Richmond Vegetarian Festival

Excellent news, I will be speaking at this year's Richmond Vegetarian Festival on June 23, time still to be determined.Visit the event's site for directions and more information.

Journal Article in Food, Culture and Society

Am happy to announce and link to my new article on the development of Protose and vegetarian meat substitutes appearing in the current issue of Food, Culture and Society. The article is accessible if you sign up for a free preview. Just received the print edition, which is full of fascinating articles, most of which deal with the issue of food, identity and definition. Good stuff.

On Jourdon Anderson

Update (4:27 PM): One other thing that I would like to note...it is interesting that the letter is being promoted as somehow recently or newly discovered, when it actually appears in many recent histories of slavery (as well as some textbooks and primary source readers).

Update (3:04 PM): Also of note, the letter was reprinted in Lydia Maria Child's The Freedman's Book, a compilation of short stories, poems and abolitionist essays aimed at inspiring recently freed slaves by illustrating the accomplishments of African-Americans. It seems as if Anderson was serving as an inspiration even back in the nineteenth century.

Update (2:41 PM): Worth mentioning is that The Liberator mentions the author as being "George Anderson" though I am not sure this change the equation much. If interested, the citation is George Anderson, "Letter from a Freedman to His Old Master"The Liberator 35, 1 September 1865: 140.

Original Post:
This is entirely unrelated to my usual blog content, however it was an issue that I wanted to chime in on. The Huffington Post yesterday had an article referencing a letter written by an ex-slave to his former master. The letter is remarkable in its restraint, while effective in its total take down of the former slave master. However, what struck me was (despite a link to an image of the article in the New York Tribune) a thread of comments doubting the veracity or existence of the letter (the original article notes that Anderson dictated his thoughts which were accurately reflected in the letter). I was interested to find out more. What I did find is that the article was reprinted throughout the northern press, including The Liberator, but also throughout the daily press of places stretching from Maine to Ohio.

Just as importantly, I believe that I have located Anderson in the historic record. The 1870 census lists Anderson as being born in Tennessee, living in Dayton, Ohio, and having a wife "Amanda" (named Mandy in the letter) and daughter Jane. Also interesting to note, is that Anderson is listed as being literate, able to both read and write.

To hopefully quell any doubts regarding this remarkable man's existence, I have posted the corresponding documents here. A shred of skepticism to claims of historic documents online is surely needed, however there was a bit of a knee-jerk reaction of negativity in the Huff Post article's comments.

Here is the full census:



And the lines on Anderson and his family (the two tick marks next to each other refer to ability to read and write, whereas the one on the far right denotes one male over 21 years of age living in the household):


And here is the article as it appeared in three locations, first the New Haven Daily Palladium:
Second, the Daily Cleveland Herald:

And lastly, the Boston Daily Advertiser:

Celebrity Endorsements

One of my favorite ads for the Battle Creek health empire's burgeoning line of fake meat products (dating to June 1899), with an endorsement from Clara Barton:

As vegetarianism became commercialized at the end of the nineteenth century, the vegetarian press and product marketers alike emphasized the dietary practices of celebrities and other prominent individuals as a means to vie for social and cultural acceptance. Barton herself was a some time vegetarian to treat bouts of illness, beginning with a visit to a health sanitarium in upstate New York in the early 1880s. Utilizing a non-doctrinal vegetarian like Barton to advocate for vegetarian products helped broaden the appeal of vegetarian eating, though at the same time helped lessen organizational vegetarianism's focus on social issues in deference to a more consumption-oriented culture.

More examples to follow...

Vegetarians, Gender, Sexuality and Song

With my standard apologies for a delay in posts...the dual time commitments of finishing a dissertation combined with venturing out on the academic job marketplace has made new posts unfortunately fall to the bottom of my priority list. However, I am happy to report that my dissertation was successfully defended and I am excitedly looking forward to the next step (whatever that may be) in my academic career.

For today's post, I wanted to highlight one of my favorite pieces of research that I came across though one that oddly enough did not find its way into my dissertation (perhaps in a future book manuscript? Fingers tightly crossed).

Vegetarianism's popularity found its way into popular culture by the mid-nineteenth century, including a mention by such prominent writers as Herman Melville whose novella Bartleby the Scrivener included a vegetarian character. The rise of vegetarianism in the era directly before the Civil War (best characterized by the founding of the American Vegetarian Society, the first national vegetarian organization) was noticed in many corners of American culture and society, celebrated by reformers and mocked by the mainstream press. The growing vegetarian movement even grabbed the attention of the American music industry.

Oh! Wasn't she fond of her greens! was a musical composition first published in 1860 by the New York based firm H. De Marsan and subsequent compositions were published until at least 1869 (keep in mind that the music industry at this point relied upon the sale of sheet music rather than any actual recordings in a pre-phonograph era). The composition's lyrics (unfortunately I have not been able to track down any remaining sheet music in the historical record) are fascinating in its consideration of vegetarianism and its connections to gender roles.

The original composition is housed at the Library of Congress and can be found online.

The song relays a story of courtship, told from the perspective of the male courtier. The narrator seeks the affections of a young woman named Jane Bell who surpassed all other women in the courtier's eyes. Unfortunately, he also came to find out, she was a vegetarian. The song notes the peculiarity of the situation:

A vegetarian she's been, for some years;
No animals food would she eat;
How wonderful strange it appears
That she could exist without meat!

The song continues by noting the peculiarity of the couple's courtship, filled with picnics of garden sorrel (a green, leafy herb) and breakfasts of watercress. However, the last verse exposes the complex relationship between vegetarianism and gender as well as sexual norms and roles:

Now, we are married, and settled in life, The old gal behaves very kind;
And, when I go home of a night, There plenty of greens I can find.
Since marriage, she's taken to meat..How wonderful strange it seems!
And sometimes, by the way of a treat, She has a little fat meat with her greens.

The song is clear in its implications and double entendre. On one hand now that the woman has been tamed and settled, she no longer adheres to her vegetarian identity and diet, long associated with radical politics including women's rights and suffrage. Now a respectable married woman the "old gal behaves very kind" including disassociation from her political past. Further, there is of course the sexual implication of the married woman having "taken to meat" in marriage, and who "by the way of a treat. . .has a little fat meat with her greens." Having been corralled by the courtier, the wife--previously obstinate in her politics and presumably chastity (the courtier's amazement at the woman's ability to "exist without meat")--was now apt to enjoy meat in all of its various forms.

The sexual component may seem speculative, however, the cultural history of vegetarianism during this time period associated meat with male virility and sexuality. Conversely, male vegetarians often had their masculinity questioned, portrayed in the popular press as both sexually and socially impotent. The sexual component of the lyrics were undoubtedly apparent to fans of the song. As with everything else connected to the nineteenth century debate about vegetarianism, it was about far more than just greens.

The Vegetarians in the White City

The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 was originally intended to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas. The massive event ended up becoming a celebration of the United States’ arrival as a world power, national pride, material and technological advancement. At the center of this celebration was the city of Chicago, a shipping, manufacturing and economic center of activities in the United States. Strong enough to overcome a massive fire and reconstruction, the city was promoted by its boosters to exhibit the best qualities of American steadfastness and exceptionalism. As early as the summer of 1890, vegetarians in the United States began planning to contribute to the coming Columbian Exposition. Vegetarians recognized that meat abstainers and other interested parties would visit the fair with a curious sense of exploration.

Carrica Le Favre—a well-known health lecturer, dress reformer and child-rearing expert—was at the center of activities in Chicago. Described by Everyday Housekeeping magazine as “one of the prominent vegetarians in the country,” Le Favre was most renowned as a child expert thanks to the publication of her guidebook Mother’s Help and Child’s Best Friend, aimed at inculcating mothers with the skills to produce moral and industrious children.



Le Favre believed that a turn to vegetarianism was necessary for the moral and physical well being of mother and child alike. Children should be fed a strict diet of only milk and vegetables in order to create strong constitutions in order to meet the moral and physical challenges of modern life. Le Favre utilized the language of modernity and advancement, labeling the human body an “internal machine” and “instrument” upon whose systematic working depends the successful development of our entire body.” Stimulants like meat acted as “brakes,” leading the body to break down.

Le Favre was one of over a hundred presenters at the Exposition, including J.H. Kellogg and suffragist Dr. Juliet Severance (I have a chapter in an upcoming interdisciplinary volume on fairs that goes into greater detail of the conference). Speeches at the fair emphasized vegetarianism as a means for personal success and advancement. Le Favre explained that “our bodies are literally built up of the food we eat, and the kind and quality of the food determines the possible use of the body.” Flesh foods were “shoddy material” that produced bodies of which many “may well be ashamed and conceal beneath a conventional cloak of broadcloth.” Repeating a common theme from the congress, vegetarianism was labeled as being “civilized,” practiced by “refined” men and women. In stark, harsh terms, Le Favre condemned physical imperfections, proclaiming that, “there is nothing so discouraging to look upon as an ugly, sickly body.” Physical imperfections implied personal frailty, qualities least apt to help one prosper in life.



The Columbian Exposition was associated with modernity, progress, culture, civilization and advancement. The fair emphasized technological growth, with an illuminated “White City” that displayed the power and ascendance of electric lighting. By extension, the exhibitors and congresses represented at the exposition were given the tacit endorsement as exuding the same qualities of importance and innovation. Vegetarianism, with its new focus on personal success, health, strength and modernity was being embraced by mass audiences, both those who practiced the lifestyle and those who did not.

The exposition helped further foment American vegetarians’ confidence in their growing cause, witnessing a globalization of vegetarianism. Delegates from diverse locations connected in Chicago, all under the banner of progress. Vegetarians from the United States mingled with cohorts from Switzerland, Germany and India, illustrating that the movement knew few geographical and political boundaries. Vegetarians from a variety of ethnic, religious and national backgrounds all gathered in one central location and expounded on the diversity of good created by vegetarianism. Vegetarians utilized a mixture of the language of American triumphalism and economic development to place the movement amongst the great social changes of the modern world. The Columbian Exposition marked the ascendance of the United States onto the world scene; vegetarians for the first time were visibly included in the celebration.

Vegetarian Thanksgiving from the Early 20th Century

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Whether you're enjoying your Tofurkey or want a historic recipe for mock turkey, check out this recipe for mock turkey from one of the most popular voices of cookery in the early twentieth century.

For context...Meat substitutes became a standard part of vegetarian diets, beginning in the 1880s. Popularized first by J.H. Kellogg (I will highlight Kellogg and his invention of protose, the "vegetable meat" in a subsequent post), meat substitutes expanded the definition of vegetarianism. Whereas the older generation of vegetarians from the 1850s until the 1880s assailed all qualities of meat, a new generation of vegetarians accepted that meat had beneficial properties, particularly as a source of protein (its "blood building" properties as dietary practitioners were apt to note in the late nineteenth century).

A plethora of cookbooks proliferated at the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, exhorting the benefits of these meat substitutes, most of which were composed of a combination of nuts, grains and legumes. One such cookbok was Mrs. Rorer's Vegetable Cookery, first published in 1909.


Sarah Tyson Rorer—known as Mrs. Rorer to her throngs of readers—authored over seventy-five cookbooks and cooking manuals during her prolific working years. Mrs. Rorer ran a cooking school in Philadelphia for eighteen years and was the editor of Table Talk magazine, while writing for other domestic, household publications. She was one of the most respected and listened to voices of cookery at the turn of the twentieth century. Rorer’s writings promoted healthy lifestyles, yet she was no vegetarian. However, the continually growing vegetarian movement gained Mrs. Rorer’s attention.

In Mrs. Rorer’s Vegetable Cookery and Meat Substitutes, the domestic guide promised to illustrate “how to cook three meals a day without meat” using “vegetables with meat value. Vegetables to take the place of meat.” Mrs. Rorer explained that a practical vegetarian cookbook was “universally needed” given the “over-eating of meat” that “has left us as a reminder much sickness and sorrow.” Other vegetarian cookbooks provided “unhygienic, indigestible, tasteless and unattractive dishes.” Mrs. Rorer’s cookbook aimed to “present clearly, concisely and simply in a logical fashion, the best meat substitutes and their artistic and hygienic accompaniments.”

The cookbook included an entire chapter on items to be used “in the place of meat.” Sausages could be made with farina, pecans and breadcrumbs. Lentils combined with breadcrumbs and peanuts comprised a mock veal roast. Hominy grits mixed together with nuts, eggs, onion and parsley could be baked into a mock fish filet. As this blog and site expand, I will attempt to create some of these historic recipes and will report back on the results. In the meantime if anyone else is inspired to try the recipe, I would be quite curious to hear the results. Here is one of Mrs. Rorer's recipes, for "Mock Turkey."

Meat substitutes changed the nature of vegetarian dietetics. These new, more appealing foods appealed to a wider audience, in the process accepting that meat did, in fact, have some positive aspects to be emulated. Meat substitutes attempted to provide these benefits while also ensuring a violence free diet. Long before there was Morningstar Farms and Boca Burgers, vegetarians sought out faux-meats. Mrs. Rorer, reflecting the rising popularity of the movement in the early years of the new, modern century, emphasized the possibilities apparent in mock meats--even advising curious vegetarians to mold her concoction into the shape of a turkey. Vegetarianism was increasingly becoming embraced by normative society, emphasized as a means to succeed. But the movement was only understandable through a lens of a carnivorous society, one that even expected its vegetarians to manipulate its grains, nuts and breadcrumbs into turkey legs.

Notes
Sarah Tyson Rorer, Mrs. Rorer’s Vegetable Cookery and Meat Substitutes (Philadelphia: Arnold & Company, 1909), 18, 42-6, 66, 136.