the victorian era
In the 19th century, vegetarianism significantly grew in popularity around the world, in part due to a growing belief in the eradication of society's evils and in a greater emphasis on the connection between physiology and morality. The rise of Evangelicalism brought new movements, such as the temperance movement and the movement to abolish slavery. In England in the early 19th century, Parliament began to pass many laws prohibiting injustices, such as the slave trade and child labor. In 1822, the western world's first act of animal welfare legislation was passed in England. The law was designed to protect animals mistreated in sport or labor. (1)
There is a Dickensian irony in the names of the vegetarian leaders of the early 1800s – Cowherd, Metcalfe, and Lambe all conjuring up visions of chops and roasts.
Cambridge World History of Food
During the Victorian era, vegetarian literature experienced a growth in both production and popularity. Many vegetarians of the time wrote essays or books explaining their decision and advocating for others to adopt a plant-based diet. Although based on the argument that a meat-eating diet was inherently cruel towards animals, much of this literature focused on health and medicine. There was a common societal anti-argument towards vegetarianism that the diet was not healthy or nutritionally whole. This led writers such as George Cheyne, William Lambe and Percy Shelley to write of the role a plant-based diet can play in the eradication of chronic illness and disease.
These arguments spread to the New World, largely thanks to William Metcalfe of the Bible Christian Church. Believing that physiology depended on morality and that the laws of health were just as important as the Ten Commandments, Metcalfe required his religious order to adopt a fully vegetarian diet. His group moved to the U.S. in 1810s, where he soon met Presbyterian Minister Sylvester Graham, leader of a popular health reform movement. Metcalfe and Graham established a following and they influenced later American arguments for a vegetarian diet, in particular, William Andrus Alcott's Vegetable Diet (1938). (2) |
Many other books were published during this period, in particular Thalysie: ou La Nouvelle Existence (Thalysie: Or the New Existence) by Jean Antoine Gleizes (1840) and Pfanzenkost, die Grundlage einer neuen Weltanschauung (Vegetable Diet, the Foundation of a New Worldview) by Gustav von Struve (1861).
The Victorian era also saw the rise of vegetarian organizations. On Sept, 30, 1847 the western world's first vegetarian organization, the Vegetarian Society was founded in England. Two years later, the Society began distributing the first vegetarian publication, The Vegetarian Messenger. Although the group was initially ridiculed by other publications, the group spawned the rise of many vegetarian societies around the world. In 1850, the American Vegetarian Society was founded, followed by the German vegetarian society led by Eduard Baltzer in 1866 and the International Vegetarian Union in 1908. (3) |
The most prominent vegetarian activist of the time was Henry Salt (1851-1939). Gandhi once wrote that Salt's books were the reason he had adopted a vegetarian diet. An English writer and activist for reform across many different issues, including prisons and schools, Salt wrote two major books advocating for animal rights: Animals’ Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress (1892) and The Logic of Vegetarianism (1899). He argued that a meat-eating diet was cruel and immoral. For Salt, it was a moral duty to adopt a vegetarian diet and not to rely on the suffering or death of another animal. (4) |
1.
“Vegetarianism” in The Cambridge World History of Food, ed. Kenneth F. Kiple and
Kriemhild Connèe Ornelas, Cambridge
Histories Online (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), chap. V17,
1553-1564, accessed November 10, 2014, http://universitypublishingonline.org/cambridge/histories/, 1555.
2. Whorton, James C. 1994. Historical development of vegetarianism. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 59, (5) (05): 0, http://search.proquest.com/docview/231934549? accountid=15115 (accessed November 19, 2014).
3. "Vegetarianism," The Cambridge World History of Food, 1558-1559.
4. Henry S. Salt, http://www.henrysalt.co.uk.
2. Whorton, James C. 1994. Historical development of vegetarianism. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 59, (5) (05): 0, http://search.proquest.com/docview/231934549? accountid=15115 (accessed November 19, 2014).
3. "Vegetarianism," The Cambridge World History of Food, 1558-1559.
4. Henry S. Salt, http://www.henrysalt.co.uk.