Utopian Movement

In the same spirit as the other reform movements, more than 100,000 American men, women, and children between 1820 and 1860 searched for alternative lifestyles. They wanted to find a utopia, or an ideal society. Disenchanted with the world around them, utopian seekers hoped to create their perfect society by building experimental communities. Most of the communes had short lifespans, and the utopians performed their experiments in isolation from the rest of society, yet they all expressed the deep desire of perfectionism.

Amana Society—founded by German emigrant Christian Metz. Eight hundred followers, collectively known as the Community of the True Light, moved from Germany to Buffalo, New York. Believing that Metz was a prophet, the group relocated to Iowa and founded the Amana Society in 1859, building seven villages over 25,000 acres. Families lived in individual houses but shared communal kitchens and dining halls. Amana existed until the 1930s when the villages officially abandoned communal property ownership, divided the land and holdings, and adopted capitalistic values and institutions.

New Harmony—Welsh industrialist Robert Owen established a commune at New Harmony, Indiana in the mid-1820s based on the principles of the Enlightenment. He believed that poverty could be ended in society by collecting the unemployed into self-contained and self-supporting villages. The villagers of New Harmony found it difficult to reconcile Owens’s theories with reality and the commune failed. New Harmony is remembered for its advanced social ideas, including an eight hour work-day, cultural activities for workers, and equal educational opportunities for boys and girls. The community also openly criticized organized religion and favored women’s equal rights and birth control, ideas far ahead of their time.

Brook Farm—Transcendentalist writer George Ripley founded Brook Farm Commune in 1841 near Boston, Massachusetts. His goal was to “prepare a society of liberal, intelligent, and cultivated persons whose relations with each other would permit a more wholesome and simple life than can be led amidst the pressure of our competitive institutions.” Member of the farm worked to make the group self-sufficient, though few individuals lived on site in the communes early years. In 1844 Brook Farm adopted a constitution based on the socialist ideas of Charles Fourier, who argued that people were capable of living in perfect harmony under the right conditions. These conditions included communal life and a republican style government. Once Brook Farm demanded that its residents share equally their earnings, the commune disintegrated. The farm is remembered largely for the famous writers who resided there for brief periods, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Oneida Community— Founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848. Noyes said he found true religion at one of Charles G. Finney’s revivals. Noyes believed that with conversion came perfection and a complete release from sin. He claimed that Christ had already returned to earth and that Jesus had commanded his followers to escape sin through faith in God, communal living and group marriage. The community founded Oneida in New York and numbered more than 200 by 1851. They practiced a “free love” theology in a doctrine of complex marriage, which meant that every man in the community was married to every woman and every woman to every man. Noyes said that “there is no more reason why sexual intercourse should be restrained by law, than why eating and drinking should be.” The group struggled until the inventor of a new steel trap joined them. Soon Oneida traps were the best in the country, and the community began selling other manufactured items, including silver spoons. Before long the spoons became so popular that they added knives and forks. In 1879 local law officials attempted to arrest Noyes for adultery and his practice of group marriage, and he fled to Canada to avoid prosecution. The community ended universal marriage and converted to a joint stock company.

Shakers—Founded by Ann Lee Stanley in 1774, Mother Ann claimed that God was genderless and that she was the female incarnation of the Trinity as Jesus had been the male. She believed in celibacy, which would prepare her followers for the perfection that was promised them in heaven. By 1830 eighteen separate Shaker communities flourished in eight states with all property held in common. At their peak, the Shakers numbered more than six thousand. They created communal farms, manufactured and sold furniture and handicrafts, and were leaders in the garden seed and medicinal herb businesses. But celibacy spelled their end. Attempting to replenish their numbers, the Shakers adopted homeless children, raising them in the religion, but few converted.

Mormons—The Mormons proved the most successful of the utopian communities of the 1800s. Founded by Joseph Smith, who claimed to have a made a great discovery in 1827 of a set of golden plates, which Smith translated into the Book of Mormon. The book resembled the Old Testament of the Bible and purported to be an ancient document, but it captured many contemporary themes. In 1830 Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, announced his revelation, and led his congregation into Ohio. The community prospered but local Protestants despised them, especially after 1840 when Smith began practicing polygamy. The Mormons moved twice more before Smith was attacked and killed. Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, led the Mormons to their own Zion in Utah in 1846, founding Salt Lake City. Within a few years, the settlers had created an elaborate irrigation system and were prospering.