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FRT - The Mother of All Thanksgivings · Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast

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History is strange, it's alien, and it won't.
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Give us what we would. Like to have and welcome back as
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we kick off this Thanksgiving edition of the Florida
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Roundtable. Nice to have you with us on the
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Florida News Network. I'm Bill Mick along with
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historian Dave Bowman. Dave more than a historian.
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Dave and I started working together in radio back in 2006
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and he has since branched out and is in podcasting was
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something called Dave does history.org.
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If you like history and the things associated there with,
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you're going to like what Dave has to do and you'll find it
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again at davedoeshistory.org. Dave Bowman, thanks for joining
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me this weekend on the Round Table.
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Happy Thanksgiving, my friend. It's my I, I don't know.
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It's my second favorite holiday of the year, so Happy
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Thanksgiving to you as well. Yeah, it it, it's, Well, is it
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the Turkey or the football? I, I think it's the entirety of
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the experience. I, I, there's just something
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about Thanksgiving. It's, it's very similar to my
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favorite holiday, which is Independence Day, but it does
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have that added element of, of the Turkey, which I, I can't
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explain this, but Turkey is probably my favorite thing to
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eat. I eat Turkey almost every day,
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right? So, but there's something
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different about Thanksgiving Turkey.
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I'm not sure what it is, but there's something different
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about. Well, that's true.
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And, and, and maybe it's all the TLC that goes into the meal
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preparation. And thank you to all the folks.
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I, I was going to say ladies, but I know guys do a lot of
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Thanksgiving prep anymore too. That in, in my life, it's always
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been my mom, a wife or whatever that, that has done all that
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prep and all that hard work. And in 20 minutes it's devoured
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and, and left in shambles on the middle of the kitchen table.
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So it is and and then we're running for football, so.
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There you have it. I am verboten.
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I don't go anywhere near the kitchen.
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So I don't, I don't have anything to do with that.
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And I never have because I was in the Navy and of course I
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wasn't to cook. So I didn't go in the kitchen
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for that. And then I would, then I got
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married, then I got divorced. And so I got invited to
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everybody's houses for Thanksgiving and then I got
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remarried. And no, I just, I just stay out
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of the way. Which is a great place to be in
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Thanksgiving prep. That's true.
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Nonetheless, let's go. For those who may not be
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familiar. You've been with us on the Round
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Table before, and I appreciate these looks at history.
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I think we did an Independence Day look at history, our last,
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your last visit with us. What got you into the history
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thing? I know you've always been a fan,
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right? But you branched out and you're
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doing more than you've ever done.
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For me, history became tactile, which is a strange word.
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I, I realized. But when I started as a young
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man, my father, you know, we, I grew up a poor child, Bill.
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And so my father would, would combine vacations with work and
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we would travel all the way around the country for things
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that he would want to do. And because we didn't have a lot
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of money, we would go see the local historical sites.
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And that something in that just sort of blossomed in me.
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And years later, when I was on my own, I would drive back and
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forth across the country for work many times.
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And I made a habit of getting off the interstates and I would
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find things that I wanted to learn about and I could sit here
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and regale you with tales about places I went that in the last
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few years I've gone out of my way to go back to to take Ben to
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because I want him to connect with that history.
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And it's, it's that feeling of putting your hands on history.
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And when I took Ben to Washington, DC 2 years ago, my
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favorite photo that entire trip, it's him with his hands on the
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the the granite and carved Gettysburg Address.
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Because that's, that's what it's all about, touching history.
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And that's what I like to do. Well, and you do that quite well
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with us. Dave is with me weekly on my
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local show with something we call Dave does history and and
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it's it it's a compelling hour every week on the show and we
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appreciate it Dave, I've got under a minute here but let's
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talk about this mother of all Thanksgiving set it up for us
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we're. Going to talk this week.
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You know, when you think about Thanksgiving, there's the
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traditional how Thanksgiving got started story, which is of
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course, the pilgrims came over the Mets Guanto and they had,
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they had corn, maize and Turkey and all that stuff on the 1st
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Thanksgiving. But that really wasn't
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Thanksgiving in the traditional sense that, that we think of it
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as the way it got started. Ours was a widow who really
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wanted to be an influencer, and she became the influencer that
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became the mother of Thanksgiving as we know it.
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And we'll dig into it in this edition of the Florida
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Roundtable. Historian Dave Bowman brings us
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the story right here on the Florida News Network.
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Stay with us. Welcome back to the Florida
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Round Table. I'm Bill Mick.
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Historian Dave Bowman is with us as we take a look at the origins
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of Thanksgiving. Hope you're having a wonderful
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Thanksgiving weekend. And I appreciate Dave taking the
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time to join us and provide us some entertainment and maybe a
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little education along the way about how all of this came
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together for us. Dave, you're talking about Sarah
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Josephia Hale as the mother of our Thanksgiving as we know it.
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Let's get into the story. It's kind of a mouthful, isn't
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it? Josephine is one of those
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strange names you don't hear much in history.
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Sarah Josephia Hale was born on October 24th, 1788 in Newport,
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NH. Now that to me is that's one of
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those those dates in history, 1788.
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I mean, think about what's going on in the world in 1788.
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You've got the build up to the French Revolution.
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You have America is in the middle of the debates over
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ratification of the Constitution.
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And this is the world in into which she's born.
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And she's she's going to grow up knowing all of those things.
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Her family very much valued education, but in those days,
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formal education was very rare for women.
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They weren't. It wasn't that it was banned,
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but it just wasn't done. It just wasn't crooked.
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As a young woman, though, she became a very self educated
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reader and a writer. Again, highly unusual for that
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era, but not, you know, I mean, it's not like it's illegal or
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anything. She developed a deep love for
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language, and in 1813, she married David Hale.
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But he died less than a decade later, and she was left to
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support five young children on her own.
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And so she decided, well, if I sell books, then I can make
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money to support my children. She began by writing poems.
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One of the books of poetry that she wrote was called the Genius
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of Oblivion, which to me just sounds like something a poet
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would write. I mean, that's the genius of
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Oblivion. OK, I haven't read it, but I've
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read about it and it's, to me, it's pretty typical of the
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poetry of that era. She published that in 1823,
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quickly followed by a second book called Northwood, which was
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a novel painting a picture of New England life and culture.
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Her most famous work, however, was a poem that became something
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that we all know She wrote the rhyme Mary Had a little Lamb.
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Oh wow. Now this brought her widespread
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recognition because of course it is a cherished piece of American
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culture. And even that, though, was not
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her her penultimate accomplishment.
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Her true influence blossomed when she became the editor of a
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book known as Goodies Ladies Book in 1837.
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This was a magazine, Think. Wasn't there a magazine called
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Redbook or something like that years ago?
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There was, yes. Similar to that advice and
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guidance for women, the magazine had a massive readership,
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reaching up to 150,000 subscribers every week.
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Now that's it. It's at its, I'm sorry, at its
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peak. Not every week, though.
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The platform, through that platform, she had the ability to
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become not only a discusser of women's fashion and literature,
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but she was able to become a vocal advocate for women's
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education, equal rights and establishing American
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traditions. We're still a very young
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country. We don't have most of the
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traditions that we had at that point.
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We're still carried over from the old country.
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But it was time to really start doing that.
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And as that editor, she was able to shape public opinion,
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particularly amongst women, and she used her voice to push for
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causes that she believed would unify and strengthen the nation,
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setting the stage for what she would push for later, which
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would become Thanksgiving. It's interesting to me to note
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that, you know, we have this, we always have this argument.
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And in recent days, we've had it even more about the role of
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women in America. And I go back to one of my
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favorite lines in the in the film, which comes from was it my
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Big fat Greek Wedding, where the mom where the mom is talking to
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the daughter about how the man is the head of the household,
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but the woman is the neck and she decides where the head goes.
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I like it in in the same way Sarah is able to influence
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America. You know, the men, men haven't
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changed through history. We listen to our women.
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We listen to them because, well, there's a lot of reasons why,
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but, you know, there you go. And so Sarah was able to
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influence those things. And along the way, she really
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wanted to start a campaign to set or establish, if you will,
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Thanksgiving as a national holiday.
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Now, again, most of our discussion about Thanksgiving
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revolves around the Pilgrims. It revolves around the what did
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Rush Limbaugh used to call it, the true story of Thanksgiving
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and those sorts of things. Some of it revolves around
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Franklin Roosevelt's attempts to manipulate Thanksgiving, but we
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never really talk about why or how Thanksgiving became an
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actual holiday here in the United States in the early 19th
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century, Thanksgiving was a tradition.
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It was New Englanders primarily who are celebrating it as a
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religious regional holiday focusing on giving thanks to God
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for the harvest. It was a harvest holiday.
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It was not a national observance.
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In fact, across the United States at that point,
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Thanksgiving traditions were widely varied or non existent.
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Kind of like football outside of Dallas and Green Bay, when while
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many New England states proclaimed days of Thanksgiving
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or Chicago for that man, southern states either ignored
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it or had different customs all together.
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There was no unified celebration.
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And that struck Sarah Josephina Hale as a lost opportunity to
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bring the country together. If I if I don't emphasize that
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enough, I need to re emphasize it.
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Her goal is to unite the country.
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Her goal is to bring us together, which is a laudable
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thing that we don't talk about enough.
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She envisioned Thanksgiving as more than just a simple harvest
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festival. To her, it was a day to reflect
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on family and express gratitude not just for our own individual
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blessings, but for the national blessings in the nation as a
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whole. She believed that Thanksgiving
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could unite Americans, could help us come together through
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shared values of gratitude, charity and remembrance.
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So when you think Thanksgiving as a national holiday, A2 day,
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you know, pre Black Friday sale, remember that the original goal
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was gratitude, charity and remembrance.
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And her at that time in the 1830s when she was starting to
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push for this sectional divisions over issues like
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slavery were really threatening national cohesion.
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She was of the opinion that an annual Thanksgiving could be a
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powerful reminder of what Americans held in common and her
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vision was a unifying non denominational holiday that
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crossed both religious and political lines.
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Now you say non denominational, crossing religious lines, still
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faith-based, still about thanks and being grateful for what we
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had. Faith is a huge part of early
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America. They would often refer to it in
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terms like Providence and God Almighty, but there was a real
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attempt in this. You know, I don't have time to
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go into all this. Well, there's a reason why the
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Constitutional Convention left religious items out of the
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Constitution. They understood that we were,
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you know, I hate the word, but we were diverse.
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We had we had a melting pot, as it were, of religious beliefs.
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And as long as those religious beliefs as as Washington said
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that to the Newberry congregation, as long as those
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beliefs didn't conflict with the with the goals and missions of
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the United States, well then we welcome them all.
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And Sarah Hale understood this as well.
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And she used her position as the editor of Goodies Lady Book,
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that platform to begin to push for her Thanksgiving campaign.
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Over years, she published numerous articles, editorials,
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letters advocating for Thanksgiving.
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They emphasize Thanksgiving as a family centered day, an occasion
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for families to gather around the dining table, reinforced
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bonds in a world that was becoming increasingly divided.
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Does this sound familiar to anybody?
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It does. Yeah, it was.
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Sadly, yes. Her articles painted scenes of
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families celebrating together, encouraging her readers to
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imagine Thanksgiving as a fixture on the American
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calendar. And her constant campaign began
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to catch on. It sparked enthusiasm.
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It helped to spread the idea to readers across the nation, women
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particularly, shaping public sentiment and laying the
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groundwork for the holiday we now know today.
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For her, this wasn't a vision about a single day of just, you
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know, feasting and gorging ourselves, but about instilling
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a national sense of unity and gratitude and one that could
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kind of knit the fabric of American Society together in a
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time of profound discord. We were leading up to the Civil
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War. There was a secession crisis,
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the nullification crisis, and, of course, Supreme Court
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decisions that were making people mad.
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And people were arguing in the streets about what they thought
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we should do. And she wanted to bring us back
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together to reunite us in the way that, I guess, was
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envisioned in the beginning. But this vision would not come
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easily. She began to write letters.
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She began to crusade, and by the 1940s was tirelessly lobbying
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for Thanksgiving to become an official nationwide observance.
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Now, keep in mind, in that era, we didn't have a government that
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said, you know, this day is a holiday.
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That day is a holiday. We didn't, we didn't have that.
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But she wanted the government, the United States, to declare
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this day is Thanksgiving. They didn't get that for
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Christmas. We had it for the 4th of July.
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But she wanted more than that. She wanted what was in essence a
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second Independence Day celebration, a second day of
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celebration, of end, of union, togetherness, and those things
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that were transcendent. She believed that the holiday
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could heal those those divisions, religious and
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political, and create a shared American tradition.
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But this was not going to come easy, Bill.
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This was not We take it for granted today that, you know,
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Thanksgiving just always has been, you know, since the.
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Pilgrim was on down. But it doesn't come that easy.
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It doesn't come that simply how do you get a holiday in the
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United States? Nowadays you got to lobby
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Congress. Yeah, that's where you got to
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start. In those days, you started with
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the president. And so Sarah Hale started
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writing letters to presidents, And of course, all those women
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write. Readers of her magazine started
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writing letters to presidents. And many of these presidents
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were less than receptive, oddly enough.
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Was it just because it was from a woman, or was it something
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else? In any case, a string of
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presidents would reject the idea.
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Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and
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James Buchanan all said, you know, we got more important
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things to do. And we'll see where it takes us
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and which president said yes when we continue on the Round
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Table. Back on a Thanksgiving weekend
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edition of the Florida Round Table.
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Historian Dave Bowman with us as we take a look at the mother of
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all Thanksgivings, Sarah Josephia Hale, and prominent
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lady, self educated writer, editor, magazine involved in the
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publishing. If she's not the publisher, she
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might as well be because she's driving the agenda to make
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Thanksgiving a holiday. You were telling us as we paused
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for a moment that multiple presidents had rejected her.
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But it didn't stop her, it sounds like.
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You know, there's something about women, isn't there?
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Perseverance as the word will choose.
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Not sure. Not sure I want to go down that
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road. But, yeah, she was not going to
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give up on this. And there's something very
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American about that, isn't there, though?
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She wants this holiday to be an American holiday.
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She wants it to be very uniting. And so in a time of great
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political division, you know, one of my favorite things is
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when people tell me, you know, we've never been more divided,
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which is your way of telling me that you don't know anything
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about American history. Here is Sarah Hale editing this
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magazine. I remember women didn't have the
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right to vote. They didn't.
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Things were limited for them, opportunities.
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But here she is not pushing for what we would think of as
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feminism. She's pushing for nationalism.
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She's pushing for this idea that we are a united country and that
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family is the basic value and Thanksgiving to our deity is is
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as well. She begins this letter writing
19:38
campaign. She has all these people writing
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letters with her. And for some reason in 1849,
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Zachary Taylor, who wasn't president for very long, or
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actually was. No, he wasn't.
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I said no. Millard Fillmore, whose
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presidency is well noted for major accomplishments, also said
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no, which might actually be the biggest accomplishment of his.
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Of his presidency, Franklin Pierce, who most people don't
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even know was a president, said no.
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And James Buchanan, I'll give, I'll give Buchanan a bit of a
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break because he was president during the secession actual
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crisis leading up to the Civil War when Lincoln was elected.
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And so he was, if you've read the history of that era, he was
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pretty busy. And, you know, maybe, maybe he
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didn't have time, who knows? But each president declines
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viewings Thanksgiving as a local or state matter rather than a
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federal concern. So that becomes the excuse.
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Well, that's a state's rats issue, which was a huge deal in
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that era. They saw the ideas politically
20:45
risky since the uniform, since the observance would not be
20:49
celebrated uniformly. But Miss Hale was undeterred,
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and with each rejection, her resolve only grew strong.
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To further her 'cause she leveraged her powerful editorial
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position at the Goodies Lady Book through influential
21:06
editorials. She advocated Thanksgiving is a
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holiday that would reinforce the family values again, promote the
21:13
sense of national unity. She managed to use word
21:16
paintings to show vivid images of Thanksgiving as a time for
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families to gather in gratitude, share a hearty meal, a wholesome
21:25
conversation. Don't know if we could do that
21:29
today, but two out of three? I'll keep you in the major
21:31
leagues, right? There you go.
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Exactly. Her articles framed Thanksgiving
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as American tradition, as an American tradition, which was a
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custom that could become as emblematic of the United States
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as Independence Day. And I think to me that's that's
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probably one of the most important points.
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She's not advocating for a second Independence Day, but she
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is advocating for a holiday that has the same approach and
21:59
emotion as Independence Day. By appealing directly to her
22:04
readers, values, women, she would shape public sentiment.
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And of course, those women being the next, would start turning
22:12
the male heads. And she would urge people to
22:15
view Thanksgiving not as a regional quirk, but is an
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essential piece of our American identity.
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Her editorials frequently touching on themes of unity,
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family and gratitude, elements she believed would strengthen
22:29
the social fabric of the nation. Can you imagine, honey?
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Read this as she hands these editorials to the as the readers
22:40
hand them to the husbands. She encouraged state governors
22:43
to declare Thanksgivings in their jurisdiction.
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Well, if you're going to say it's it's states rats issue,
22:48
then we'll start, we'll start leaning on governors.
22:52
Many of them did bring her vision of a unified celebration
22:55
closer to reality. But she also knew that for
23:00
Thanksgiving to become truly national, it needed at least the
23:05
endorsement of the federal government, especially from the
23:08
president himself. Didn't necessarily need a law,
23:12
didn't necessarily need, you know, an act of Congress, but we
23:16
needed the government and the president to at least say, yeah,
23:21
we think this is a good idea and we encourage it.
23:25
Now, you might think to yourself, watching this from the
23:28
outside, you know, 4 presidents have said no, 4 presidents have
23:33
said no, and some governors have said no.
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You know, keep it to yourself. You could.
23:38
See where she might be discouraged but yet not the case
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huh it? It might seem that way.
23:43
It might seem like a futile effort to an outside observer,
23:47
but she was persistent and her steady push towards a national
23:51
tradition kept going. Her appeals would capture the
23:55
hearts of the readers and set the stage for a final historic
23:59
push that would bring Thanksgiving into the national
24:01
spotlight. Her commitment, fueled by her
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desire to unite Americans, will eventually reach a point where
24:10
somebody in the government is going to start listening.
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And her championship of this holiday will actually come to
24:19
fruition. It's remarkable.
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It's it's remarkable, Bill, because not only is it about
24:26
this unity, not only is about this idea, not only is about
24:28
family, not only is about these things, but it's also the almost
24:35
the ultimate grass root political campaign.
24:40
This is a woman who has no constituency in the voter
24:45
scheme, but in reality she has, you know, 150,000 women are
24:53
reading this magazine or at least buying this magazine.
24:55
Who knows how many read it on top of that sharing it with
25:00
their husbands. Some of these husbands of course
25:02
have political influence. Some of them, you know, vote.
25:07
And by by this time in our history, a divided nation is
25:12
beginning to look at something, saying, OK, what is it that can
25:17
and does bring us together? By 1863, the brutality of the
25:23
battlefields is going to start attracting attention.
25:27
By the time we get to the point where Lincoln is now president,
25:33
the newspapers are not filled with editorials about giving
25:37
thanks. They're not.
25:39
We're not talking about, you know, we do.
25:40
We got to do these things. We're talking instead about how
25:45
terrible this conflict has become by the mid 18, by by mid
25:51
1863, there are almost almost no cities, towns, certainly no
25:57
counties in the Union where they haven't seen loss, where there
26:01
are now widows and orphans, where injured men with lost
26:07
limbs or missing parts of their their face or whatever are
26:12
starting to to come back home. And the papers are just filled
26:16
with story after story after story about how poorly this war
26:22
is going, about how badly things are happening.
26:26
But the summer of 1863, see some remarkable things happen.
26:32
First, there's granted Vicksburg, who manages to
26:36
capture Vicksburg? And in the words of Abraham
26:39
Lincoln, the Mississippi River now rolls unvexed to the sea
26:44
again. We can, we can finally begin to
26:47
move products and troops and whatever we need up and down the
26:50
Mississippi River, which is a huge deal.
26:52
In fact, it's a huge part of Scott's original Anaconda plant.
26:57
But of course, in July of 1863, we have the the defining moment,
27:03
if you will, of the American Civil War at Gettysburg, where
27:07
the Union Army finally manages to halt the Confederate invasion
27:12
of the North. And in that victory, we get not
27:16
just that defining moment, we get Lincoln at Gettysburg.
27:23
Later in November. We get Lincoln's Gettysburg
27:27
Address, one of the shortest, most poignant, most profound
27:32
speeches in the history of our country.
27:36
And it gets Sarah Hale writing letters once again.
27:40
She's going to write to the president of the United States,
27:43
and she's going to point out that we have a lot to be
27:47
thankful for now. We have even more perhaps now to
27:51
be thankful for than we ever have before.
27:53
And she writes a heartfelt letter to the president,
27:55
imploring him, begging him, pushing him to declare
28:01
Thanksgiving a national holiday. She wants him to consider all
28:06
the elements that have gone into this war, this division and how
28:10
a Thanksgiving holiday can begin to reunite us, re re establish
28:15
those social, emotional, religious bounds, bonds that
28:20
that tie us together. And in that particular letter
28:24
lands on Lincoln's desk. And Lincoln, who is well known
28:27
for reading everything that comes across his desk.
28:30
It's hard to believe that he never heard of Goodies Ladies
28:32
Journal. I'm sure he had.
28:35
He finally reads that letter and it begins to move Lincoln.
28:42
And we'll see where it takes us next on the Florida Round table,
28:48
taking a look at the real origin of our Thanksgiving holiday with
28:52
historian Dave Bowman. This weekend on the Florida
28:55
Round table. Hoping you're having a wonderful
28:57
Thanksgiving weekend. And I appreciate Dave taking the
28:59
time to be with us here. Dave, we are nearing the end of
29:03
the Civil War and this mother of Thanksgiving, who is Sarah
29:08
Joseph Hale, gets a letter to Abraham Lincoln.
29:12
And apparently she is a talented writer.
29:15
Or Lincoln, a man in need of seeing.
29:17
The words that she said tell us how it went.
29:20
You know, Speaking of having a wonderful Thanksgiving, my my
29:24
aunt makes pecan pie, which I just love, and they just stacked
29:27
a piece of that in front of me. You're so awful.
29:30
I may be distracted for a moment.
29:32
In October of 1863, Sarah Hale's letter reaches Abraham Lincoln
29:38
again. Lincoln, known for being a
29:40
voracious reader, He reads the letter.
29:43
He's in the middle of trying to get ready for the Gettysburg
29:48
dedication to that cemetery, which will result in his speech.
29:51
So he's in kind of a reflective mood.
29:53
Anyway, she calls for this Thanksgiving proclamation and
30:00
after 4 presidents have said no because it's the state's rats
30:04
issue, Lincoln is beginning to realize that the nation has to
30:09
be brought together again in many ways, as we talked about a
30:13
second Independence Day. And so he sets pen to paper and
30:20
as he so often does with without the the consultation of
30:24
Congress, although he does talk to his cabinet about it, he
30:28
issues a proclamation. Now, this does not establish
30:32
necessarily a legal holiday, but he calls for the last Thursday
30:37
in November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise.
30:42
Keeping in mind that what the Union has just gone through in
30:45
1863, he asks the American people to fervently implore the
30:49
imposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation
30:54
and to restore it. It's more than just a holiday
30:59
declaration. It's an invitation to Americans,
31:03
both Union and Confederates, to look beyond the conflict and to
31:09
find peace, solace, solace, sorry, in a shared day of
31:18
gratitude. His proclamation will begin to
31:23
mark Thanksgiving as a national observance.
31:27
And it's sort of embeds it into the American consciousness as a
31:31
day of unity, a day of reflection, a day of gratitude,
31:35
things that I think we would do well to to have this year.
31:41
The timing of the holiday would bring a sense of purpose and
31:44
solemnity. It reinforces the importance of
31:47
family and faith even as Americans are weathering one of
31:50
the darkest periods in their history.
31:53
And through her appeal to Lincoln, Hale achieves her
31:56
lifelong goal. And Thanksgiving is transformed
32:00
from a regional New England custom into an enduring national
32:06
tradition. Her letter, Lincoln's response
32:10
had become legendary. They illustrate the impact of
32:13
one woman's persistence. Isn't there a proverb somewhere
32:17
about that? You know, in the in the New
32:20
Testament did. Lincoln write her back, Dave.
32:22
You know, I'm not clear on that. It's possible.
32:24
It's probable that he did knowing him, but I I haven't
32:29
found the letter if it is his. OK, now, now, now.
32:33
You know what I'm going to be doing after this, right?
32:36
Eating a can. Of pie trying to.
32:38
Find that letter. Get another piece of pie.
32:40
You're going to be busy. That'll be good.
32:43
It it it also indicates the president's willingness to
32:45
embrace a symbol of hope in a time of national crisis.
32:49
In establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday, Hail and
32:53
Lincoln provided the country with an invaluable tradition
32:56
that would endure right down to today through generations,
33:00
symbolizing gratitude, the power of unity and times of division,
33:05
and moreover, becoming woven into the fabric of American
33:10
life. It blossoms from a modest
33:13
regional celebration to an established yearly tradition.
33:18
And Lincoln's proclamation in 1863 marks the beginning of
33:21
Thanksgiving as a national holiday.
33:24
It was Hail's decades of advocacy, her tireless
33:28
campaigns. It all ensured that this would
33:32
take hold in the hearts and minds of Americans.
33:36
And after Lincoln is gone, subsequent presence will
33:40
continue the annual tradition, cementing it as an enduring part
33:44
of our national calendar. And in 1941, Congress will pass
33:49
a resolution that formalizes the 4th Thursday of November as
33:54
Thanksgiving Day, that recognizes the holiday that Hale
33:58
had fought so long to establish is now in our national
34:04
governmental calendar. That 4th Thursday.
34:07
Of course, it wasn't that easy getting that 4th Thursdays
34:11
nailed down, but you know, that's, that might be a story
34:14
for another day. And today, Thanksgiving, as we
34:19
celebrate, we should remember Sarah Hale and the efforts that
34:24
she took to convince 5 presidents before one would
34:28
finally listen to her and give us Thanksgiving.
34:33
From there to today when we continue on the Florida Round
34:37
table here on the Florida News Network.
34:40
Back on the Florida Round table, Bill Mick with historian Dave
34:43
Bowman. As Dave shared with us the story
34:46
of Sarah Josephia Hale, the mother of Thanksgiving as we
34:52
know it, finally gets it to Abraham Lincoln.
34:55
He says, you know what, this is a good idea.
34:56
It comes around the time of Gettysburg and maybe just the
35:00
right place at the right time, Dave.
35:03
And how long does it take for this to be embraced as a broader
35:08
than regional event? Well, by the turn of the
35:11
century, of course, Norman Rockwell is painting it, it, it,
35:16
you know, it's, it's, it becomes as she visioned envisioned it as
35:20
a national holiday. It becomes this, this family
35:26
gathering. It becomes all of these things
35:28
that she had hoped it would, except somewhere along the line
35:34
we seem to have lost the the Americana element of it, haven't
35:39
we? And we don't really think of
35:41
Thanksgiving in terms of uniting America.
35:45
And yet that was always its intent.
35:48
Sure. Her impact on American life, of
35:50
course, is as enduring as the the holiday that she helped
35:53
create. There are monuments to her.
35:57
She was a, you know, a publisher, a pioneering and
36:00
woman in publishing field. She promoted women's education,
36:04
advocated for schools to offer other than academic instructions
36:08
for girls at a time when such ideas were, much like today,
36:11
controversial, and so forth and so on.
36:14
Her story is a testament to the power of conviction.
36:18
Her efforts remind us that one voice, if resolute, can move
36:21
mountains or even create a national holiday.
36:24
And today, as we gather around our Thanksgiving tables, her
36:28
dream lives on. Each shared meal, each
36:30
expression of thanks and each moment of togetherness.
36:35
I wish that we could figure out a way to add into that American
36:41
unity the fact that we're Americans.
36:43
The fact that, you know, going all the way back to the Pilgrims
36:46
to today, we may have our struggles, we may have our
36:49
problems, but at the end of the day, the spirit of Independence
36:54
Day is deeply embedded in Thanksgiving.
36:57
This is an American holiday to celebrate American unity and
37:01
American idealism and American accomplishments.
37:05
And it was all brought about by a woman who couldn't vote and
37:10
yet managed to convince the president and the government of
37:13
the United States that this needed to be a national holiday.
37:18
And you know, a lot of that carried through even to my
37:20
youth, my teenage years, my young adulthood, where we would
37:23
travel to various family members homes after doing our
37:27
Thanksgiving celebration, spend an evening with them.
37:30
And the unity thing was there and it was it was very much a
37:33
part of it. And I hope we still do that
37:35
today. And and if we get the
37:37
opportunity, we should take advantage of it just for the
37:41
what it does for all of us. I completely agree.
37:45
Plus it comes with pecan pie, so.
37:49
Well, there's nothing wrong. I kind of go for the pumpkin
37:50
myself, but I'm all right with with where you are on it, Dave,
37:54
most certainly you've. Not had my hands pecan pie.
37:59
Well, I know you're coming to Florida.
38:01
When you get the opportunity next year, you may have to have
38:03
her send us some so we can share that.
38:07
All right, I'll do that. All right, we'll make that
38:09
happen. Dave Bowman, appreciate the job
38:11
you do, what Dave does, history, it's always a great thing.
38:14
And bringing it to us on this Thanksgiving weekend, giving us
38:17
a little break from the news and the grind of what we've done to
38:20
maybe sit back and appreciate the things that we have and
38:25
maybe need to return to. Very well done.
38:28
You want to catch more of Dave Bowman's take on history?
38:31
It's Dave does history.org. You can catch up with me and all
38:34
of our Florida Round Table podcast at billmick.com.
38:38
They're right there on the top of the page when you go there.
38:40
And we'll see you next week here on the Florida News Network with
38:44
another edition of the Florida Round Table.
38:47
Again, happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
38:49
We'll see you next weekend. Check out more stories from
38:53
history at Dave Does History org.