"We have sweet Potatoes by the whole sale, and Wild game of almost every description; we do not have to set apart one day, expressly for Thanksgiving in order that we can get something nice, for we have a continued one through out the year." --Amanda Trulock, Nov. 29, 1837

Amanda Trulock wrote this passage during her first year on her husband's plantation in Georgia. Her family in Bridgeport, Conn., celebrated Thanksgiving every year; in the South, she found that it was barely acknowledged. Amanda's marriage happened to coincide with the year that Sarah Josepha Hale became editor ("editress" in her own words) of Godey's Lady's Book and began to advocate for Thanksgiving's establishment as a uniform national holiday.

Louis Godey started Godey's Lady's Book as a monthly magazine in 1830. (

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