"Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for - annually, not oftener - if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous twelve months instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians. Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man's side, consequently on the Lord's side; hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it and extend the usual annual compliments."


quoted from Mark Twain's Autobiography, ed. Albert Bigelow Paine (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1924).

 

 

Thanksgiving Day

Continue your family scrapbook.

Families view Thanksgiving through the lenses of cultures and backgrounds, economic status, local customs and family traditions.  For example, read Booker T. Washington's address (1898) at the Jubilee Thanksgiving services or examine information about a group with which your child is affiliated.

Celebrate or deplore the day in photographs and drawings, memoirs and letters, speeches and protests.

Information can be found at Thanksgiving on the Net and Thanksgiving in American Memory

 

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"Jewish market on the East Side, New York, N.Y. "[between 1890 and
1901] from Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920

 

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"American Sketches: A Negro Congregation in Washington."  Artist unknown.
Wood Engraving, Illustrated London News, November 18, 1876.
LC-USZ62-50584 Thanksgiving in American Memory

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Thanksgiving Week is Pershing Tribute Week by H. H. Green World War I poster, circa 1917 - 1918 lithograph poster
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Art Imagebase

 

 

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© Debbie Abilock August 22, 1999-2004