How Did Turkey Become The Default Main Course For Thanksgiving Dinner?

When you think of Thanksgiving, there are probably a few things that come to mind: pilgrims in buckle hats (and buckle shoes), cornucopias full of the fruits of a bountiful autumnal harvest, cranberry sauce (canned or homemade, but ideally seasoned to balance the sauce's sourness), and, of course, a large, golden, and perfectly roasted turkey sitting smack-dab in the middle of the dinner table. But how exactly did the fowl take center stage at the Thanksgiving table? After all, the bird has come to be inextricably linked to the holiday. Just ask Tom Turkey, the crown jewel of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

However, the large fowl wasn't always a Thanksgiving essential. Rather, it, like the holiday itself, took years to really catch on in American culture and is most likely a later addition to the annual feast, which first took place in present-day Massachusetts during the 17th century. Some of the autumnal holiday's enthusiasts posit that the turkey was always a part of Thanksgiving, citing a letter from 1621 that indicated that English pilgrims provided fowl for the first holiday feast. But while turkeys are native to the Americas and used to be abundant in Massachusetts, it's not clear that it was the bird in question.

Turkey was not the default food served on the holiday as it grew in popularity in New England over the next couple of centuries, either. In fact, it wasn't until the 19th century that turkeys became so integral to the holiday, thanks partly to the work of one Sarah Josepha Hale.

There is no way to know what the exact menu was for that first Thanksgiving dinner between English pilgrims and indigenous Wampanoag people. However, there is documentation that outlines some of the food served, which included fish, lobster (probably not served in a rich bisque or chowder), oysters, corn, and venison.

In addition to the other fare, there was mention of birds being on the menu in a 1621 letter written by Edward Winslow, a Plymouth colonist. However, the exact type of poultry served wasn't specified. It very well could have been turkey, as the bird would have been present in the area. Additionally, long before the meal, turkey was already being served across the pond, with King Henry VIII including the bird at multiple feasts. Still, it is more widely believed that the birds in question were geese or ducks rather than turkeys.

The tradition of thanksgiving dinners (not associated with today's holiday) was nothing new to English colonists, however. The act of coming together for a meal of thanksgiving around autumn was a common religious celebration of the time, but these dinners were not done on specific dates. They didn't have a set menu, either. Rather, the fare was dictated by what was locally available, which most likely included turkey to some extent, but also commonly included seafood, thanks to the coast's proximity. It wasn't until the 19th century that the turkey took special hold on the holiday.

While the story of the first Thanksgiving takes place in the plentiful landscape of 1600s New England, the national holiday we know today actually has little to do with the original feast between the Pilgrims and Wampanoag people, and everything to do with Sarah Josepha Hale and her crusade to embed the tradition into American culture. 

Born in New Hampshire in the late 18th century, Hale worked as a writer, composing novels and poems like "Mary's Lamb," better known today as "Mary Had a Little Lamb," for publication. She also worked as the editor of the "Godey's Lady's Book" magazine, through which she started a campaign for a national Thanksgiving celebration in 1846, according to Lauren Schenone's book "A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove." Using her influence, Hale pushed for the popularization of a national Thanksgiving holiday to unite the country. While Thanksgiving dinners were popular in New England, many people in the South pushed against the Northern tradition.

However, Hale saw the holiday as a way of bringing together an increasingly divided country. Ultimately, her efforts were successful, with Abraham Lincoln declaring Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863 in the midst of the Civil War. Along with her push for Thanksgiving, Hale also had some ideas when it came to the celebration's menu. Her 1827 novel "Northwood" detailed a Thanksgiving menu that prominently featured turkey. The "Godey's Lady's Book" magazine also published Thanksgiving menus that included turkey. But while we can thank Hale for our current iteration of the holiday, the popularization of turkey as a Thanksgiving food is still not entirely her doing.

There are many reasons for turkey's Thanksgiving takeover. Of course, Sarah Josepha Hale included the bird in her own writing about the holiday. Still, more practical reasons may be at play for why turkey rose to popularity during the 19th century and became a centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinners. The bird, after all, is simply a great main course for large gatherings. Turkeys can feed larger parties than smaller fowl like chickens and ducks. And, unlike other farm animals, such as cows or chickens, turkeys do not produce products such as milk or eggs. The economic benefits of using turkey no doubt played a role in its rise to Thanksgiving fame.

As artwork depicting the holiday became popularized in the 20th century, the turkey took center stage — just look at Norman Rockwell's iconic 1943 painting "Freedom From Want," which portrays a jubilant Thanksgiving dinner. The painting shows a mother setting a perfectly golden turkey before her family. The bird represents abundance or, at the very least, the hope for it. And wasn't that what the Pilgrims and Wampanoag people were celebrating when they assembled their very first Thanksgiving? Regardless of whether or not their tables held turkeys, the bird is now, undoubtedly, the mascot for a holiday built on a patchwork of American mythos and a symbol for prosperity and national unity.