The Mother of Thanksgiving

Throughline

NPR

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On today's show, a Thanksgiving story you might never have heard -- not about Pilgrims or Native people, but instead about a woman who, as civil war loomed, pushed for a shared national holiday she thought would keep the United States together. This episode originally ran in 2024.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from Bayer.
0:02.3	Science is a rigorous process that requires questions, testing, transparency, and results that can be proven.
0:09.5	This approach is integral to every breakthrough Bayer brings forward.
0:13.0	Innovations that save lives and feed the world.
0:15.8	Science delivers.com.
0:17.9	Hey, it's runned.
0:19.4	We know that as we head into the holiday season,
0:21.7	there are always a lot of think pieces about what it all means,
0:25.2	especially Thanksgiving.
0:26.9	And when we started looking into it,
0:29.2	we found a story we had actually never heard before.
0:32.6	We first ran this story last year,
0:34.5	and we think it's very timely now.
0:37.0	We hope you enjoy this throughline
0:38.6	Thanksgiving tale.
1:01.7	Our good ancestors were wise, even in their mirth.
1:11.3	We have a standing proof of this in the season they chose for the celebration of our annual festival, the Thanksgiving.
1:40.3	The funeral-faced month of November is thus made to wear a a story of Thanksgiving. Let me tell you a story of Thanksgiving, the traditional one.
1:46.3	In 1621, when the English colonists, now known as the Pilgrims, were newcomers to this continent,
1:54.0	there was a major feast between the Wampanogs and the English of Plymouth.
2:00.8	That's a very real event. The event that's now called the Fulminus, between the Wampanogs and the English of Plymouth.
2:02.8	That's a very real event.
	...

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