Thanksgiving: An Act of Northern Aggression感恩節：北方的文化入侵

阿里爾·克內貝爾

In the 19th century， pumpkin pie ignited a culture war.在19世紀，南瓜派引發了一場文化大戰。

The night before Thanksgiving， I routinely find myself bent over the hot oven， gently shaking the racks to check for the jiggle1 of just-set custard2 in my pumpkin pie. My family doesn’t even like pumpkin pie that much; they prefer a latticed caramel-apple pie or an autumnal cheesecake. Still， I bake the definitive Thanksgiving dessert every year.

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 Yankee3 food， was a deviously sweet symbol of anti-slavery sentiment.

The first account of American Thanksgiving is a letter written about the Pilgrim’s meal in 1621. The holiday evolved from a traditional harvest supper to a Puritan day of gratitude to God in colonial New England. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries， it further changed into a more secular celebration as the feasting portion overtook prayer. Northern governors often declared state-wide thanksgiving days. They were usually in late November or early December， but there was no unified national holiday.

Thanksgiving may have remained a regional， ad-hoc4 holiday if not for the efforts of Sarah Josepha Hale， a Northern writer who is often considered the “Godmother” of American Thanksgiving. In 1825， she initiated annual letter-writing campaigns to governors asking that they collectively declare the final Thursday of November a celebration of thanksgiving. As the editor of Godey’s Lady Book5， the most widely read magazine of the 19th century， she devoted pages of editorial space to pitching the national holiday as a unifying force in a young and diverse nation. Her 1827 novel， Northwood： A Tale of New England， gives the first detailed account of the Puritan Thanksgiving feast. She dedicates an entire chapter to the meal， in which she describes the “celebrated pumpkin pie” as “an indispensable part of a good and true Yankee Thanksgiving.”

Hale was not the only one to associate pumpkin pie with Thanksgiving and Northern tradition. Two pumpkin pie recipes appear in American Cookery， alongside other Thanksgiving favorites such as cranberry sauce and turkey. Considered the first “American” cookbook， American Cookery is known as an example of traditional New England fare6. Plus， pumpkin pie calls for Northern ingredients such as squash and molasses7. As more states—mainly in the North—recognized Thanksgiving， the pie became closely associated with Northern tradition.

Hale’s cheerful， relentless， and decades-long campaign spread Thanksgiving to 29 states by the early 1850s. But simultaneously， tension was growing over the strengthening abolitionist sentiment in the North. Soon enough， this ignited Hale’s goal of a nationwide （or even trans-national） Thanksgiving.

Southern leaders attacked Thanksgiving as the North’s attempt to impart Yankee values on the South. Virginians， especially， retaliated against Hale’s campaign. In 1856， the Richmond Whig published a scathing editorial on the District of Columbia’s “repugnant” declaration of thanksgiving， arguing that the holiday did nothing but rob men of a day’s wages and encourage drunkenness.

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 claptrap8 of Thanksgiving， which has aided other causes in setting thousands of pulpits9 to preaching ‘Christian politics.’” Wise’s statement directly referred to anti-slavery politics.

Despite Southern resistance， Hale and other Thanksgiving proponents continued to campaign. Eventually， in the midst of the Civil War， President Abraham Lincoln declared the first national Thanksgiving on the final Thursday in November of 1863. This was actually his second thanksgiving proclamation of that year; he also called for a thanksgiving feast after the Union10 victory at Gettysburg.

In his national Thanksgiving proclamation， however， Lincoln did not speak to the Union or the North alone. Instead， he addressed the whole of the bloodied nation. Lincoln’s proclamation specifically called out “all those who have become widows， orphans， mourners， or sufferers， in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged.” He implored “the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation.” If Lincoln intended to impose Thanksgiving’s Northern， anti-slavery connotations on the South， it did not appear in his speech， which drew on Hale’s unifying rhetoric.

Lincoln set an annual tradition of presidential Thanksgiving proclamations. But for decades， the country grappled11 over Thanksgiving as a marker of national identity. In Texas， Governor Oran Milo Roberts， a former Confederate army officer， refused to declare Thanksgiving a holiday as late as the 1880s. Some Southern governors would follow the annual presidential proclamations， but move the date of Thanksgiving to resist its message of national unity.

As politicians fought over the symbolism of the holiday， Americans made Thanksgiving celebrations their own. In 1941， Congress officially made Thanksgiving a national holiday. By this time， presidential declarations of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November were not only commonly accepted across the country， but expected. In fact， in 1939， President Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving one week earlier to allow for more holiday shopping time， and the public turned against him.

Pumpkin pie is an iconic Thanksgiving dish， and a symbol of the struggle to define American identity through the harvest holiday. While the traditional version was once decried12 as an invasion of Northern foodways13 on American culture， Southern adaptations such as mixing in bourbon， adding pecans， or swapping out squash for sweet potato now create an opportunity for cooks and diners across America to feel both connected and culturally independent.

在感恩節前夜，我像往年一樣彎著腰打開烤箱，輕輕地晃動烤架，看看南瓜派的剛成形的餡料稠度是不是剛好。我的家人并沒有很喜歡南瓜派，他們更喜歡格子焦糖蘋果派或秋季芝士蛋糕。不過，每年我還是會給他們預備這款經典的感恩節甜點。

每次分發南瓜派的時候，我都有機會可以跟家人分享一些鮮為人知的美國歷史。雖意在統一，然而對美國南方精英來說，這場發生在19世紀、為了將感恩節定為公立假期的運動實質上是一場文化戰爭。他們認為這是一個北方人的節日，意在傳播新英格蘭的價值觀。南瓜派這種北方佬食物，盡管美觀可口，卻充滿了反奴隸制情緒。

關于美國感恩節的首次記載出現于1621年一封記錄著清教徒餐的信里。傳統的豐收晚餐漸漸演變成新英格蘭殖民時期清教徒對上帝獻上感恩的節日。18至19世紀，因為餐宴的比重超過了禱告，感恩節慶祝開始轉向世俗化。北方州長們經常在11月底或12月初宣布州范圍內慶祝感恩節，但仍沒有定下統一的日期。

如果沒有北方作家薩拉·約瑟法·黑爾的努力，感恩節可能仍然是一個區域性的臨時假期，因此人們把她稱為美國感恩節的“教母”。1825年，她發起了每年給各州州長寫信的活動，要求他們集體宣布11月的最后一個星期四為感恩節。作為19世紀閱讀量最高的《戈迪淑女雜志》的主編，她用數頁版面來推動這個全國性節日，期望它成為這個年輕而多元的國家凝聚民心的一股力量。1827年，黑爾發表了小說《諾斯伍德：新英格蘭記》，首次詳細介紹了清教徒的感恩節盛宴。她用了整整一章的篇幅記錄了這場宴會，并將“久負盛名的南瓜派”描述為“美好而真實的揚基感恩節中不可或缺的一部分”。

黑爾并不是唯一一個將南瓜派與感恩節和北部傳統聯系在一起的人。《美國烹飪》中出現了兩種南瓜餅食譜，還提到了蔓越莓醬和火雞等其他感恩節熱門食品。作為第一本“美國”食譜，《美國烹飪》被稱為新英格蘭傳統美食的典范。此外，制作南瓜派需要來自北方的食材，如南瓜和糖蜜。隨著越來越多的州（主要是在北方）接受感恩節，南瓜派與北方傳統的關系密切了起來。

到了1850年代早期，黑爾的書信運動已持續了幾十年，令人振奮的寫信運動也已將感恩節的影響擴散到了29個州。 然而同時，北方的廢奴主義情緒逐步高漲，局勢也變得緊張。很快地，黑爾燃起了把感恩節推廣到全國（甚至國外）的斗志。

南方領導人攻擊感恩節是北方人要把新英格蘭的價值觀灌輸給南方人的一次嘗試。特別是弗吉尼亞人，狠狠地報復了黑爾的運動。1856年《里士滿輝格黨人報》的一篇社論嚴厲批評了哥倫比亞特區“令人反感”的感恩節宣言，認為這個節日除了剝奪了男人一天的工資和鼓勵他們酗酒之外別無作用。

幾年后，根據歷史學家梅蘭妮·柯克帕特里克的說法，弗吉尼亞州州長懷斯在給黑爾的回信里提到，他不想與“這種在全國嘩眾取寵的感恩節噱頭”扯上關系，因為“這個節日已經將千萬講道壇設置成鼓吹‘基督教政治’的場所”。懷斯的這番陳述直指反奴政治。

盡管有來自南方的抵抗，黑爾和支持者仍繼續著他們的感恩節運動。最終，在美國內戰期間，亞伯拉罕·林肯總統于1863年11月的最后一個星期四首次宣布全國范圍內慶祝感恩節。這實際上是他當年的第二次感恩節宣言;聯邦軍在葛底斯堡獲勝后，他也呼吁過舉辦感恩節盛宴。

然而，在他的全國感恩節宣言中，林肯并沒有單獨向聯邦軍或北方喊話。相反，他是在對整個已充滿血腥的國家發布宣言。林肯的宣言特別面向“所有在這場無法避免的悲慘內戰中成為寡婦、孤兒、送葬者或受難者的人”。他懇求“全能的上帝伸出手來治愈國家的創傷”。如果林肯的意圖是將感恩節所蘊含著的北方反奴制情緒強加給南部， 他并沒有在演講中表現出來，而演講內容借鑒了黑爾的統一言論。

林肯開啟了總統的年度感恩節宣言傳統。但對于是否應該將感恩節當成民族身份的標志，全國幾十年中一直無法統一。前邦聯軍官、德州州長奧蘭·米洛·羅伯茨直到1880年代仍拒絕宣布感恩節是公眾假期。一些南方州長會遵循年度總統宣言，但會以改動感恩節日期的方式來抗拒民族統一。

當政客們為了假期的象征主義而大動干戈時，美國民眾過起了自己的感恩節。1941年，國會正式將感恩節定為國定假日。這時，全國民眾已經普遍接受了11月最后一個星期四的感恩節總統致辭，并將其視作理所當然。事實上，在1939年，羅斯福總統將感恩節慶祝提前了一周，以便能有更多的假日購物時間，卻遭到了公眾的反對。

南瓜派是一種標志性的感恩節菜肴，記錄了通過這個收獲的節日對美國身份進行定義所經歷的斗爭。雖然這一傳統感恩節食品曾被譴責為北方飲食對美國文化的入侵，但南方做了些許調整，例如混合波旁威士忌、加入山核桃，或者將南瓜改成紅薯等。如今，南方南瓜派為美國各地的廚師和食客提供了一個機會，既能感受到南北文化的相通之處，也能體味到各自獨立的文化特色。