The Communistic Societies of the United States: From Personal Visit and ObservationNordhoff, Charles
History
The Communistic Societies of the United States: From Personal Visit and Observation
Nordhoff, Charles
Collective settlements -- United States
shall be fined 1s.'; and any brother 'knowing the same without giving
the earliest information thereof to the committee of management shall be
fined the same.'... During the building of the Manchester Law Courts,
the bricklayers' laborers struck because they were desired to wheel
bricks instead of carrying them on their shoulders."]
THE INSPIRATIONISTS,
AT
AMANA, IOWA
THE AMANA COMMUNITY.
I.
The "True Inspiration Congregations," as they call themselves ("_Wahre
Inspiration's Gemeinden_"), form a communistic society in Iowa,
seventy-four miles west of Davenport.
The society has at this time 1450 members; owns about 25,000 acres of
land; lives on this land in seven different small towns; carries on
agriculture and manufactures of several kinds, and is highly prosperous.
Its members are all Germans.
The base of its organization is religion; they are pietists; and their
religious head, at present a woman, is supposed by them to speak by
direct inspiration of God. Hence they call themselves "Inspirationists."
They came from Germany in the year 1842, and settled at first near
Buffalo, on a large tract of land which they called Eben-Ezer. Here they
prospered greatly; but feeling the need of more land, in 1855 they began
to remove to their present home in Iowa.
They have printed a great number of books--more than one hundred
volumes; and in some of these the history of their peculiar religious
belief is carried back to the beginning of the last century. They
continue to receive from Germany accessions to their numbers, and often
pay out of their common treasury the expenses of poor families who
recommend themselves to the society by letters, and whom their inspired
leader declares to be worthy.
They seem to have conducted their pecuniary affairs with eminent
prudence and success.
II.--HISTORICAL.
The "Work of Inspiration" is said to have begun far back in the
eighteenth century. I have a volume, printed in 1785, which is called
the "Thirty-sixth Collection of the Inspirational Records," and gives an
account of "Brother John Frederick Rock's journeys and visits in the
year 1719, wherein are recorded numerous utterances of the Spirit by his
word of mouth to the faithful in Constance, Schaffhausen, Zurich, and
other places."
They admit, I believe, that the "Inspiration" died out from time to
time, but was revived as the congregations became more godly. In 1749,
in 1772, and in 1776 there were especial demonstrations. Finally, in the
year 1816, Michael Krausert, a tailor of Strasburg, became what they
call an "instrument" (_werkzeug_), and to him were added several
others:
Philip Moschel, a stocking-weaver, and a German; Christian Metz, a
carpenter; and finally, in 1818, Barbara Heynemann, a "poor and
illiterate servant-maid," an Alsatian ("_eine arme ganz ungdehrte
Dienstmagd_").
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account