''The Pleasure Boat'' was a reform journal published in
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...
, during the mid-nineteenth century by the
Quaker reformer and journalist
Jeremiah Hacker.
History
Over the first seventeen years of publication (1845–1862), it went by the names ''The Pleasure Boat'' and ''The Portland Pleasure Boat''; and some years later was revived under the new title ''
The Chariot of Wisdom and Love'' (1864–1866). Hacker, after moving to
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
in 1866, briefly returned to the "Boat" theme and published the short-lived journal ''Hacker's Pleasure Boat'' (1867).
Editorial stance
In all of his publications, Hacker was an outspoken journalist who promoted anarchist and radical causes. ''The Pleasure Boa''t 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. It supported
abolition,
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. The newspaper was an early proponent of
anarchism,
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 ...
, and 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 wer ...
which became the third in the country, after
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
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 ...
.
''The Pleasure Boat'' was the earliest known vegetarian publication in Maine.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pleasure Boat
1845 establishments in Maine
1862 disestablishments in Maine
Defunct political magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1845
Magazines disestablished in 1862
Magazines published in Maine
Mass media in Portland, Maine
Vegetarian-related mass media