Abstract
Sylvester Graham might be the prototypical diet guru of today, save that he was born in 1794. Famous for preaching a regimen of abstention, he championed a vegetarian diet of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains well before the rise of modern biomedical science suggested the same. And although he was a Presbyterian minister, Graham brought Jacksonian temperance movements together with contemporary medicine to create a perspective on food and wellness that is still with us today. The chapter considers how Graham’s spiritual belief in his dietary philosophy is best illustrated in the first-person testimonials to the efficacy of his diet in battling the cholera epidemic of 1832, included in his self-published tract, The Aesculapian Tablets of the Nineteenth Century.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The experiment was short-lived; however, because while Oberlin’s students and faculty were delighted to participate in acts of civil disobedience (among other perceived transgressions, Oberlin permitted women to study at the college and was a well-known stop on the Underground Railroad) a menu made up almost solely of brown bread and vegetables was a step too far.
- 2.
Francis, Fruitlands.
- 3.
Alcott, “Transcendental Wild Oats ,” 95.
- 4.
Nissenbaum, Sex, Diet , and Debility , 5 and ff. Much of the biographical material here (and in most studies of Sylvester Graham) comes from Nissenbaum’s fundamental text on Graham’s life and historical context.
- 5.
Nissenbaum, Sex, Diet , and Debility , 14.
- 6.
Salinger, Taverns and Drinking in Early America, 2–4.
- 7.
Starr , The Social Transformation of American Medicine, 47.
- 8.
Brodsky, Benjamin Rush : Patriot and Physician.
- 9.
Brodsky, Benjamin Rush : Patriot and Physician, 91.
- 10.
Rush , Medical Inquiries and Observations, 101.
- 11.
Rush , quoted in Nissenbaum, Sex, Diet , and Debility , 55.
- 12.
Austen , Pride and Prejudice , 3.
- 13.
Rush , Medical Inquiries and Observations, 100–103.
- 14.
Graham, Lectures on the Science of Human Life, 19.
- 15.
One fairly recent example is Braun’s (2014) Atlantic article “Looking to Quell Sexual Urges? Consider the Graham Cracker.”
- 16.
McLoughlin, Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform, 106.
- 17.
Quoted in Pessen, 75.
- 18.
Engs, 2001, 2.
- 19.
Engs 4.
- 20.
Engs 7.
- 21.
Graham, Introduction. The Æsculapian Tablets, VI.
- 22.
Graham, A Lecture on Epidemic Diseases, 12.
- 23.
Graham, Sylvester. A Lecture on Epidemic Diseases Generally and Particularly the Spasmodic Cholera, 13.
- 24.
Organization, World Health. “Cholera: Fact Sheet.” Media Center Fact Sheet. WHO, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs107/en/.
- 25.
Rosenberg, The Cholera Years, 15.
- 26.
A Rational View of the Spasmodic Cholera, 7.
- 27.
Our Physician explains: “It is generally admitted that filthiness, drunkenness, debauchery, bad food, want, excess , indigestion , scanty or improper clothing, cold, fear, fatigue and anxiety , are predisposing causes; and that although the atmosphere of the sick may sometimes form a focus of infection, yet even this is not dangerous except to such as have been subjected to one or more of those causes” (A Rational View of the Spasmodic Cholera, 8).
- 28.
Rosenberg, The Cholera Years, 77.
- 29.
Graham, A Lecture on Epidemic Diseases, 27.
- 30.
Graham, A Lecture on Epidemic Diseases, 29.
- 31.
Graham, A Lecture on Epidemic Diseases, 49.
- 32.
Graham, A Lecture on Epidemic Diseases, 32.
- 33.
Graham, A Lecture on Epidemic Diseases, 51.
- 34.
Graham, A Lecture on Epidemic Diseases, 36.
- 35.
Graham, A Lecture on Epidemic Diseases, 53.
- 36.
Graham, The Æsculapian Tablets, 22.
- 37.
Graham, The Æsculapian Tablets, 54 and 80.
- 38.
Graham, The Æsculapian Tablets, 83.
- 39.
Graham, The Æsculapian Tablets, 92.
Bibliography
Alcott, Louisa. “Transcendental Wild Oats.” The Independent … Devoted to the Consideration of Politics, Social and Economic Tendencies, History, Literature, and the Arts (1848–1921) 25, no. 1307 (1873): 1569–71.
Austen, Jane and William Dean Howells. Pride and Prejudice. The Modern Student’s Library. New York, Chicago: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1918.
Braun, Adee. “Looking to Quell Sexual Urges? Consider the Graham Cracker.” The Atlantic, 2014.
Brodsky, Alyn. Benjamin Rush: Patriot and Physician. 1st ed. New York: Truman Talley Books, 2004.
Francis, Richard. Fruitlands: The Alcott Family and Their Search for Utopia. Yale: Yale University Press, 2010.
Graham, Sylvester. A Lecture on Epidemic Diseases Generally and Particularly the Spasmodic Cholera. With an Appendix Containing Several Testimonials,—Rules of the Graham Boarding House, & C. By Sylvester Graham. Day, 1833.
———. The Æsculapian Tablets of the Nineteenth Century. Printed by Weeden and Cory, 1834.
McLoughlin, William Gerald. Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform: An Essay on Religion and Social Change in America, 1607–1977. Chicago History of American Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
Nissenbaum, Stephen. Sex, Diet, and Debility in Jacksonian America: Sylvester Graham and Health Reform. Contributions in Medical History Series No. 4. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1980.
Organization, World Health. “Cholera: Fact Sheet.” Media Center Fact Sheet. WHO. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs107/en/. Accessed 29 June 2018.
Pessen, Edward. Jacksonian America; Society, Personality, and Politics. The Dorsey Series in American History. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press, 1969.
Physician. A Rational View of the Spasmodic Cholera: Chiefly with Regard to the Best Means Preventing It. Boston: Clapp & Hall, 1832.
Rosenberg, Charles E. The Cholera Years the United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Rush, Benjamin. Medical Inquiries and Observations Upon the Diseases of the Mind. The History of Medicine Series No. 15. Published Under the Auspices of the Library of the New York Academy of Medicine by Hafner Pub. C., 1962.
Salinger, Sharon V. Taverns and Drinking in Early America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
Starr, Paul. The Social Transformation of American Medicine. New York: Basic Books, 1982.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Newell, C.L. (2018). Food Faiths: Gut Science and Spiritual Eating. In: Mathias, M., Moore, A.M. (eds) Gut Feeling and Digestive Health in Nineteenth-Century Literature, History and Culture. Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01857-3_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01857-3_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-01856-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-01857-3
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)