Jeremiah Hacker (1801 – August 27, 1895) was a missionary, reformer, vegetarian, and journalist who wrote and published '' The Pleasure Boat'' and '' The Chariot of Wisdom and Love'' in Portland, Maine from 1845 to 1866.

Biography

Born in Brunswick, Maine to a large

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

family, Hacker moved to Portland as a young adult. He lost his hearing, and used an ear trumpet. He married Submit Tobey, known as Mittie, in 1846. He was a Portland newspaper publisher for two decades. He was strikingly tall with a big, bushy beard. After the Great Fire of 1866, Hacker left Portland and retired to a life of farming in

Vineland, New Jersey Vineland is a city in Cumberland County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 60,780. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 61,156 ...

, where he continued to write, sending letters and poems in to Anarchist and Free thought newspapers until his death in 1895.

Career

In Portland, he worked as a penmanship instructor, a teacher, and a shopkeeper. Eventually he sold his shop in 1841 and took to the road as an itinerant preacher during the

Second Great Awakening The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The Second Great Awakening, which spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching, sparked a number of reform movements. R ...

. He traveled through

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

, telling people to leave their churches and seek their inner light, or "that of God within." Returning to Portland in 1845, Hacker began writing and printing a reform journal called '' The Pleasure Boat.'' According to Hacker himself, he sold his one good coat to pay for the newspaper's first edition. He wore a borrowed coat after that, which he referred to for years as "the old drab coat." He wrote his newspaper on his knee and lived in a boarding house in near-poverty, while he spent all his time getting his message out. He became known as an outspoken journalist who railed against organized religion, government, prisons,

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

, land monopoly, and warfare. He was a proponent of

abolition Abolition refers to the act of putting an end to something by law, and may refer to: * Abolitionism, abolition of slavery * Abolition of the death penalty, also called capital punishment * Abolition of monarchy *Abolition of nuclear weapons *Abol ...

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...

temperance Temperance may refer to: Moderation *Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed *Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion Culture *Temperance (group), Canadian danc ...

, and

vegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism may ...

. He was an early proponent of

anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessa ...

, and

free thought Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other metho ...

, he was also a prison reformer. Unhappy with how juvenile offenders were treated in the adult prisons, Hacker was influential in building public support for a Maine

reform school A reform school was a penal institution, generally for teenagers mainly operating between 1830 and 1900. In the United Kingdom and its colonies reformatories commonly called reform schools were set up from 1854 onwards for youngsters who were ...

which became the third in the country, after

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. Because of the culture of reform that existed in 19th-century

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

, '' The Pleasure Boat'' enjoyed wide circulation until the approach of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. On the brink of a war that many fellow reformers thought was unavoidable and morally justifiable, Hacker advocated

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

, and lost so many readers his newspaper foundered. By 1864 he started another newspaper entitled '' The Chariot of Wisdom and Love''. Hacker has been described as "Maine’s original alt-journalist".O'Brien, Andy. (2019)
"Portrait of a 19th Century Radical"
Mainernews.com. Retrieved 18 March 2021. He was known for criticizing

quack Quack, The Quack or Quacks may refer to: People * Quack Davis, American baseball player * Hendrick Peter Godfried Quack (1834–1917), Dutch economist and historian * Joachim Friedrich Quack (born 1966), German Egyptologist * Johannes Quack (b ...

doctors selling fake miracle cures.

Vegetarianism

Hacker was a vegetarian who championed

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding suffering—should be afforded the sa ...

, environmentalism and vegetarianism in his '' Pleasure Boat'' newspaper. In the July 20, 1854 ''Pleasure Boat'', Hacker commented: "It has been proved that those who live on vegetable food, bread, fruits, &c., are healthier, can perform more labor, endure more heat and cold, and live to a greater age, than flesh eaters."

Temperance

Hacker was a supporter of temperance but not of total alcohol

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

. He did criticize the prohibition group the Martha Washingtons in 1845 when the group did organize a Christmas dinner at Exchange Hall in Portland that served "hogs and oxen." Hacker wrote: “Animal food begets an unnatural thirst, which requires unnatural drink, and has been one of the greatest causes of drunkenness in this nation.”

Death

Hacker died on August 27, 1895, in Vineland, New Jersey at age 94. He is buried in the Siloam Cemetery.

Influence

Historian William Berry said: "In his time, Hacker, who was born in Brunswick was – if not famous – strangely influential." Journalist Liz Graves of

The Ellsworth American ''The Ellsworth American'' is a local weekly newspaper covering Hancock County, Maine. Overview ''The Ellsworth American'' is a locally owned and managed weekly newspaper serving Hancock County, Maine. Publication began Oct. 17, 1851,"In the Begi ...

said: "his ideas about a society ordered by individual morals rather than government and laws closely mirror those of international anarchist

Emma Goldman Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born anarchist political activist and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the ...

and others a few decades later." Journalist

Avery Yale Kamila Avery Yale Kamila is an American journalist, vegan columnist and community organizer in the state of Maine. Biography Kamila was born in Westminster, Massachusetts in the 1970s and grew up on an organic farm in Litchfield, Maine. Kamila adopte ...

of the

Portland Press Herald The ''Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram'' is a morning daily newspaper with a website that serves southern Maine and is focused on the greater metropolitan area around Portland, Maine, in the United States. Founded in 1862, its roots e ...

said: "All these years later, the Pleasure Boat reads like a roadmap to many issues that were to gain traction in the coming years." Authors Karen and Michael Iacobbo in their book ''Vegetarian America: A History'' have said that Hacker "helped cultivate" the vegetarian movement.