The Utopian communities of the United States

Résumé du document

In The Communistic Societies of America (1875), Charles Nordhoff defined communism as "a mutiny against society". How far does this definition apply to the Utopian Communities of the United States? The Utopian communities were established with the idea that the world could be started anew. Fleeing from the European wars and religious intolerance, the Pilgrims on the Mayflower found a land upon which they would be able to rebuild a society on European, but with hope for peace. Thus the United States was born. People gathered in communities, each one trying to find the perfect system. They all took their distance from the established order and applied their own sets of ruling in all the different domains of life. The primary sense of "mutiny" is "concerted disobedient or seditious action by persons in military or naval service, or by sailors on commercial vessels"; a topic Charles Nordhoff dealt with in "Mutiny on the Bounty". Therefore we may wonder to what extent these communities were opposed to the ruling society. An impressive number of communities emerged, all with different ways of putting their dream into practice. Yet among all of them very few remain.

Extraits

[...] Within two years, the community was virtually self-sufficient, due to Rapp's ability to attract hardworking farmers, builders and mechanics. In 1814 the community decided to cross the western frontier and set up a new headquarters, called “Harmony” in the Wabash Valley in Indiana. This new town became an important trade and industrial center for a large region. The community prospered and grew. Just like any other community, the Rappists would develop an economy. Among all the communities which have existed we can see that each and one of them had its own visions of an idealistic society. [...]

[...] The primary aim of communistic societies was to build model communities different from the ones statuated. They were inspired by Thomas More's Utopia which he had written in 1616. The setting is set on an island. That fact implies a distanciation from the surrounding world. This physical isolation responded to a will to rebuild new societies far away from all corruption and issues in existing societies. To the Shakers, led by Ann Lee first and later on by James Whittaker and Joseph Meacham, the outside world was full of diseases, full of sins, like war and poverty. [...]

[...] When the society decided to move back to Pennsylvania, they sold the land and buildings to Robert Owen, the Welsh utopian thinker and social reformer, and to William Maclure who then changed the name from "Harmony" to "New Harmony." In an excerpt from Owen's son's autobiography he writes: “liberty, equality and fraternity, in downright earnest! Besides, it is important to note the military vocabulary used in the Icarian songs: “soldats de la Fraternité”. This complies with the definition of mutiny. They were soldiers defending the values of their original country but which they found perverting these same values. [...]

[...] Another way they could expand their community's population was to allow converts into the Shaker society to live and function as one. When Shaker boys reached the age of twenty-one, they were given the choice to leave the Shaker religion and go their own separate way or to continue on as a Shaker. The Shakers lived in "families" sharing a large house with separate entrances for each family within the "family"; thus the families were exclusively male or female the sexes were segregated into separate living areas. [...]

[...] This is to show the limits of the mutiny. These limits are set by the fact that the communities were extensively set up by one, charismatic, leader who often ended up reproducing the same errors he would reproach the ruling society. These excesses were numerous and varied forms. And again there was the outside world and its attraction. In 1931 there was a big reorganisation which took place and in fact this society was split in two groups. The civil one was simply the joint-stock company business firm) and it was a profit corporation. [...]