s Book – stories, fashions (and the famous hand-colored Godey‟s fashion plates), recipes and household hints. She also continued her independent writing and editing career.
Sarah also continued her independent writing and editing career.
Sarah also wrote cookbooks, such as The Good Housekeeper.
The first year of her editorship, 1837, Sarah wrote the first of her Thanksgiving editorials. Praising the holiday for its domestic and moral influence, she suggested that it
“might, without inconvenience, be observed on the same day of November, say the last Thursday in the month, throughout all New England; and also in our sister states, who have engrafted it upon their social system. It would then have a national character, which would, eventually, induce all the states to join in the commemoration of “Ingathering,” which it celebrates. It is a festival which will never become obsolete, for it cherishes the best affections of the heart – the social and domestic ties. It calls together the dispersed members of the family circle, and brings plenty, joy and gladness to the dwellings of the poor and lowly.”
Sarah did not introduce the topic again until 1842, when she used the example of Thanksgiving to favorably compare New England to “Old” England:
“At this season every family, almost, in our land has the comforts of life, and nearly all have the hope and prospect of living thus comfortably through the coming seasons. In Old England it is not so. Thousands, aye, millions of her people are suffering daily from the want of all things!‟
Sarah’s crusade for a national Thanksgiving really began in 1847, when she noted that
“The Governor of New Hampshire has appointed Thursday, November 25th, as the day of annual thanksgiving in that state. We hope every governor in the twenty-nine states will appoint the same day — 25th of November — as the day of thanksgiving! Then the whole land would rejoice at once.”
This was followed by editorials in 1848 (there were two that year!) and 1849. After a one-year gap in 1850, Sarah resumed her Thanksgiving editorials, continuing without interruption for more than 20 years.
As Sarah noted in one of her 1848 editorials
“the appointment of the [Thanksgiving] day rests with the governors of each state; and hitherto, though the day of the week was always Thursday, that of the months had been varied. But the last Thursday of last November [1847] was kept as Thanksgiving Day in twenty-four of the twenty-nine states — all that kept such a feast at all. May the last Thursday of the next November witness this glad and glorious festival, this feast of the ingathering of harvest,‟ extended over our whole land, from the St. Johns to the Rio Grande, from Plymouth Rock to the Sunset Sea.”
Sarah’s crusade was, therefore, two-fold. She wanted every governor of every state or territory to proclaim a Thanksgiving Day and she wanted that day to be uniform throughout America. Then, as she proclaimed in 1851, “There would then be two great American national festivals, Independence Day, on the Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving Day, on the last Thursday in November.” She explained her choice of the last Thursday in November in this way
“The last Thursday in November has these advantages — harvests of all kinds are gathered in — summer travelers have returned to their homes — the diseases that, during summer and early autumn, often afflict some portions of our country, have ceased, and all are prepared to enjoy a day of Thanksgiving.”
As years passed, Sarah’s editorials emphasized ever more strongly the unifying role that Thanksgiving could play within an increasingly divided nation. In 1859, she stated,
“We are already spread and mingled over the Union. Each year, by bringing us oftener together, releases us from the estrangement and coolness consequent on distance and political alienations; each year multiplies our ties of relationship and friendship. How can we hate our Mississippi brother-in-law? and who is a better fellow than our wife’s uncle from St. Louis? If Maine itself be a great way off, and almost nowhere, on the contrary, a dozen splendid fellows hail from Kennebec County, and your wife is a down-Easter.”
That year, 32 states and territories, plus the District of Columbia, celebrated Thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November.
In 1860, she wrote
“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. We have sought to reawaken and increase this sympathy, believing that the fine filaments of the affections are stronger than laws to keep the Union of our States sacred in the hearts of our people… We believe our Thanksgiving Day, if fixed and perpetuated, will be a great and sanctifying promoter of this national spirit.”
Sarah’s hopes were, of course, not to be fulfilled. In 1861, the bombardment of Fort Sumter opened the Civil War.
Sarah reported that, in 1861,
“this National Feast Day was celebrated in twenty-four States and three Territories; all these, excepting the States of Massachusetts and Maine, held the Festival on the same day the last Thursday in November. “ The “missing” states were, of course, those of the Confederacy.
Sarah did not give up the fight. Instead, she tried a different strategy. As she suggested in her 1863 editorial
“Would it not be of great advantage, socially, nationally, religiously, to have the DAY of our American Thanksgiving positively settled? Putting aside the sectional feelings and local incidents that might be urged by any single State or isolated Territory that desired to choose its own time, would it not be more noble, more truly American, to become nationally in unity when we offer to God our tribute of joy and gratitude for the blessings of the year? Taking this view of the case, would it not be better that the proclamation which appoints Thursday the 26th of November (1863) as the day of Thanksgiving for the people of the United States of America should, in the first instance, emanate from the President of the Republic to be applied by the Governors of each and every State, in acquiescence with the chief executive adviser?”
On September 28, 1863, Sarah Josepha Hale had written to President Abraham Lincoln. The letter is preserved in the Papers of Abraham Lincoln at the Library of Congress. In it she wrote
”As the President of the United States has the power of appointments for the District of Columbia and the Territories; also for the Army and Navy and all American citizens abroad who claim protection from the U. S. Flag — could he not, with right as well as duty, issue his proclamation for a Day of National Thanksgiving for all the above classes of persons? And would it not be fitting and patriotic for him to appeal to the Governors of all the States, inviting and commending these to unite in issuing proclamations for the last Thursday in November as the Day of Thanksgiving for the people of each State? Thus the great Union Festival of America would be established.”
Sarah Josepha’s petition brought the result she was seeking. On October 3, 1863, Lincoln issued a proclamation that urged Americans to observe the last Thursday in November as a day of Thanksgiving.
Sarah was not content to rest on her laurels for long. In 1871, she launched a further crusade – to have the national Thanksgiving Day proclaimed not by the President but by an act of Congress.
“It is eminently fit that this National Holiday shall rest upon the same legal basis as its companions, the Twenty-second of February and the Fourth of July. As things now stand, our Thanksgiving is exposed to the chances of the time. Unless the President or the Governor of the State in office happens to see fit, no day is appointed for its observance. Is not this a state of things which calls for instant remedy? Should not our festival be assured to us by law? We hope to see, before many months have elapsed, perhaps before our next Thanksgiving, the passage of an act by Congress appointing the last Thursday in November as a perpetual holiday, wherein the whole nation may unite in praise to Almighty God for his bounty and love, in rejoicing over the blessings of the year, in the union of families, and in acts of charity and kindness to the poor.”
By this time, however, Sarah’s energy and her influence were beginning to wane. She was 83 years old. Godey’s Lady’s Book was being overtaken by newer publications.
Nevertheless, Sarah continued to write Thanksgiving editorials until 1875.
Sarah Josepha Hale died in 1879, at age 91.
Seventy years after the launch of Sarah’s second Crusade – to have the national Thanksgiving Day proclaimed not by the President but by an act of Congress – the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed a bill establishing that Thanksgiving would occur annually on the fourth Thursday of November.
On November 26, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the bill into law.
So in closing, I would like to tell you the things I am most thankful for:
First and foremost, I am thankful that my wife, who has stage 4 cancer, is here to celebrate Thanksgiving with me.
Second, I am thankful for my family and friends.
Third, I am thankful to live in the greatest country in the world where everyone has opportunity, freedom, and the right to pursue their goals.
Others?
I’m thankful for those that serve this great nation especially our service men and women, law enforcement, and firefighters.
Finally, I am thankful to KRMS for continuing to give me the opportunity broadcast my thoughts on a weekly basis to all of you, my listeners, the best radio audience in the nation!
So there is my list gang. How about you?