A holiday to unite the divided

A century and a half ago, this country was more divided than it has ever been before or since. Within a few years, division would escalate into the most murderous war in our history. Everybody saw the Civil War coming. Some prayed that it could be prevented.

One who did was a very determined lady who happened to have a bully pulpit as the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, the most widely read magazine in the country. Sarah Josepha Hale hoped that Thanksgiving -- which had been a regional New England holiday before the 1840s -- could bring the country together and spare Americans the horror that was looming.

Having grown up in New Hampshire, Hale had glowing memories of the Thanksgiving feasts of her childhood. Her first novel, published in 1827, contained an ecstatic evocation of a Thanksgiving where the holiday table really groaned with food. Dominating it all was a lordly roast turkey, “sending forth the rich odor of its savory stuffing.”

To Hale, Thanksgiving was not just a time for giving thanks but also a time for people to gather in harmony and enjoyment. It embodied what she felt life should be.

That said, cooking the meal was a major commitment in Hale’s day. You complain about how much work Thanksgiving is? When Hale roasted a turkey, she couldn’t just shove it in the oven, because most homes didn’t have ovens. She placed the bird on the hearth next to the fire that warmed her house and set a tin structure behind it to concentrate the heat somewhat.

While basting her turkey, she had to shift it around periodically so that every part got cooked. On the plus side, hearth roasting took less time than you might think, because turkeys were much smaller than they are today.

Hale’s vision of Thanksgiving as a holiday of national unity didn’t catch on right away. The South, in particular, looked askance at the idea because New Englanders hadn’t started celebrating Christmas until well into the 19th century. To Southerners, Thanksgiving looked suspiciously like a cranky Puritan substitute for Christmas.

But Hale was nothing if not persistent. Beginning in 1846, she wrote two editorials a year in Godey’s about the need for a national Thanksgiving. She besieged public figures with letters trying to get them on board. She managed to cram something about Thanksgiving in every book she wrote, even putting a chapter about it in her book on etiquette.

Gradually, her efforts bore fruit. In 1859, every state officially celebrated a Thanksgiving holiday except Delaware, Missouri and recently admitted Oregon. Hale allowed herself to hope that the Civil War might be averted.

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Patching up wounds

EVEN after the fighting began, Hale didn’t give up. Throughout the war she kept after President Lincoln to declare a national day of thanksgiving, with an aim to making it a permanent observance.

In 1863, Lincoln was persuaded. He picked the last Thursday in November, the same day that George Washington had chosen when he declared a national day of thanksgiving during the Revolutionary War. (In 1941, Congress amended the date slightly to the fourth Thursday.)

When the Civil War ended, the nation was bruised and exhausted. Practically everybody had lost a friend or relative in battle. There had been a chance that the Confederate leadership would refuse to surrender, bogging the country down in decades of guerrilla warfare. Fortunately, General Lee had told his men that he was going to lay down his arms forever, and peace, however imperfect, returned.

To many around the country, the important thing now was, as Lincoln had said in his 1865 inaugural address, “to bind up the nation’s wounds.” There were many grass-roots efforts at healing; already during the war, a fraternal organization named the Knights of Pythias had been formed in the spirit of Lincoln’s words “with malice toward none, with charity for all.”

In this longing for reconciliation, Thanksgiving came into its own. It was promoted throughout the country as a symbolic ritual of healing and unity. Sarah Josepha Hale would doubtless say this gathering around the table is still as important in our fractured time.

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charles.perry@latimes.com