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Vegetarian Utopia Main Menu Vegetarian Utopia A survey of vegetarianism, religion, and community in 19th century America Visual Table of Contents Vegetarian Christianity The arrival of protestant Christian sects from England Amos Bronson Alcott's Fruitland The American Vegetarian Society An organization of the best minds in vegetarian reform - New York, May 15, 1850 Octagon City in Territorial Kansas "Go West, Young Man" The Union Colony and the fall of moral vegetarianism Reference Page List of sources and further readings

Introduction

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The "opening" of the American West from the hands of the native inhabitants brought with it new ideas about individualism, religion, and moral duty. Vegetarianism was a unique feature of post-Jacksonian, 19th-century America political thought, and in certain spheres, it became intermixed with other moral ideals such as the ethics of slavery, alcohol consumption, female equality, and Protestantism. These ideas blended with Fourierism, a theory of social organization from France that influenced others such as Karl Marx. Charles Fourier idealized labor sharing communities, organized into "phalanges" of citizens. His ideas were quite popular among settlers in the era prior to the Civil War. Vegetarians were no exception, and they used the tenants of Fourierism to create new communal settlements in America which focused on the moral duty of citizens.

A number of new townships and colonies were established along the east coast and in the newly "opened" western territories with communal living and vegetarianism as main features of the new towns. These colonies maintained that their citizens be in upright social standing as well as self-reliant, to abstain from alcohol, to not hold slaves, and to practice a vegetarian diet. The Protestant Christians who packaged these diverse ideals into a singly-prescribed moral vision largely followed the methods of itinerant preachers and others who capitalized off the new individualism of the Great Awakening. Leaders of the vegetarian movement, such as Sylvester Graham, Henry Clubb, and Horace Greeley, utilized the adult-education lecture platform, the newspapers appearing all across the nation and territories, and the popularity of pamphlets to expand their world view. In this way their written word could be carried further, and their message was disseminated over vast tracts of land in the West.

The founders of these communities of vegetarian morality used the energy of westward expansion, new-Protestantism, and French proto-socialism to idealize utopian communities, mobilize dozens of people, create a media machine for vegetarianism, and attempt a revolution of society that could never be. As Louisa May Alcott wrote years after the failure of her father's colony:

"The world was not ready for Utopia yet, and those who attempted to found it only got laughed at for their pains.”

Many of the most notable founders of vegetarianism knew each other directly through sharing political and philosophical space in the mid-19th century, leading to the creation of the American Vegetarian Society (AVS) in 1850. Some of the communities which embraced these dietary tenants were implicated in even more radical ideas, such as phrenology and transcendentalism, while others had more of a focus on Republicanism, individual liberty, and self-sufficiency. Each community forged its own path, with varying attempts at regulating individual members diets. This book will look at a number of vegetarian communities and religions that practiced the diet, eventually tracing the trajectory of idealist communities in postbellum America.

Introduction

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