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1809-1943

1809-1943

Organized vegetarianism arrived with the industrial age: a church in Salford, a society in Ramsgate, an American branch in New York, a global union in Dresden. By the time Gandhi addressed the London Vegetarian Society, the movement had institutions, a press, and a moral argument waiting for one more word.

The 19th-century vegetarian societies and their advocates.
Wikimedia Commons / Percy Bysshe Shelley
  1. 1809

    1809

    A Sermon on the 'Vegetable Diet'

    Organized vegetarianism in Britain traces to a Salford church whose minister made a meat-free diet a condition of membership.

    In 1809, he preached a now famous sermon, extolling the benefits of what he called

    Rev. William Cowherd, Bible Christian Church, Salford
    Source: The Vegetarian Society, History
  2. 1813

    1813

    Shelley's Vindication

    The poet Shelley put the moral and physical case for a vegetable diet into an essay that circulated for decades.

    It is only by softening and disguising dead flesh by culinary preparation that it is rendered susceptible of mastication or digestion, and that the sight of its bloody juices and raw horror does not excite intolerable loathing and disgust.

    Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Vindication of Natural Diet
    Source: Wikipedia, A Vindication of Natural Diet
  3. 1847

    September 30, 1847

    The Vegetarian Society Is Founded

    The strands of British food reform came together into a single body that gave the movement its modern name.

    And so it was that on 30 September 1847, the various strands of this story coalesce at Northwood Villa in Ramsgate

    Founding meeting, Northwood Villa, Ramsgate
    Source: The Vegetarian Society, History
  4. 1850

    1850

    America Gets a Vegetarian Society

    Three years after Britain, reformers founded an American counterpart in New York City.

    In 1850, Alcott, William Metcalfe, Russell Trall, and Graham founded the American Vegetarian Society in New York City.

    William Metcalfe, Sylvester Graham, William Alcott, Russell Trall
    Source: Wikipedia, American Vegetarian Society
  5. 1892

    1892

    Salt Writes the First Book of Animal Rights

    The reforming schoolmaster grounded the claim in justice rather than kindness, and his 1892 book is often described as the first explicit treatment of the idea of animal rights. Peter Singer wrote the preface when it was reissued in 1980.

    Salt argues that animals, as sentient beings, should be regarded as having moral and legal rights grounded in justice

    Henry S. Salt, Animals' Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress
    Source: Wikipedia, Animals' Rights
  6. 1908

    August 1908

    A Global Union Forms in Dresden

    National societies federated into the International Vegetarian Union, still the movement's global body more than a century later.

    National societies federated into the International Vegetarian Union, still the movement's global body more than a century later.

    1st World Vegetarian Congress, Dresden

    Source: International Vegetarian Union (IVU)
  7. 1931

    November 20, 1931

    Gandhi's Moral Case

    Passing through London, Gandhi told the Vegetarian Society that habit and health were the wrong reasons; only the moral reason would hold.

    Therefore the only basis for having a vegetarian society and proclaiming a vegetarian principle is, and must be, a moral one.

    Mohandas K. Gandhi, address to the London Vegetarian Society, November 20, 1931
    Source: International Vegetarian Union (IVU) (archived)

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