Edward Payson Evans (December 8, 1831 – March 6, 1917) was an American scholar, linguist, educator, and early advocate for

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...

. He is best known for his 1906 book on

animal trial In legal history, an animal trial is a trial of a non-human animal. These trials were conducted in both secular and ecclesiastic courts. Records of such trials show that they took place in Europe from the thirteenth to the eighteenth century. ...

s, ''The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals.''

Biography

Evans was born in

Remsen, New York Remsen is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 1,929 at the 2010 census. The town is named after Henry Remsen, an early settler. The Town of Remsen contains a Administrat ...

, in 1831. His father was the Reverend Evan Evans, a Welsh

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

clergyman. Evans earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

in 1854. He then taught at an academy in

Hernando, Mississippi Hernando is the county seat of DeSoto County, on the northwestern border of Mississippi, United States. The population was 17,138 according to the 2020 census records. It is located on the south side of the Memphis, Tennessee metro area. U.S ...

, in 1855, before becoming a professor at

Carroll University Carroll University is a private university in Waukesha, Wisconsin, United States. It was established in 1846 as Wisconsin's first four-year institution of higher learning. The university is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). History ...

(then Carroll College) in

Waukesha, Wisconsin Waukesha ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 71,158 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located along the Fox River (Illinois River tributary), Fox River adjacent to th ...

from 1856 to 1857. From 1858 to 1862, he traveled abroad, studying at the universities of

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. On his return to the United States, he became professor of

modern language A modern language is any human language that is currently in use as a native language. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead clas ...

s at the University of Michigan. In 1868, he married Elizabeth Edson Gibson, and in 1870, Evans resigned his position at Michigan to travel abroad again, where he gathered materials for a history of

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy ...

, and made a specialty of studying

oriental languages Asia is home to hundreds of languages comprising several families and some unrelated isolates. The most spoken language families on the continent include Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Japonic, Dravidian, Indo-European, Afroasiatic, Turkic, ...

. While living in Munich, he became a fixture at the Royal Library of Munich, and joined the staff of the political journal ''

Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Allgemeine Zeitung'' was the leading political daily journal in Germany in the first part of the 19th century. It has been widely recognised as the first world-class German journal and a symbol of the German press abroad. The ''Allgemein ...

'' in 1884. Evans' wife died in 1911 and when the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

broke out in 1914, he returned to the United States, where he lived in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Evans died at his home in New York City, on March 6, 1917.

Legacy

Evans' 1906 book ''The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals'', is considered to be the seminal work on the topic of

s. In recent years the book has been the subject of several critiques. Environmental historian

Roderick Nash Roderick Frazier Nash is a professor emeritus of history and environmental studies at the University of California Santa Barbara. Scholarly biography Nash received his Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University in 1960 and his Ph.D. from the Un ...

argues that both Evans and J. Howard Moore, "deserve more recognition than they have received as the first professional philosophers in the United States to look beyond anthropocentrism." Bernard E. Rollin has cited Evans' book '' Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology'' as an example of contemporaries of Darwin who used his

theory of evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certai ...

to advocate for the ethical treatment of animals.

Selected works

Articles

* " Linguistic Paleontology", ''The Atlantic Monthly'', Vol. 53, Iss. 5, May 1884, pp. 613–622 * " Bugs and Beasts before the Law", ''The Atlantic Monthly'', Vol. 54, Iss. 2, Aug. 1884, pp. 235–247 *
Artists and Art Life in Munich
, ''Cosmopolitan'', Vol. 9, Iss. 1, May 1890, pp. 3–13 * " Speech as a Barrier Between Man and Beast", ''The Atlantic Monthly'', Vol. 68, Iss. 3, Sept. 1891, pp. 299–312 * " The Nearness of Animals to Men", ''The Atlantic Monthly'', Volume 69, Iss. 2, Feb. 1892, pp. 171–184 *" Ethical Relations Between Man and Beast", ''Popular Science Monthly'', Volume 45, Sept. 1894

Books

* ''Abriss der deutschen Literaturgeschichte'' (New York: Leypoldt & Holt, 1869) *
A Progressive German Reader: With notes and a Complete Vocabulary
' (New York: Holt & Williams, 1869) *
Animal Symbolism in Art and Literature
'' (London: W. Heinemann, 1896) * '' Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Architecture'' (New York: H. Holt and Company, 1896) * '' Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology'' (New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1897) * ''History of German Literature'' in (5 vols., 1898) * '' The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals'' (London: W. Heinemann, 1906)

Translations

Adolf Stahr Adolf Wilhelm Theodor Stahr (; 22 October 18053 October 1876) was a German writer and literary historian. Life Stahr was the son of the preacher and pastor Johann Adam Stahr (1768–1839). He attended grammar school in Prenzlau. In 1825 at th ...

, ''The Life and Works of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing'' (with an introduction; 2 vols., Boston, 1866) *

Athanase Josué Coquerel Athanase Josué Coquerel (16 June 182024 July 1875) was a French Protestant theologian. Life The son of Athanase Laurent Charles Coquerel, he was born in Amsterdam and studied theology at Geneva and at Strasbourg, and at an early age succeeded h ...

, ''First Historical Transformations of Christianity'' (1867)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Edward Payson 1831 births 1917 deaths 19th-century American educators 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American non-fiction writers 19th-century American translators 20th-century American educators 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American translators American animal rights scholars American emigrants to Germany American male non-fiction writers American people of Welsh descent American philologists Carroll University faculty Linguists from the United States People from Remsen, New York University of Michigan alumni University of Michigan faculty