The Oneida Community Essays -- Essays Papers

The Oneida CommunityThroughout the azoic years of the United States, utopian communities seemed to be quite prevalent. Though most did not last long, their ideas of perfection have long outlasted the settlements themselves. Of the many trial settlements one of the most noted was that of the Oneida participation that was founded in the late 1840s by John Humphrey Noyes. Noyes society of self-proclaimed perfectionists was started after he lost his preaching license in an attempt to spread his immature ideas of communal living. 1 The Oneida society, like many societies of this era, was based on seemingly radical religious as well as societal ideas. In the early years, the community thrived partially because there was no conflict between its scientific and religious ideas. As the society grew and progressed toward its downfall, a significant separation of accomplishment and religion was becoming evident. Many believe that it was this growing conflict between science and religion that was ultimately the deteriorating element of communal living among the members of the Oneida experiment. John Humphrey Noyes, give-and-take of John Noyes and Polly Hayes Noyes, was born on September 3, 1811 in Brattleboro, Vermont. As the son of a well-educated businessman and an inquisitive mother, the young John was encourage to love learning. After attending many schools in Vermont and mamma John entered Dartmouth in hopes of completing his education. After his graduation from college in 1830 with a degree in law, Noyes moved to Chesterfield, New Hampshire.2 Around this time there was a large revivalist movement taking place. John Noyes parents were to hold a meeting of this convention at their home in Putney, Vermont. Upon the request of his mother, John, a... ... 1. Peyton Richter edt., Utopias Social Ideas about Communal Living, (Boston Holbrok Press, 1971) 137. 2. Constance Noyes Robertson, Onedia Community, (New York Syracuse University Press, 1970) 2. 3. Ro bertson, 3. 4. Robertson, 3. 5. Robertson, 4. 6. Robertson, 5. 7. Robertson, 5. 8. Robertson, 8. 9. Randall Hillebrand, The Shakers/Oneida Community (http//www.nyhistory.com/central/oneida.htm) 2. 10. Ira Mandelker, Religion, Society, and Utopia in Nineteenth-Century America ( Amherst, MA The Universtiy of Massachusetts Press, 1984) 117. 11. Mandelker, 118. 12. Mandelker, 113. 13. Hillebrand, 3. 14. Robertson, 14. 15. Robertson, 20. 16. Robertson, 21. 17. Mandelker, 119. 18. Mandelker, 119. 19. Mandelker, 132. 20. Mandelker, 92. 21. Mandelker, 147.