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£ß Ü¢ T he adoption of the Thanksgiving holiday outside New England was in part a result of the great Yankee exodus that occurred after the American Revolution. The war had brought debilitating debt and inflation to the small New England farmers and shopkeepers, a burden compoundedbyhighstatetaxesbywhichlocalgovernmentstriedtorecover from the same problems. This precipitated the desperate protest of Shays’ Rebellion (1786–1787), in which economically threatened farmers rose up against the tax demands of the government and foreclosures on their properties . The Revolution had also decimated New England’s merchant and fishing fleets. The administrative closure of the British colonial ports in the Caribbean to American vessels following the war cut off many profitable trade connections (for both regions), while the French and Spanish closed their colonies to their erstwhile ally in orthodox mercantilist fashion. Although John Adams was able to get an advantageous clause in the treaty of 1783 that allowed Americans to fish in Canadian waters and even cure their catches on that coast,1 many investors now sought more promising opportunities than trade in the developing industries of cloth and iron manufacturing. Peace removed the threat of frontier raids by the British and their Indian and Tory allies, clearing the way for the release of pent-up desire for better farmland. A steady flow of Yankee emigrants passed into northern New York, the Northwest Territory, and beyond, bringing with them all the particular attitudes and traditions of their old home. Changes in Yankee life accelerated with the hardships during the War of 1812, when a beleaguered New England went so far as to consider secession at the Hartford Convention in reaction to the ruinous national embargo. The flow of expatriate New Englanders increased to a flood with the opening of easier pathways west such as the National Road in 1818 and the Erie Canal in 1825. Steam power in boats and later in railroads not 4 The Nation Embraces Thanksgiving, 1780–1880 The Nation Embraces Thanksgiving 63 only facilitated immigration into the new territories but also made it possible for the West to return the favor by becoming the new food source for New England. Soon frontier settlements were full of industrious former New Englanders who retained an exceptional fondness for their old home and applied themselves to re-creating Yankee culture on the new frontier. Among the customs that were introduced into an expanding America were the two New England holidays that embodied the expatriates’ dream of home, Forefathers’ Day and Thanksgiving. Forefathers’ Day (December 22) was the commemoration of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in Plymouth in 1620. It had been introduced in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1769 by the members of the Old Colony Club as a celebration of Plymouth Colony’s independent origins and in response to oppression by the English Crown that the club members, like their forefathers, found objectionable. Conservative Federalists in Boston subsequently adopted Forefathers’ Day in the 1790s as a celebration of the traditions of old New England in reaction to the unsettling social changes and democratization of the time. Forefathers’ Day was also adopted by the members of the “New England Society of New York” in 1805 as their annual celebration. Like other immigrants in the city such as the Irish, Germans, and Scots, Yankees found themselves at a disadvantage away from their home turf. Much as the Ancient Order of Hibernians did for the Irish, New England societies reassured their members of their identity and facilitated cooperation and mutual support. The first New England society was organized in New York by prosperous expatriate New Englander merchants and professionals to celebrate their common heritage and to advance their commercial interests, rather to the annoyance of the New Yorkers who found Yankee self-absorption irritating. By 1816, the Boston Columbian Centinel could report, “Patriotic institutions of this denomination have been formed or are forming in most of the Southern and Western States.”2 New England societies were founded in Charleston in 1819, in Augusta in 1825, and in New Orleans, Louisville, Detroit, Cincinnati, Springfield, Illinois, and San Francisco by 1850. They brought first-generation Yankee emigrants and their heirs together for social conviviality , reverence of their ancestral origins, and charitable work among the poorer members of their community. Each of the societies adopted December 22—Forefathers’ Day—as an annual celebration of their New England roots. Yearly reiterations of the Pilgrim story by oration, sermon, or discourse, symbolic of the entire New England enterprise, played an important part in embedding the image...

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