APPIEMATTOX:

Each time I serve pumpkin pie, I get to share a little known slice of American history. Although meant to unify people, the 19th-century campaign to make Thanksgiving a permanent holiday was seen by prominent Southerners as a culture war. They considered it a Northern holiday intended to force New England values on the rest of the country. To them, pumpkin pie, a Yankee food, was a deviously sweet symbol of anti-slavery sentiment. [...]

A few years later, according to historian Melanie Kirkpatrick, Governor Wise of Virginia answered letters from Hale by telling her he wanted nothing to do with "this theatrical national claptrap of Thanksgiving, which has aided other causes in setting thousands of pulpits to preaching 'Christian politics.'" Wise's statement directly referred to anti-slavery politics.

Tweet   @brothersjudd