NEW HARMONY, INDIANA : HARMONY FOR RELIGIOUS COMMITMENT AND DISHARMONY FOR EGALITARIAN IDEAS?

Abstract

Utopian colonies were flourishing in antebellum America, more than a hundred of such colonies were founded in this period by people who wanted to lead a life different from that of the mainstream. Some of the colonies were short-lived and some lasted many decades

In my thesis I aim at explaining the reasons why such colonies were established and to give an account of the diversity of them. As examples of such colonies I have chosen the two colonies that resided in the little village of New Harmony, Indiana, from 1815 to 1828, the religious colony the Rappites and the secular, social reform colony the Owenites. The Rappites were a group of German dissenters, founded by the agricultural worker and lay preacher Georg Rapp in 1804, who wanted to await the Millennium, the second coming of Christ on virgin soil in America. The founder of the Owenites, the rich Welch industrialist Robert Owen was kindled by the philosophy of the Enlightenment, and established his utopian colony in order to save the world from the consequences of the ongoing industrial revolution. His ambition was to create a more perfect society through free education and the abolition of social classes and wealth, therefore his colony focused on education, science and art.

The two colonies of New Harmony differed in ideology, lifestyle and leadership, and their legacy left different traces in America’s history. The founders of these two colonies represented the two different sets of values which were dominant in that period, religion and egalitarianism. Due to various reasons, the outcome of the two colonies turned out differently and finally I compare and contrast the two colony and the coherent forces that held their members together.