Every now and then I get to do a deep dive into American traditions, and I almost always come out with my favorite kind of knowledge: the useless kind that make me seem smart to people who don’t know me enough to know better.
Turkeys, native to the Americas, were first domesticated in Central America. They were brought up to North America by European explorers and ultimately shipped back to England. Unfortunately for the traditional narrative, this happened after the first Thanksgiving was celebrated between the Native Americans of the Wampanoag Tribe and Pilgrims in 1621. Instead, they likely dined on local domestic foul such as ducks and geese, as well as nuts, shellfish and venison. Only 53 of the original 102 Mayflower settlers survived to see that day, the others had perished from starvation or disease. Roughly 90 Natives, led by Massasoit, participated. Were it not for the Wampanoag, The Pilgrims almost certainly would have perished that first winter at Plymouth Rock.
Thanksgiving wasn’t even a national holiday until Abraham Lincoln declared it as such in 1863. He did this thanks in part to the lobbying of influential writer, women’s rights activist and editor Sarah Joseph Hale (author of the Mary Had a Little Lamb nursery rhyme and a driving force behind the founding of Vassar College). She was editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, which in the 1840s first associated roast turkeys with Thanksgiving. This was made easier because turkeys had already become ingrained in English celebratory meals, and because they’re massive birds that can serve feed many people.
This Thanksgiving, maybe give thanks for Sarah Joseph Hale. Without her, we who knows if we would be celebrating Thanksgiving at all or what we would consider the centerpiece of the meal.