Who came up with the idea of turkey for Thanksgiving?

 

Who came up with the idea of turkey for Thanksgiving?

First, in 1621, The first Thanksgiving between pilgrims and Wampanoags happened in the fall of that year.

This feast was recorded in two books. One is entitled Of Plymouth Rock by William Bradford, and the other is called Mourt’s Relations by Edward Winslow.

Sarah Josepha Hale was the main driving force behind the idea of Thanksgiving we have today. She was a prolific writer in the 1850s and editor of Godey’s Lady’s Recipe magazine.

In 1854, she found a copy of William Bradford’s journal at London’s Fulham Palace Library, which mentioned hunting turkeys before the feast.

Hale wrote many Thanksgiving turkey recipes based on a passage from that journal and campaigned for Thanksgiving to be an official holiday.

She embarked on a 17-year-long campaign to establish the national holiday, wrote plenty of editorial pieces to make her case to politicians, and used her magazine to promote her idea.

She also had a lot of recipes and menus for Thanksgiving that included all the food we now associate with the holiday, such as roasted turkey and dressing, creamed onions, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie.

Then in 1863, Lincoln took notice of Sarah’s campaign to make Thanksgiving Day a national holiday and made it official that year.

This was the start of turkey dinners being on the table of every American family.