Thanksgiving: Historical Development & Progressive Ideology

1. Andrew Wiget University of Albuquerque 2014 THANKSGIVING: Holidays and the Progressive Development of a Public Ideology

2. ABRAHAM LINCOLN CREATES A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies...In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity...needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth. By the President: Abraham Lincoln

3. NEW ENGLAND THANKSGIVING • Initially, days of national thanksgiving • were irregularly proclaimed by individual • presidents for specific occasions. • After this practice ended in 1815, individual states proclaimed days of thanksgiving at different times, but usually at the end of November or beginning of December. • an unselfconscious part of contemporary life, simple and unpretentious, focusing on the immediate basics of New England life: church, household, food and domestic leisure. It was a time to review the current year, reminisce about one’s personal past, and recall family members and friends who were no longer among the guests by reason of distance or death. But most importantly, it carried no suggestion of commemoration. The holiday was not perceived as an evocation of olden times or invested with sentimental significance beyond its gathering of clans and family reminiscences

4. SO…How and Why did the Historicization of Thanksgiving come about? I had always simply assumed the celebration rooted in early colonial documents, specifically in Bradford’s Of Plimoth Plantation and in Mourt’s Relation , which records: "Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deer, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others. “ • But • The national holiday wasn’t established until 1863 • The full version of Mourt’s Relation (1622) only rediscovered in 1822, not widely circulated • Bradford’s Plimoth Plantation manuscript was only rediscovered and republished in 1849 • In brief, there was not enough time for these early documents to shape a public sense of a historicized Thanksgiving by the time Lincoln proclaimed the national holiday

5. FEAST SEASONAL OR HARVEST HISTORICIZED COMMEMORATION PASSOVER Late Spring Lambs Death of Egypt’s Resurrection Easter (first full moon Barley Firstborn. Night of Jesus afterequinox) of Liberation. SHAVUOT 50th (jubilee) day Wheat Giving of the Law Giving Spirit (Weeks, or later. 7x7 days to Moses on Sinai. to Apostles Pentecost) SUKKOT Begin. Autumn Grapes Wandering in the (Tents, or End of Sept, beg. End of Harvest Desert Tabernacles) October Saturnalia/ Winter Sol Invictus Solstice Christmas Birth of Jesus Thanksgiving Autumn Grain Harvest Family Reminiscences Arrival of Pilgrims Colonization of New England

6. THE THANKSGIVING TABLE (1869) The Problem with Indians at Uncle Sam’s Table • …was that they were still fighting back… ferociously • 1866 Fetterman Fight • 1867 Wagon Box and Hay Field Fights • 1869 Summit Springs and Beecher Island Fights • But by 1890, they would be subjugated and confined, not only to reservations but to • memory, nostalgia and entertainment

7. …To say nothing of immigrants • 1865-1890----10 million immigrants settled permanently in America, again mainly from northwestern Europe • 1890-1914----15 million immigrants journeyed to the United States, many of whom were Austro-Hungarian, Turkish, Lithuanian, Russian, Jewish, Greek, Italian, Romanian. THIS IS A MILLION A YEAR—30,000 A DAY, EVERY DAY OF EVERY YEAR FOR 15 YEARS. • In 1880 the Jewish population of the United States was about 250,000. Over the next forty years more than two million eastern European Jews - about one-third of the entire Jewish population there - emigrated to the United States. NEW YORK in the 19th century became the home of an increasing number of European immigrants. In 1890 over 640,000 people living in the city had been born in Europe. This was 42 per cent of the population . By 1910 the number of people living in the city that had been born in Europe had increased to 1,944,000. The major groups now came from Russia (484,000),Italy (341,000), Germany (278,000), Austria-Hungary (267,000) and Ireland (253,000). CHICAGO also attracted a large number of immigrants from Europe. In 1890 an estimated 41% of the city's population had been born outside the United States

8. “Old Americans” and their Thanksgiving anxieties • Social Unrest including Rioting caused by: • Working Conditions and Wages • Living Conditions • Agitation from socialists and experienced anarchists • Fraternal and Political organizations • Haymarket Square Riot of 1886

9. By 1900 THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY was a focal point for America’s contradictions Plenty vs. Poverty Power vs. Powerlessness Possession vs. Dispossession Establishment vs. Marginalization Progressivism began in the 1890s as a social movement among elites and grew into a political movement. Early progressives rejected Social Darwinism, believing that society's problems--poverty, violence, greed, racism, class warfare--were best addressed by providing good education, a safe environment, an efficient workplace, and real participation in political processes. Pubic holidays were one focus of progressive ideology. Thanksgiving was special in this regard. Thanksgiving With Columbia An “American” Holiday

10. THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN.. INDIANS POPULAR AFTER 1900 because • Wild West Shows and Dime novels • Scouting Movement • Indian Hobbyist Movement • Emerging Public Consciousness of Value of Nature and Wilderness • 1911 publication of The Soul of the Indian, by Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa) a Santee Sioux ALL ELEMENTS NECESSARY FOR MODERN HOLIDAY NOW IN PLACE

11. 1889 Jane G. Austen, Standish of Standish. Bestselling novel, promotes “First Thanksgiving” scene. THE FIRST THANKSGIVING, WITH PORTRAITS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. W. L. Taylor,Ladies Home Journal, 1897. Note the loose-lipped caricatured Indians WHAT THEMES HERE? Jennie Brownscombe, THE FIRST THANKSGIVING 1914 College Thanksgiving Pageant Kansas, 1910

12. PROGRESSIVE SCHOOLS AS ENGINES OF ASSIMILATION Albany, NY, school 1934.

13. THANKSGIVING AND WORLD WAR II

14. 1950s AMERICA: LAND OF PLENTY

15. PUBLIC SCHOOLS

16. Today, Immigration and Red Power… WILL THIS AFFECT THANKSGIVING?

17. I’d like to end on an entirely positive note, BUT…

18. Cultural Processes can never be entirely controlled… although maybe that is not always a bad thing.