What Writer Campaigned To Make Thanksgiving A National Holiday?
Sarah Josepha Buell Hale was an American writer who campaigned to make Thanksgiving a national holiday in the United States of America.
This is the reason why today Hale is also known as the mother of the Thanksgiving holiday in the country.
In 1863, she wrote a letter to the United States’ president Abraham Lincoln discussing to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday in the country.
Lincoln took her letter seriously and declared it on 3rd October 1863 via a proclamation.
That year (1863) on the last Thursday of November, people in the US celebrated the festival as a national holiday.
[Did You Know? Sarah Josepha Buell Hale Is The Author of The Famous Nursery Rhyme Mary Had A Little Lamb. The Rhyme Is Still Popular All Over The World]
Did Sarah Hale Easily Achieve Success In Making Thanksgiving A National Holiday?
No, Sarah Joseph Hale had to struggle for 17 long years to make that happen.
In 1846, she tried to do that for the first time ever. Hale wrote many letters to many American presidents; such as Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan. All of them rejected her proposal.
Finally, in 1863, President Lincoln took her proposal seriously.
At that time, Lincoln was finding some ways to unify the country via some good events because the Civil War already caused severe damage to the country.
Finally, on October 3rd, 1863, via a presidential proclamation, he declared the last Thursday of November next as a national holiday for Thanksgiving.
[Did You Know? Before Thanksgiving, Washington’s Birthday and Independence Day Were The Only Two Prime Occasions That The People of The United States Celebrated As National Holidays]
A Brief Introduction To Sarah Josepha Buell Hale
Hale was an activist, author, and editor born on October 24, 1788, in Newport, New Hampshire.
Her father was Captain Gordon Buell, a revolutionary war veteran and her mother was Martha Whittlesay Buell.
She never went to school, although a self-educated woman.
She married David Hale in 1813. However, he died 10 years after their marriage. David and Sarah had 5 children in total.
On April 30, 1879, she died at age 90 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
