HAVE A PATRIOTIC THANKSGIVING!

Every American knows the origin of American Thanksgiving, but many don't know how it evolved.

Thanksgiving became a annual custom throughout New Elgland in the 17th century, and in 1777 the Continental Congress declared the first national American Thanksgiving following the Patriot victory at Saratoga.

In 1789, President George Washington became the first president to proclaim a Thanksgiving holiday when, at the request of Congress, he proclaimed November 26, a Thursday, as a day of national thanksgiving for the U.S. Constitution.

However, it was not until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving to officially fall on the last Thursday of November, that the modern holiday was celebrated nationally.

I love the antique postcards from that era.  I thought that they were expressing the patriotism of the times, but of course, they have a political bent!  Read on.

    

Thomas Nast (the one who illustrated the likeness of our Santa Claus!) drew a political cartoon of Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner.

The cartoon also has the specific aim of endorsing ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was intended to guarantee the federal voting rights could not be denied on the basis of race.  The 15th Amendment had been passed by Congress in February 1869 and was being debated in state legislatures when the featured cartoon was published. 

I am sure that these post cards must date from around that time.

For more information, google:  Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner!