As Americans sit down to supper this Thanksgiving, the centerpiece of their celebratory dinners will, most likely, be a turkey. Why exactly the Turkey has been the star of “Turkey Day” since at least the mid-19th century is a matter of much debate, particularly given the consensus amongst historians that the Pilgrims and the Native Americans probably didn’t focus on the bird at the “First Thanksgiving” in 1621.
Some give credit for the turkey’s preeminence to Sarah Joseph Hale, the “Godmother of Thanksgiving,” whose accounts of early New England celebrations emphasized a roast turkey and eventually became the model for the festivities adopted by the rest of the country after Abraham Lincoln declared it a national holiday in 1863. Others credit the bird’s existing role in English celebratory feasts and the fact that its large size made it a practical item for such affairs. Others still believe it is because the turkey’s position as the most American of feathered creatures—Benjamin Franklin, after all, thought it a much more “respectable bird” than the Bald Eagle—makes it a fitting entrée for one of the most American of holidays.
How exactly the turkey arrived at our forefather’s tables is much less of a mystery: The turkeys walked there.
“Many have been the tales of the great cattle drives. Hardly anyone remembers the great turkey walks,” recounts author Kathleen Karr in her book The Great Turkey Walk. And indeed, in antebellum America a parade of thousands of turkeys gobbling their way down country roads to urban markets was a regular sight in the weeks before Thanksgiving. Vermont turkeys hiked their way to Boston, Kentucky and Tennessee turkeys marched proudly into Richmond, and some Western birds even found themselves driven the thousands of miles between Missouri and Colorado.
The task of the turkey drover, as the individuals who herded the turkeys on these journeys were known, was no easy one. Roads in the late 18th and 19th centuries in the United States were generally pretty bad and accounts of the great turkey drives recall the flocks bravely fording streams and climbing rocky hills, or flying over lakes and rivers at least a mile across. In such conditions, according to one contemporaneous observer, the birds “were apt to crowd together and trample each other to death.” Should the birds become frightened, as turkeys are very want to do, “a cattle stampede [was] a tamer affair.”
The long march of the turkeys was a slow business as well, with flocks typically ambling at a top speed of one mile per hour. If a drover were lucky, throwing out enough corn and applying enough guidance with his long pole—topped with a red piece of cloth said to strike fear into the heart of even the most quarrelsome of turkeys—a turkey drive could cover 20 miles in a single day.
Each night it was the particular habit of the turkeys to roost in adjacent trees and bushes until the following morning. Once the turkeys took the inclination to settle down, an experienced drover knew that “nothing would induce them to continue the march to the slaughtering pens.” Much to the annoyance of their human counterparts, in this behavior the birds often disregarded the actual time of day and mistook an overcast sky or even a heavily shaded portion of the road as indications that the sun was going down. Drovers would sometimes walk miles out of their way to avoid densely wooded spots that might tempt their birds to stop for the night, but even then a few errant bushes or the fine shrubbery of a Capitol Square would induce the turkeys to roost for the remainder of the day.
While the modern turkey barely walks at all, these massive forced migrations of birds occurred well into the 1930s in some regions of the United States, particularly in the turkey towns of Texas, which held great celebratory “Turkey Trots” for the birds streaming in by the thousands for the slaughter.
Upon sitting down to a lackluster, turkey-less Thanksgiving feast at the turn of the 19th century, founding father Alexander Hamilton once remarked, “No citizen of the U.S. shall refrain from turkey on Thanksgiving Day.” And while such a proclamation is now fulfilled by railroad cars and refrigerated semi-trucks, for centuries this bold cry was only possible thanks to the men and women who literally walked these birds from farm to table.
Emelyn Rude is a food historian and the author of Tastes Like Chicken, available in August of 2016.
FAQs
Indigenous to the area and plentiful, turkeys were larger than chickens, ducks, and geese, making them economical to serve to a crowd. Also, turkeys didn't provide milk like cattle, or edible eggs, so slaughtering one for its considerable meat just made sense to North American homesteaders.
Why do we only eat turkey on Thanksgiving? ›
Thanksgiving-type celebrations were common at the turn of the 19th century with many opting to put a turkey on the table instead of slaughtering a useful animal like a hen or cow that was producing other needed products, according to Britannica. Turkeys at the time, and still today, were raised to be meat birds.
Why should we eat turkey on Thanksgiving? ›
The turkey comes in because the big birds were plentiful in New England, often distributed to soldiers in the Army. By the end of the century, Smith writes, the typical Thanksgiving meal had a turkey at the center of the feast due to the bird's low price.
Why do people love turkey for Thanksgiving? ›
Turkey became a part of our Thanksgiving feast, we think, because in the early days of America, turkeys were native to the land, they were large enough to feed a crowd, and their eggs were inedible. In other words, they happened to be around, and no one would miss them if they were gone.
Why is turkey the most popular Thanksgiving food? ›
The whole idea of Thanksgiving Day is to celebrate the bounty of the fall harvest. Because it's a family feast day, a turkey is more practical to serve than say three chickens. Cranberries are also harvested in the fall as well as pumpkins which are used in pumpkin pie, also traditional.
Why do we eat turkey on Thanksgiving fun facts? ›
Indigenous to the area and plentiful, turkeys were larger than chickens, ducks, and geese, making them economical to serve to a crowd. Also, turkeys didn't provide milk like cattle, or edible eggs, so slaughtering one for its considerable meat just made sense to North American homesteaders.
What does turkey signify in Thanksgiving? ›
The bird was as symbolic as the holiday itself: a sign of a nation's great wealth and ability to provide for its citizens. That symbol has carried on to this day, according to Karen Davis, president of the organization United Poultry Concerns and author of a book on the tradition of Thanksgiving.
When did turkey become a tradition for Thanksgiving? ›
As Thanksgiving Day rose in popularity during the 1800s, so too did the turkey. By 1857, turkey had become part of the traditional dinner in New England. The domestic turkey eaten now is very different from the wild turkey known to the Pilgrims, Hamilton, and Franklin.
What do Americans eat on Thanksgiving and why? ›
Traditional foods are a large part of Thanksgiving celebrations. Many families include the entire family in the food preparation. Traditional foods include turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, cornbread, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce. Many people serve pie for dessert at the end of the meal.
Why is Thanksgiving so special? ›
Thanksgiving Day, annual national holiday in the United States and Canada celebrating the harvest and other blessings of the past year. Americans generally believe that their Thanksgiving is modeled on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the English colonists (Pilgrims) of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people.
At Thanksgiving, there's always plenty of food around. But that's not the only reason people tend to stuff themselves as much as the turkey. The main reason that people eat so much on this holiday is that they are out of their normal routine. When the routine goes out the window, anything goes.
Why do Americans love turkey so much? ›
“Turkey is an ideal celebration meat,” Bickham says. “It is big enough to feed quite a few people and relatively cheap.” But its enduring place on the Thanksgiving table isn't just practical—it's the perfect centerpiece for what has become a quintessentially American holiday.
Should you eat turkey on Thanksgiving? ›
Almost all had the same answer when asked why we eat turkey on Thanksgiving. They either mentioned tradition or simply said, "because it's what we always ate on that day." And despite turkey's setbacks, such as getting too dry or lacking flavor, families continue plating the big bird on Thanksgiving.
Why is turkey called turkey? ›
In English, the name "turkey" probably comes from birds being brought to Britain by merchants trading to Turkey and thus becoming known as turkey coqs or turkey-co*cks. This happened first to guinea fowl native to Madagascar, and then to the domesticated turkeys themselves which looked similar.
What is the history of eating turkey? ›
Turkey meat has been eaten by indigenous peoples from Mexico, Central America, and the southern tier of the United States since antiquity. In the 15th century, Spanish conquistadores took Aztec turkeys back to Europe. Turkey was eaten in as early as the 16th century in England.
When did eating turkey on Thanksgiving become a tradition? ›
But like most of the Thanksgiving traditions we know today, turkey didn't become widely synonymous with that November holiday until the mid-19th century. This was largely thanks to the efforts of the writer and editor Sarah Josepha Hale, who became known as the “mother of Thanksgiving.”
Why is turkey the animal for Thanksgiving? ›
Some historians say the early settlers were inspired by the queen's actions and roasted a turkey instead of a goose. The wild turkey is a native bird of North America. As a result, Benjamin Franklin claimed this made the turkey a more suitable national bird for the United States than the bald eagle.
Why do we only eat turkey at Christmas? ›
Wondering why we have turkey on Christmas day? During his time on the throne, King Henry VIII decided to swap out his traditional goose for a turkey on Christmas day. After this, King Edward VII took to the delicacy and popularised having turkeys for Christmas.
What did they eat at the first Thanksgiving instead of turkey? ›
So while our Thanksgiving dinner table has a big ol' turkey plated in the center, the first Thanksgiving table was likely filled with ducks, geese, eels, lobster, and venison.
