Skip to main content
NC DNCR logo NC DNCR

Topical Navigation

  • Home
  • Places to Go
  • Things to Do
    Things to Do
    • Field Trips, Group Visits & CAVS
    • Archives
    • Aquariums
    • Libraries
    • Museums
    • State Parks
    • State Historic Sites
    • North Carolina Symphony
    • Zoo
    • Events and Programs
    • Trips/Travel Ideas
    • Sightseeing Tours in North Carolina
    • African American Experience
    • America 250 NC
  • Things to Know
    Things to Know
    • Artist Opportunities
    • Traveling Exhibits
    • Conservation Assistance
    • Digital Collections & Online Exhibits
    • Family History & Genealogy
    • Mapping Resources
    • Publications
    • Records Management
    • Search Our Collections
    • American Indian Programs and Resources
    • Blogs
    • Grants Opportunities
    • Moonshine and Motorsports Trail
    • NCCulture Kids Videos
    • Podcasts
    • Advisory Council on Film, Television, and Digital Streaming
  • News
    News
    • Contacts for the Press
    • Press Releases
    • DNCR Marketing & Communications Team
    • Legislative Reports
  • About
    About
    • Arts
    • History
    • Libraries
    • Nature
    • Support Us
    • Employment
    • Special Programs
    • DNCR Strategic Plan 2021 - 2023
    • Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion
    • Featured Programs
    • Leadership
  • NCLearn
  • Contact Us
  • NC.GOV
  • AGENCIES
  • JOBS
  • SERVICES
NC DNCR »   Home »   blog

Tracing the History of Thanksgiving in North Carolina

November 25, 2015

Thanksgiving Day, as we know it today, was not celebrated in North Carolina until 1849.  The previous year, Governor William A. Graham called on the legislature to make the day an annual occasion.  He said the day should be:

a season for kind, social sentiment—for the forgiveness of injuries—for acts of good neighborhood and especially for the charitable remembrance of the Poor.

The General Assembly agreed with Graham, ratifying a joint resolution recognizing the holiday in January 1849. Governor Charles Manly then proclaimed November 15, 1849, as North Carolina’s first Thanksgiving.

Though 1849 marked the first official day of thanks for the Tar Heel State, official proclamations of the holiday were made as early as April 1758, when Governor Arthur Dobbs called for the people of the North Carolina colony to observe June 7 of that year as a day of fasting and prayer and:

to give thanks to Almighty God and our blessed Savior for having hitherto preserved this Province in peace in the midst of surrounding impending dangers.

Later that same year, Dobbs issued a proclamation for a public Thanksgiving on the first Wednesday in December.  The following year he set aside October 31 as a day for returning thanks. For some time the day continued to be observed on different days.

In November 1777, Governor Richard Caswell, first governor of the state of North Carolina, received a petition from lawmakers convening in Philadelphia to join in a “general thanksgiving to Almighty God.”  The day was celebrated in New Bern on December 18.

In 1784, George Washington and the Continental Congress, upon the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, designated a day of thanksgiving for the return of peace.  The day selected was November 26.  This was the first nationally Thanksgiving proclaimed by the national government.

Though George Washington and the Continental Congress designated November 26, 1784 as a national Thanksgiving to celebrate the peace after the Revolutionary War, the holiday wasn’t fixed at the national level until President Abraham Lincoln designated the last Thursday of November for the holiday. It has remained on that day except for a two-year interval in 1939 and 1940 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up by a week.

This blog is related to:

  • Thanksgiving

Related Articles

  • Spring 2022 Music Festival Preview
  • Celebrate Black History Month in NC
  • Tales from the Road with Doug MacMillan of The Connells
  • Music at the Museum Artist Feature: Keenan Jenkins of XOXOK
  • Artist Feature: Charles Chace of Speed Stick
  • Music at the Museum Artist Feature: Tumbao's Diego Avilez
  • Behind the Boards: Highlighting North Carolina Hip-Hop Producers
  • "Scatter and Gather" with Shay Martin Lovette
  • Music at the Museum Artist Feature: Charlie Smarts
  • Music at the Museum Artist Feature: Lakota John
  • WWNC, Citizen Vinyl, and a Building's Legacy
  • Bringing Back the Funk
  • Stray Local Explores Solitude
  • Rissi Palmer and Color Me Country Artist Fund Provides "Postcards from God"
  • Tracks Music Library Builds a Musical Ecosystem

Related Blogs

  • Turkey Not Pardoned at Camp Greene

Share this page:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email

How can we make this page better for you?

Back to top

Contact Information

North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources

109 E. Jones Street
Mail Service Center 4601

Raleigh, NC 27601
 

(919) 814-6800

Recent Tweets

Tweets by@ncculture

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Flickr
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Employee Directory
  • Translation Disclaimer
  • TRAVEL POLICY
  • Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Open Budget
NC DNCR
https://www.ncdcr.gov/blog/2015/11/25/tracing-the-history-of-thanksgiving-in-north-carolina