An Appeal to Mothers (1864)

AUTHOR: White, Ellen Gould Harmon

In this pamphlet, White advocates for veganism specifically for children and specifically in relation to their sexual health by preventing “self-abuse.” She argues that the consumption of meat, spices, and candies creates animal passions in the body, citing Orson Squire Fowler's view that a vegan, fruit-and-grain based diet is best and healthiest to avoid the dangers of mastubation (4).

White addresses mothers to make the case for raising their children within the precepts of Christian health. Children should work and be fatigued by the end of the day. Self-abuse (masturbation) will destroy a child over time and, if continued as an adult, will lead to a variety of health problems, including rheumatism and liver, spinal, kidney, and lung issues. Women, possessing “less vital force” due in part to spending so much time indoors, display the negative effects of self-abuse through cancer, dropsy, headaches, memory loss, weakness, and an inward “decay of the head” (27). Lack of education, diet, overeating, and eating food of poor quality; alcohol sustains the animal passions; lack of exercise permits licentiousness, as do books and magazines of poor quality, especially French novels (53). She quotes Sylvester Graham's view of “self-pollution” as the worst form of “venereal indulgence” (37). Diet is capable of “curing unchastity” if food is nourishing and plain, without spices (19-20). No “mince meat pies, cakes, preserves, [or] highly-seasoned meats” which “inflame the animal passions” (19).