Open-Note Timed Research Article Writing

     The holiday of Thanksgiving is a widely known and famous event especially in the United States but similar holidays are celebrated elsewhere also. The meaning of Thanksgiving is always the same in that you reflect on what you have been given and you give thanks for these things. But the origins of the holiday is where the stories differ from person to person. The most popular misconception is that of the pilgrims and the thought that the holiday was originated with those people. The majority of people, especially little children, have false information about the true origins of Thanksgiving and do not know the role of Abraham Lincoln and Sarah Joseph Hale in the start of the holiday.
     While pilgrims did travel to North American, on the Mayflower from Plymouth, England, the start of Thanksgiving was not cause of these people. Pilgrims only came the United States to search for a new ways to make money and to setup a religious theocracy. And the area they had secured for their colony was only available because the every last one of the native people, previously living there, had been wiped out by a plague. A year after the pilgrims settled a colony in 1620 in present day Massachusetts they experienced a large and successful harvest that resulted with a three-day celebration of feasting. This event is the reason for much misconceptions and thoughts that this is why Thanksgiving began especially since New Englanders called this celebration of pilgrims Thanksgiving in the 1830s. But successful harvests have been celebrated for centuries by Native Americans and European societies. What makes the event of the pilgrims celebrating their harvest so unique or special or something worth making a holiday after it? The true person to take responsibility for Thanksgiving is Sarah Joseph Hale.
     Sarah Joseph Hale was a successful writer and editor and she was even responible for writing the well known poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. She also helped found the American Ladies Magazine in which she promoted women’s issues. She played her part in the role of making Thanksgiving official by writing and publishing “Northwood: A Tale of New England” in 1827. In her book she included a whole chapter about the holiday of Thanksgiving. Sarah regularly celebrated Thanksgiving and eventually lobbied state and federal officials to create an official Thanksgiving holiday. She wanted it to be always the last thursday of November and the point of it was to give thanks to Civil War victories, especially in Vicksburg and Gettysburg, in an effort to unify the North and South and reduce tension between the two. This idea had been around since the early republic and how military victories should be celebrated. But with help from Abraham Lincoln and William Seward, Sarah Joseph Hale’s Thanksgiving began a reality. President Lincoln made Thanksgiving official in 1863. And more than 30 states and U.S. territories were celebrating Thanksgiving and the United States was becoming more of a country as a whole.

     The misconception that the pilgrims were responsible for the beginning of Thanksgiving isn't completely true because it is greatly responsible for by Sarah Joseph Hale, Abraham Lincoln and William Seward.

History.com: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Sources:

NYTs: Everything You Learned About Thanksgiving is Wrong

Histoy.com: Abraham Lincoln and the "Mother of Thanksgiving"

Smithsonian: The Invisible Way That Marketers Set the Menu for Your Thanksgiving Feast