New Harmony

New Harmony was a utopian community founded by the British industrialist and social reformer Robert Owen in 1825. Established in southwestern Indiana, it was one of the first intense efforts to create a community based on cooperative, proto-socialist ideals, but it failed after two years, mainly because of the flawed principles it was founded on. Portions of New Harmony still exist, and continue to be a reminder of this early socialist experiment.

Beginnings

In 1804, a German quasi-religious sect under the leadership of Father George Rapp emigrated to America. The principles of the group, whose members called themselves "Harmonists" but were more generally known as "Rappites," are somewhat vague, but it emphasized communal life and labor, withdrawal from the state and from established religion, and strict obedience to the will of their leader, Father Rapp. Among other things, Rapp outlawed all sexual activity and the use of tobacco, and demanded simple living from his followers (he himself had had four children and lived in a large and comfortable house).

After arriving in America, the Rappites lived in Pennsylvania for a time before moving to the Wabash river valley in Indiana, where Rapp purchased some 20,000 acres for the construction of a new community, named Harmony. The group built over a hundred structures, but they found the climate hot and unhealthy and eventually moved back east.

In 1824, the reformer Robert Owen visited America to explain his ideas for cooperative living. After becoming a rich and successful industrialist in Scotland, Owen had gone on to propose tighter regulation for laboring conditions, including a ban on child labor. By the early 1820s, he had begun proposing the elimination of private property and individual life; instead, people were to live in rectangular communes where commodities would be distributed by the authorities and profits would be fairly divided among the members. He also proposed eliminating religion and the institution of marriage.

Owen was already aware of Rapp's community and sought to emulate his system of organization and control. On learning of the Rappites' intention to sell their Indiana land and return east, Owen purchased the site in the winter of 1824-25 and renamed it "New Harmony," inviting his supporters to join him there and create a new society.