Why do Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November?

1. Why do Americans celebrate Thanksgiving Day on the fourth Thursday of November? Abraham Lincoln declared it a holiday in his famous Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863. But who put Lincoln up to it?

2. 1788-1879 The answer is Sarah Josepha Hale, arguably the most successful midlife woman in American history. http://www.womenwriters.net/domesticgoddess/hale1.html

3. Sarah Hale was a prolific author, over her lifetime, she produced nearly fifty volumes of work. *She urged equal education for girls. *One of the first to start day nurseries for working women. *One of the first to suggest public playgrounds, *The first editor of the first woman's magazine in America. Which brings us back to Thanksgiving…

4. As a magazine editor, Hale advocated a national celebration of Thanksgiving as early as 1827: "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.“

5. Hale saw Thanksgiving as a means for preventing the insanity of civil war in America. This is why, as hostilities heated up between North and South, she bombarded both national and state officials with requests for the national holiday.

6. By the time Lincoln issued his now famous Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1863, Sarah Hale had penned literally thousands of these letters in her own hand: "If every state would 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?"

7. Where are the Native Peoples and the Pilgrims? As we can see, Thanksgiving originally had no connection to Massachusetts, Native Peoples, Pilgrims or even turkeys. Question to ponder: How did Thanksgiving evolve from a “holiday” created in an effort to keep the a Civil War between the states in 1863, evolve into a commemoration (celebration) of the Pilgrims’ first “Thanksgiving” in 1621? (We will revisit this question later in the quarter) Ferris, J.L.G. The First Thanksgiving 1621. Painted 1932.

8. Choose Group Roles ♦Reporter-Person who presents summary of group work ♦ Recorder-Person who records discussion ♦ Time Keeper-Person who keeps track of time ♦ Harmonizer-Person who keeps the group on task

9. Summary Activity • Each group received a different handout • Read the handout and summarize on your piece of butcher paper. Some discussion suggestions: • What are the main ideas • What are the perspectives ( view) concerning Thanksgiving • According to your handout, what is the historical context of Thanksgiving • Does your article address any “myths” surrounding Thanksgiving • Feel free to illustrate!!!

10. Quotes about the About of History “History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”E. L. DOCTOROW (1931-), historian “Each age tries to form its own conception of the past. Each age writes the history of the past anew with reference to the conditions uppermost in its own time."Frederick Jackson Turner (1861-1932), American Historian