When thinking about Thanksgiving, many people think of food, cornucopias, a vacation from work, parades, autumn weather, or perhaps a service project. Few would readily think of the name Sarah Hale, but the United States may have lost Thanksgiving as a holiday altogether if it had not been for the tireless efforts of Sarah Josepha Buell Hale.
Sarah Hale – a Progressive Woman of Her Day
Born on October 24, 1788, Sarah Hale became a famous writer and magazine editor after her husband’s untimely death from pneumonia. After his death, she wore black dresses until she died at the age of 90. Despite raising five children, the youngest of whom was not yet born when her husband died, Sarah sought to advocate for women while encouraging:
Educational opportunities for girls and women
Opportunities for women to become doctors and teachers
Safer work environments for women
She mainly accomplished her goals with the use of pen and paper. Perhaps her most famous literary work, Mary Had a Little Lamb, became a well-known nursery rhyme that many children in America know today. She also wrote a novel and poetry while her children slept at night. She worked for two magazines, Ladies’ Magazine and later Godey’s Lady’s Book and published many famous authors, including:
Edgar Allan Poe
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Charles Dickens
Sarah Hale’s Letter-Writing Campaign to Make Thanksgiving a National Holiday
Sarah Hale was an avid writer and influential not only with the women of her day but with many of the lawmakers. Sarah noticed that many parts of the United States were no longer celebrating Thanksgiving, and she began writing thousands of letters in support of making Thanksgiving not only a state holiday but later a national holiday. She also asked for help from the readership of her magazines, and many of those women also responded with supportive letters.
Although many states began to recognize
Thanksgiving as a holiday, Sarah Hale decided to write the President of the United States with her idea to make Thanksgiving a national holiday on the fourth Thursday in November, which was the date chosen by President George Washington. Her idea was not met with immediate enthusiasm. Many presidents who received her letters disagreed with the idea, including:
Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
Franklin Pierce
James Buchanan
With each new president, Sarah would again write her plea to make Thanksgiving nationally official. Finally, in 1863, after writing letters for 38 years, President Abraham Lincoln agreed to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. The woman who firmly believed in upholding traditional values in America could finally enjoy celebrating Thanksgiving as a national holiday.
Teaching Children the Power of the Pen and Perseverance at Thanksgiving
Sarah Hale dedicated much of her life toward helping improve educational and working conditions for women despite being a busy widow with five young children. In a day before email and faxes, Sarah Hale showed the power of her pen and perseverance as she worked for 38 years to ensure that America’s day of thanks would not be forgotten after Abraham Lincoln agreed to make Thanksgiving a national holiday.
The children’s picture book Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving [2002, Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 0-689-84787-4] is a 38-page picture book that served as a source for this article and would make an excellent resource for teaching children about the history of how Thanksgiving became a national holiday in the United States.
