Sylvester Graham

Personal Statement

Hello, my name is Sylvester Graham. Yes, just like the crackers (probably because I did invent them). But before I had created this source of high nutritional value, I was born on the 5th of July in the year 1794 in West Suffield, CT. My father was a clergyman at 72 years of age when I was born as his 17th child, then he shortly died while I was a toddler. This could’ve been the start of my mother’s emotional and mental trauma. I was sent to live in various households because of her instability, I sought out different vocations but I turned to following my father’s footsteps, I joined the ministry, becoming a Presbyterian clergyman. I had entered Amherst College in 1823 but I failed to graduate. Around this time, I had married a woman named Sarah Earl then I joined the Pennsylvania Temperance Society. I had a following called The Grahamites, they supported my nutritional and sexual views. However, even if I did have a good amount of followers, I still received harsh criticism from the media, butchers, and commercial bakers.

Issues

I took after William Metcafe’s ideas of vegetarianism and abstinence. I concerned myself greatly with the Dietary Reform of the Antebellum of the United States, and argued that chemical additives within bread was unwholesome. Use of alum and chlorine to whiten bread though was a common practice among bakeries, causing commercial bakers to hate me. In regards to abstinence, the public and the media thought I was unbecoming of a minister because I spoke so freely about sexual ideas. Some even claim that women have fainted during my lectures because of my opinions on corsets.

Solutions

I believe that an unhealthy diet could lead to increased libido. Therefore, having good nutritional values would lead one to a healthy life free of sexual constraints. Although a lot of people criticized me for my opinions and how I aired them, I stand firmly by them. In fact, I had to leave ministering to pursue being an in-demand lecturer. I had a lot of ideal lifestyles, such as: taking frequent showers in cold clean water, hard mattresses, vigorous exercise, and loose clothing. I was highly in favor of temperance; however, I was often overworked to the point that I had to retire lecturing in 1839 then worked as a writer struggling with emotional and mental issues, similar to my mother. But even with these obstacles, I managed to co-found the American Vegetarian Society in 1850, and published “Lectures on the the Science of Human Life” and “Lectures to Young Men on Chastity”. In the process, I had influenced a lot of people and their nutritional views, one notable figure being John Harvey Kellogg, a man who was later to be known for his breakfast cereals.

Relationships With Others

I had heard that Mary Cheney was an advocate of Graham’s Diet (avoiding meat, alcohol, and spices), so I think it would be interesting to sit next to her (supposedly oppressive) husband, Horace Greeley. I think it would be lovely to sit next to Mother Ann Lee because of our common protest against sexual relations. I would hate to be seated next to Ralph Waldo Emerson because he mocked me in one of his editorials calling me the “poet of bran and pumpkins”.