US History

U.S. History Study Guide

that often exacerbated their illnesses. In 1843, Dorothea Dix, a Massachusetts schoolteacher, described to the state legislature the conditions of the insane in prison and encouraged the construction of insane asylums to better rehabilitate the mentally ill. In the following years, asylums opened throughout the United States. 11.7 Utopian Communities The most extreme reform movement in the United States was the utopian movement, founded in the first half of the 1800’s on the belief that humans could live perfectly in small experimental societies. Though utopian communities varied in their philosophies, most were designed and founded by intellectuals as alternatives to the competitive economy. Utopian communities aimed to perfect social relationships, reform the institutions of marriage and private property; balance political, occupational, and religious influences. • Brook Farm was the earliest commune in America. This utopian community was located in Massachusetts and could trace its ties to transcendentalism. It was founded by George Ripley in 1841. It espoused harmony with nature, communal living, and hard work. Major transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson supported the community, but did not choose to join it. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a short-term resident. It collapsed in 1846 after a fire, the Farm could not continue. Brooks Farm was influential in fights for abolition, women's rights, and labor rights. • New Harmony numbered around one thousand individuals in Indiana. In 1824, Robert Owen purchased land from another utopian group called the Rappites, in New Harmony, Indiana. The group believed in communal living and progressive systems of education. They also believed in equality of the sexes. Since he attacked religion, marriage, and the institution of private property, he encountered resistance from neighboring communities. The community lasted less than three years, lacking strong central beliefs. • Nashoba was a commune of Memphis, Tennessee, established by the freethinking Englishwoman Francis Wright as a communal haven for freed slaves. Her community experiment encountered fierce opposition from her slave-holding neighbors and it survived only briefly. • Oneida Community was founded by John Humphrey Noyes and was located in upstate New York in 1848. The group practiced, what Noyes called "Complex Marriage," a form of free love where every man was married to every woman and vice versa. Exclusive attachments were forbidden. The community fell apart when Noyes tried to hand off the leadership. • The Shakers were a movement that was located in several states and were popular, with thousands of members at one point. It began in England in 1747 and was led by Ann Lee, also known as "Mother Ann." Lee moved with her followers to America in 1774, and the community quickly grew. The communities were socialistic experiments which practiced celibacy, sexual equality and social discipline. The name was given to them by onlookers at their community dancing sessions. Eventually, the numbers dwindled until the most recent figure is that there are three shakers left today

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