Thomas Tryon (1634–1703): A Theology of Animal Enslavement

Bridgen, Adam

Abstract

Thomas Tryon was one of the foundational voices of ethical vegetarianism. In his famous work The Way to Health, Long Life, and Happiness (1683), he stressed the Bible’s injunctions against violence toward animals as well as the negative effects of carnivorism on human health and society. Today, he is also recognized for his vocal antislavery tract, “The Negro’s Complaint” (1684). Scholars frequently underline the contribution of Tryon’s vegetarianism to this critique, particularly in his visualization of the “vast Consumption or Destruction” of enslaved Africans, who were “Butcher’d” in the violent sugar-making process. Reading this macellogia as more than just rhetoric, however, this chapter explores Tryon’s broader articulation of the primordial relationship between flesh-eating and human slavery. As it demonstrates, Tryon’s outspoken response to the violence of plantation slavery is in fact part of a broader, biblical conception of humankind’s all-destructive enslavement of animals, and subsequently humans, to satisfy unnatural appetites.

Citation

Bridgen, A. (2023). Thomas Tryon (1634–1703): A Theology of Animal Enslavement. In A. Linzey, & C. Linzey (Eds.), Animal Theologians (53-75). New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197655542.003.0004

• Online Publication Date: Apr 20, 2023
• Publication Date: Apr 20, 2023
• Deposit Date: May 31, 2024
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Pages: 53-75
• Book Title: Animal Theologians
• ISBN: 9780197655542
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197655542.003.0004
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2468602