The idyllic tale of the first Thanksgiving meal shared by pilgrims and Indians may not be entirely historically accurate, suggested University of North Carolina Wilmington public history graduate student and head interpreter for the Burgwin-Wright House, Joshua Cole. He said the myth and meaning behind Thanksgiving still make it the truest, most American holiday.
“When we think of the first Thanksgiving, we think of a concrete event that took place with pilgrims and Indians,” Cole said. “That didn’t happen. That is a constructed event.”
Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony and Wampanoag Indians did share two meals in 1621, Cole noted, to celebrate a successful harvest. But a thanksgiving day, or a Christian tradition of offering prayers of gratitude for a big event or success, happened a few years later, without the Indians. The two events became rolled into one narrative more than 150 years later, when a new national holiday was enacted to unite a war-torn country.
Observing a country divided on the eve of the Civil War, prominent political figure and editor of the influential Godey’s Lady’s Book, Sarah Josepha Hale, petitioned a succession of American presidents to institute an annual, nationally observed Thanksgiving Day to honor the American family and underscore American morality. Her requests found support from President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War. Lincoln established the first annual Thanksgiving Day as an antidote for a fighting, fractured country.
“This is a time of national trauma. We’re going through the Civil War. It’s a devastating, devastating conflict. Thanksgiving Day was a way to bring people together, to talk about family values, and mourn,” Cole said.
The narrative of early thanksgiving celebrations evolved following the war to better serve the new national holiday’s purpose of unification. Cole said the story of pilgrims and Indians worked well because it predated slavery and the division of the country.
“It’s an event that was before civil strife,” Cole said. “This is a narrative that works equally in the north and the south. It’s non-confrontational. It’s a way to come together and create our identity together.”
From established football rivalries to the presidential pardon of the turkey, the flexibility of the holiday allows traditions to transform over time, which is a characteristic Cole said makes the holiday distinctly American.
“Thanksgiving is reinvented constantly. … As it changes and evolves, that’s okay. That’s what it’s supposed to do. The whole idea, fundamentally, is that we’re giving thanks because we’re Americans. It’s this gray area that lets everyone do what they want, at the same time, on the same day. In that way, it’s the perfect American holiday,” Cole said.
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