Thanksgiving: The Thanksgiving Dinner

Although Thanksgiving Day church services continued to be observed, the religious character of the observance gave way to the family dinner. By the late nineteenth century the traditional Thanksgiving dinner had been generally enshrined. At its core were foods considered to have originated in America. The central main course was turkey. Wild turkeys had been an important food for the colonists, so much so that wild turkeys disappeared from New England menus owing to near extinction. Soon after the establishment of Jamestown and Plymouth, however, domesticated turkeys were imported from England, but because of high cost, turkey was a feast dish in early America. By the late nineteenth century the price of turkeys had dropped, making the dish more affordable than other meats.