History of American SocialismsNoyes, John Humphrey
History
History of American Socialisms
Noyes, John Humphrey
Communism -- United States; Socialism -- United States
The fame of New Harmony has of course overshadowed and obscured all
other experiments that resulted from Owen's labors in this country. It
is perhaps scarcely known at this day that a Community almost as
brilliant as Brook Farm, was started by his personal efforts at
Cincinnati, even before he commenced operations at New Harmony. The
following sketch, clipped by Macdonald from some old newspaper (the
name and date of which are missing), is not only pleasant reading, but
bears internal marks of painstaking and truthfulness. It is a model
memoir of the life and death of a non-religious Community; and would
serve for many others, by changing a few names, as ministers do when
they re-preach old funeral sermons. The moral at the close, inferring
the impracticability of Communism, may probably be accepted as sound,
if restricted to non-religious experiments. The general career of Owen
is sketched correctly and in rather a masterly manner: and the
interesting fact is brought to light, that the beginning of the Owen
movement in this country was signalized by a conjunction with
Swedenborgianism. The significance of this fact will appear more
fully, when we come to the history of the marriage between Fourierism
and Swedenborgianism, which afterwards took place at Brook Farm.
MEMOIR.
"The narrative here presented," says the unknown writer, "was prepared
at the request of a minister who had looked in vain for any account of
the Communities established by Robert Owen in this country. It is
simply what it pretends to be, reminiscences by one who, while a
youth, resided with his parents as a member of the Community at Yellow
Springs. For some years together since his manhood, he has been
associated with several of the leading men of that experiment, and has
through them been informed in relation to both its outer and _inner_
history. The article may contain some errors, as of dates and other
matters unimportant to a just view of the Community; but the social
picture will be correct. With the hope that it may convey a useful
lesson, it is submitted to the reader.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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