The Utopian Communities of Brook Farm and Oneida in Early 19th Century America

George Ripley, a Harvard graduate and Unitarian minister, started a transcendentalist experiment known as Brook Farm, which lasted from 1841 to 1848. A one hundred and seventy five acre farm owed by Charles and Maria Ellis in West Roxbury, Massachusetts was the location for the community. Brook Farm was set up as a joint-stock company and 24 stocks were issued at $500 a piece. Each share was secured against the assets of the company and the purchase of the stock included voting rights to the newly formed community and an entitlement for one child to receive an education in the projected educational facilities. Ripley, who was the author of a principal transcendental journal and based Brook Farm on the ideas of socialist Charles Fourier, sought to create a community that combined the ideals of radical social reform with individual self-reliance. …