Anthony Benezet (31 January 1713, Saint-Quentin, Aisne, France - 3 May 1784, Philadelphia) was a Franco-American Quaker, Abolitionist, veg*an, advocate for animal rights and for the education of formerly enslaved people. He occasionally published under the pseudonym, Lover of Mankind. The text Nature the Best Physician weaves together his views on Christianity, anti-war, and anti-slavery. For Benezet, humanity is defined not only by the possession of reason but also the capacity for sympathy, which is absent in the practitioners of slavery and thus accounts for the dehumanizing effects of slavery. He links the consumption of meat figuratively to the dangers of alcohol consumption and of war, and opposes the health and vigor promoted by a diet of vegetables and water versus the physical and ethical impacts of meat and strong drink.

 

 

A Lover of Mankind [Benezet, Anthony]. Nature the Best Physician; Or, Every Man His Own Doctor: Containing Rules for the Preservation of Health and Long life; from Infancy to Extreme Old Age. To which are Added a Collection of Natural, Simple and Palatable Receipts for the Recovery of Health, to Those who are Already Afflicted with Any of the Various Disorders Incident to the Human Body, Not Only Such as are Easy to be Purchased by Persons of the Lowest Capacity; But Proper for Those in Higher Stations, who Loath Nauseous and Unwholesome Foreign Drugs. J. Cooke, 1772.

The Mighty Destroyer Displayed, In Some Account of the Dreadful Havock Made by the Mistaken Use as well as Abuse of Distilled Spirituous Liquors. Philadelphia, PA: John Crukshank, 1774.