The Franklin Community was the first American Owenite community established in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

state. Founded in 1826 two miles from the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

near the town of

Haverstraw Haverstraw is a town in Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of the Town of Clarkstown and the Town of Ramapo; east of Orange County; south of the Town of Stony Point; and west of the Hudson River. The town runs from the wes ...

Rockland County Rockland County is the southernmost county on the west side of the Hudson River in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. It is about from the Bronx at their closest points. The county's population, as of th ...

, the enterprise stumbled in its first year of existence and was terminated later that same year.

History

Background

The arrival of

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

social reformer

Robert Owen Robert Owen (; 14 May 1771 – 17 November 1858) was a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist and social reformer, and a founder of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement. He strove to improve factory working conditions, promoted e ...

on American shores in the fall of 1824 was met with public curiosity and expectation. Owen's ideas about the relationship between human behavior and happiness and the material conditions of their existence were familiar to intellectuals in the United States from about 1817, when they were publicized in various British reviews.T.D. Seymour Bassett, "The Secular Utopian Socialists," in Donald Drew Egbert and Stow Persons (eds.), ''Socialism and American Life: Volume 1.'' Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1952; pg. 161. In response, those favoring the

communitarian Communitarianism is a philosophy that emphasizes the connection between the individual and the community. Its overriding philosophy is based upon the belief that a person's social identity and personality are largely molded by community rela ...

ideal had established an organization called the New York Society for Promoting Communities, a group headed by a

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named Cornelius C. Blatchly. It would be Blatchly and his associates who would welcome Owen to New York on November 4, 1824, presenting the visitor with a copy of the group's 1822 publication extracting Owen's writings, ''Essay on Common Wealths.'' A great popular interest surrounded Owen's arrival and subsequent announcement that he had purchased an entire established community in the state of Indiana from the

Harmony Society The Harmony Society was a Christian theosophy and pietist society founded in Iptingen, Germany, in . Due to religious persecution by the Lutheran Church and the government in Württemberg, the group moved to the United States,Robert Paul Sutto ...

for $140,000, with a view to establishing a model community to test his social theories in the crucible of practice. Despite — or perhaps due to — the distance between New York and the Owenite example on the American frontier in Indiana, interest grew in establishment parallel communities elsewhere. Despite the existence of the New York Society for Promoting Communities, it would not be the formal authority behind the creation of an Owenite colony; instead it would be a group of committed

freethinkers Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other method ...

from the New York City area, including

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

leader George Houston, who had previously suffered imprisonment in England for his anti-deist writings.Arthur Bestor, ''Backwoods Utopias: The Sectarian Origins and the Owenite Phase of Communitarian Socialism in America, 1663-1829.''

950 Year 950 ( CML) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: A Hamdanid army (30,000 men) led by Sayf al-Dawla raids in ...

Enlarged 2nd Edition. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1970; pg. 203.

Establishment

In the spring of 1826 the Franklin Community was founded, with a preparatory constitution approved in March and a site selected the following month. The site selected was located about two miles from the

near the town of

, New York. Included were 120 or 130 acres of farmland, with a purchase price of $16,000 or $18,000 stipulated.Bestor, ''Backwoods Utopias,'' pp. 203-204. The enterprise was named in honor of

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a m ...

(1709-1790), one of the founding fathers of the American republic. George Houston was named secretary of the new Owenite community. Families began to move in immediately, beginning to farm the land early in May 1826.Bestor, ''Backwoods Utopias,'' pg. 204. Many believed that their so-called "

sweat equity Sweat equity is a non-monetary benefit that a company's stakeholders give in labor and time, rather than a monetary contribution, that benefit the company. Sweat equity is rewarded in the form of sweat equity shares. These are shares given out by a ...

" (to borrow a modern phrase) would be sufficient to attain membership in the community. Deprived of access to Robert Owen's purse, the fledgling community found it difficult to raise funds, only managing to raise the necessary one-third downpayment on June 23, 1826. A financial restructuring was required and the constitution was altered shortly thereafter to require a cash payment in exchange for community membership — a change which resulted in the great unhappiness of early participants, who felt themselves cheated and robbed of their pioneering labor. 190 years later the house stands today in the town of Haverstraw on the outskirts of the village of West Haverstraw. An article exists in the local paper titled "The short and unhappy life of a backwoods Utopia" by Isabelle Savell Adding to the discord was the arrival of Houston and his atheist associates, who immediately set about secularizing the community's schools, encouraging Sunday labor in violation of Biblical precepts, and establishing a "Church of Reason" — backing their actions with anti-religious quotations from Robert Owen's written works.

Termination and legacy

Underfinanced and wracked with discord, the Franklin Community failed about five months after the launch of the venture. Former secretary of the Franklin Community George Houston would found a new rationalist journal in January 1827, called ''The Correspondent.'' Houston would be joined in his editorial task by

Abner Kneeland Abner Kneeland (April 7, 1774 – August 27, 1844) was an American evangelist and theologian who advocated views on women's rights, racial equality, and religious skepticism that were radical for his day. As a young man, Kneeland was a lay preach ...

, whose subsequent trial for

blasphemy Blasphemy is a speech crime and religious crime usually defined as an utterance that shows contempt, disrespects or insults a deity, an object considered sacred or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religio ...

would prove to be one of the landmark political events of the decade of the 1830s.

Footnotes

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History

Background

Establishment

Termination and legacy

See also

Footnotes

Further reading