Hoopskirts

On Nov 26, 1863, a Thanksgiving dinner was served at St. James Hall in London. The guests seem to have been diplomats, both Federal and British. The program was as follows: 1.Reading of President Lincoln's Proclamation of Thanksgiving 2. Prayer 3. Singing a song written to the melody of "Auld Lang Syne" We meet, the Sons of Freedom's Sires Unchanged, where'er we roam, While gather round their household fires The happy bands of home; And while across the far blue wave, Their prayers go up to God, We pledge the faith our fathers gave, -- The land by Freedman trod! The heroes of our Native Land Their sacred trust still hold, The freedom from a mighty band Wrenched by the men of old. That lesson to the broad earth given We pledge beyond the sea,...

This being November, I thought it would be appropriate to look at America's antebellum Thanksgiving. The stores around us today are rushing headlong into Christmas merchandising, and have been since before Halloween. How appropriate it feels to slow down and look at Thanksgiving in greater detail. An appropriate place to start would be some reasons for Thanksgiving. Many contemporary Americans seem to have lost touch with the concept of Thanksgiving as a day of giving thanks to God, filling the day instead with food and football. Food and football are both wonderful, but not as the primary motive for the day. In 1832, The Reverend William T. Harrison, minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Newark, NJ, published a sermon he gave on the reasons American citizens should be thankful on Thanksgiving. I liked the perspective he gave on how Americans saw themselves and their country. 1. The land itself that belongs to the United States . At the time, America comprised 2...