The American Nation A History of the United States, Combined Volume (14th Edition)

Backwoods Utopias 277

The Shakers practiced celibacy; believing that the
millennium was imminent, they saw no reason for
perpetuating the human race. Each group lived in a
large Family House, the sexes strictly segregated.
Property was held in common but controlled by a
ruling hierarchy. So much stress was placed on equal-
ity of labor and reward and on voluntary acceptance
of the rules, however, that the system does not seem
to have been oppressive.
The Shaker religion, joyful and fervent, was
marked by much group singing and dancing, which
provided the members with emotional release from
their tightly controlled regimen. An industrious, skill-
ful people, they made a special virtue of simplicity;
some of their designs for buildings and, especially,
furniture achieved a classic beauty seldom equaled
among untutored artisans. Despite their customs, the
Shakers were universally tolerated and even admired.

There were many other reli-

gious colonies, such as the Amana

Community, which flourished in

New York and Iowa in the 1840s

and 1850s, and John Humphrey

Noyes’s Oneida Community, where

the members practiced “complex”

marriage—a form of promiscuity

based on the principle that every

man in the group was married to

every woman. They prospered by

developing a number of manufac-

turing skills.

The most important of the

religious communitarians were the

Mormons. A remarkable Vermont

farm boy, Joseph Smith, founded

the religion in western New York

in the 1820s. Smith saw visions; he

claimed to have discovered and

translated an ancient text, the

Book of Mormon, written in

hieroglyphics on plates of gold,

which described the adventures of

a tribe of Israelites that had popu-

lated America from biblical times

until their destruction in a great

war in 400 CE. With a small band

of followers, Smith established a

community in Ohio in 1831. The

Mormons’ dedication and eco-

nomic efficiency attracted large

numbers of converts, but their

unorthodox religious views and

their exclusivism, a product of

their sense of being a chosen peo-

ple, caused resentment among

unbelievers. The Mormons were forced to move first

to Missouri and then back to Illinois, where in 1839

they founded the town of Nauvoo.

Nauvoo flourished—by 1844 it was the largest city

in the state, with a population of 15,000—but once

again the Mormons ran into local trouble. They quar-

reled among themselves, especially after Smith secretly

authorized polygamy (he called it “celestial marriage”)

and a number of other unusual rites for members of

the “Holy Order,” the top leaders of the church.^1

They created a paramilitary organization, the Nauvoo

Legion, headed by Smith, envisaging themselves as a

semi-independent state within the Union. Smith

announced that he was a candidate for president of the

Gulf of

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Mormon migration

Fourierists

Owenites

Mainly New Englander settlement

Oneida Community

1836–1881

Amana

1843–1932

Nashoba

1825–1930

Brook Farm

Kirtland 1841–1846

1831–1838

Palmyra 1830

New Harmony

1824–1827

Independence

1831–1839

Nauvoo

1840–1846

Mormons

Shakers

Others

New England Roots of Utopian CommunitiesThe shaded section represents areas that were
settled predominantly by people from New England. It suggests that communitarian sentiments
were strongly influenced by New England culture.

(^1) One justification of polygamy, paradoxically, was that marriage was a
sacred, eternal state. If a man remarried after his wife’s death, eventu-
ally he would have two wives in heaven. Therefore why not on earth?