Parker Pillsbury was born on 22 September 1809 in Hamilton, Massachusetts and died on 7 July 1898. He was a Congregationalist minister who, according to a brief sketch published in Henry Clubb's magazine, Food, Home, and Garden, “abandoned the ministry, and entered the anti-slavery conflict by the side of Garrison, Rogers, Phillips, Foster [Kelley], and other heroic leaders. / Since the abolition of slavery, he has occupied his time largely in the cause of liberal radical reform in politics, social economy, and progress generally” (Food, Home, and Garden Vol. 11 no. 13 (January 1898): 14). In the same biographical sketch, the editor notes: “It is a remarkable fact that of those great minds that led the colored race from slavery to freedom in this country, … are not only abolitionists but Vegetarians. Of these Parker Pillsbury is a living illustrious example” (14). Pillsbury opposes slavery, alcohol, tobacco, and non-reproductive sex; he advocates for Abolition, Pacifism, women’s rights and suffrage. When he mentions animals, it is often in reference to the perversity of slavery, which aligns human beings with animals, making of the former “human brute beasts.” In the “Sun-Burst Letter,” however, he explicitly links veg*nism with world peace.

 

Acts of the Anti-Slavery Apostles. Concord, N.H.: n.p., 1883.

“A Sun-Burst Letter.” The American Advocate of Peace and Arbitration Vol. 51 no. 2 (April and May 1889): 51.

Ecclesiastical vs. Civil Authority. God in the Federal Constitution; Man and Woman Out. A Discourse. 3rd ed. Concord, N.H.: Republican Press Association, 1894.