Thanksgiving in the South

In our recent exploration of Thanksgiving and Christmas on The Christmas Show of My Merry Christmas we attempted to answer the question: Is Thanksgiving a part of Christmas or is Christmas a part of Thanksgiving?

It may seem an odd question.

But the truth is that we can’t seem to separate the two. In our day of modern living we have always had Thanksgiving and Christmas connected – like peas and carrots.

Maybe we’re not supposed to separate them.

One of the great myths of Thanksgiving in American history is that many, including accredited historians, seem to think Thanksgiving was only celebrated in New England.

Thanksgiving was a common harvest tradition in the 19th century – even in the American South

Not only is that false but many in the south rise from their past to defend Thanksgiving as a tradition held long, long before the Civil War.

Here is a news editorial from Arkansas from 1857 talking about Thanksgiving:

This is no modern custom. The men of the Revolutionary era observed it with great perpetuity, and the Continental Congress never failed to proclaim a day of Thanksgiving, even in the gloomiest period of the struggle. There was at all times much for which to be thankful.

As far back as June, 1775, Congress appointed a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, and this was annually observed, under the acknowledgement that it was at all times a duty devoutly to acknowledge a superintending Providence, and to invoke His merciful interposition for the deliverance of the people of the Colonies from impending danger.

In October 1777 a day of Thanksgiving was appointed by congress, that the people might manifest their gratitude for the signal success ordained over their enemies, and to ask that the land might yield its increase; that schools and seminaries, so essential for elevating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety, ought be taken under the nurturing hand of Father of Mercies; and that the means of religion might be promoted. Copies of the recommendation for thanksgiving were sent to the several States and to General Washington and General Gates.

In November 1778, a day was set apart to return thanks for great and manifest mercies, for seasonable supplies for the army, for “disposing the heart of a powerful monarch to enter into alliance with us”, and for continuing that Union among the States so essential to their future strength and glory.  

In December 1779, a day was appointed to approach the throne of Almighty God with gratitude and praise for the wonders which his goodness had wrought in conducting our forefathers to this Western world; for his protection amidst difficulties and dangers; for raising us from deep distresses to be numbered among the nations of the earth; and for causing the earth to bring forth her fruits in abundance.

In 1780 and 1781 those outpourings of grateful hearts was repeated. In 1782 thanks were again given, and amongst the objects of gratitude mentioned was the acknowledgement of our independence by another European power. A cheerful obedience to the laws was inculcated, and the practice of true religion recommended as the great foundation of public prosperity and national happiness.

In December 1783 the obligation to give praise had been doubly enhanced, and thanks were offered up that it had pleased the Supreme Ruler to conduct the nation through the perils and vicissitudes of war; to give us undisputed possession of our liberty and independence and of the fruits of our land, and the free participation of the treasures of the sea, that He had prospered the labors of our husbandmen with plentiful harvests; and, above all, that He had been pleased to continue the light of the Gospel.

These proclamations were models of simple eloquence, and the example set and followed so closely through all the perils of the Revolution has been remembered and practiced in a becoming manner ever since by most of the States of the Union.

We tend to forget that the great grandchildren of the Revolutionary era fought the American Civil War.

From North to South, they had not forgotten and did not curse the founding fathers.

They were proud of them.

Likewise, to be connected in whatever way, to the Pilgrims of Plymouth was considered to be an honorable thing. Those generations were admired for what they accomplished.

The fight was between those who believed in states rights and those who thought on important questions, such as slavery, that we had to move together as one union.

There were not divisions on things such as faith, the Revolution, or the ideas of acknowledging God in Thanksgiving and Christ in Christmas.

There is a preponderance of evidence supporting Thanksgiving as an observance in the colonial south. They did NOT consider it a Yankee or purely Puritan ideal.

Perhaps Thanksgiving, like Christmas itself, had a different flavor in the American south, with different foods or different associations.

And maybe during the Civil War itself Thanksgiving was a battle cry against the Yankee north – though there is little evidence supporting that.

The South enjoyed Thanksgiving and Christmas. They loved Santa Claus. They were Christian, mostly, and acknowledged God.

The fact the north and the south were at war with each other did little to affect any of that on a fundamental level.

More than nine southern states had long declared Thanksgiving as an official state observance before the Civil War. It has been, as in the North, both a family and church tradition to gather during the harvest season to celebrate Thanksgiving, even without state declarations.

That a few radical discontents would write letters and occasionally opine again celebrating Thanksgiving in the South because it was a Yankee ideal or an imposition on the separation between Church and State is understandable. But that certainly was not the belief or the practice of the majority on either side.

Thanksgiving has been, and remains, a unifying force for good, every year, in America.

In 1861, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, twice declared days of Thanksgiving in the South – not because he was trying to out-do the Yankee north in the practice but because he was, by tradition, genuinely thankful.

He didn’t need or frankly want to include the north in his call for Thanksgiving. It was his business, not theirs.

When Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a federal observance in 1863 it wasn’t as an act of the war.

He wasn’t sticking it to the South by doing so.

People in the South didn’t look at it this way either. Nothing Lincoln declared throughout the war was honored or acknowledged by them.

They were at war. They declared Independence. They weren’t fighting Thanksgiving or Christmas. They continued to observe them, too.

Modern historians continue to twist and contort the Civil War in ways that suit modern agendas.

For those who love Thanksgiving and Christmas, we cannot do that.

Thanksgiving and Christmas, while religious first in nature, just do not divide us. Ever.

They never have and they never should.