We celebrate Mother's Day because of two extraordinary American women. One, a mother, and one who

never had children of her own, but changed the course of American history forever. I'm Jenna,

and this is Smarter News. This is one of the most fascinating stories that I learned actually as part of Smarter News.

You have inspired me so much to look into American history and to question some of the things that sort of just wash over us on a regular basis.

You know, Mother's Day, what kind of history can Mother's Day have?

It's pretty obvious, right?

We're going to celebrate the moms.

Like, this is a very clear holiday. But the backstory to this holiday is one that has sat

with me for so many years now that I've researched it and each year uncover something a little

something different about it. And what I love most about this story regarding Mother's Day is that it actually

involves trying to soothe divided families and political divisions and celebrating the special

role of a mother in that. So let me take you back to the 1850s, late 1850s. There was a woman by the name Ann Jarvis.

And one of the things she did is she taught health and sanitation to these communities in

Appalachia, so poor communities. And that was one of the roles that she took. She also, though,

quickly changed that role and it evolved

somewhat because suddenly we find ourselves in the middle of the Civil War. And especially in

that part of the country, you could have families fighting families, literally. Cousins,

fighting cousins, extended families, fighting families because of those that associated with the North or the

Union and those that associated with the South or the Confederacy. So we find ourselves in this

time of, I mean, incredible political division. What do you do to try to smooth that over? And one of

the things that Ann Jarvis did is she tried to promote these mother

friendship days as a way of bringing families back together that were divided amongst the

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