The Mother of Thanksgiving : Throughline

Portrait of Sarah Josepha Hale painted by James Reid Lambdin, circa 1831.

James Reid Lambdin/Wikimedia Commons

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James Reid Lambdin/Wikimedia Commons

Portrait of Sarah Josepha Hale painted by James Reid Lambdin, circa 1831.

James Reid Lambdin/Wikimedia Commons

The Thanksgiving story most of us hear is about friendship and unity. And that’s what Sarah Josepha Hale had on her mind when she sat down to write a letter to President Lincoln in 1863, deep into the Civil War. Hale had already spent years campaigning for a national day of thanksgiving, using her platform as editor of one the country’s most widely-read magazines and writing elected officials to argue that Americans urgently needed a national story. But she’d gotten nowhere – until now.

Five days after reading her letter, Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday. At the time, no one was talking about Pilgrims and Native Americans. But that too would change.

Today on the show: a Thanksgiving story you may not have heard, how it happened, and what it leaves out.

Guests:

Elizabeth James Perry, artist, educator and member of Aquinnah-Wamponoag Tribe of Gayhead, Martha’s Vineyard.

David Silverman, professor of history at George Washington University and author of This Land is Their Land, the Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving.

Melanie Kirkpatrick, author of Lady Editor and Thanksgiving: The Holiday at the Heart of the American Experience.