Age of reform in america
Age of reform in americaAmerican reform movements in the early to mid 1800’s strived at improving our developing society. America was growing larger, and with the expanding population, many new ideas sprang up. Conflicting opinions between the people of the United States caused the emergence of an Age of Reform, where people tried to change things such as the educational system and women’s rights. These movements were the result of our nation’s self-determination and interest in improving the society we live in.
Between the 1820’s and 1860’s, Americans were trying new things and promoting different ideas and ways of thinking. Once such idea is that of a utopian society. A utopian society, simple put, means a perfect society. There are many examples of experiments at utopian society in the 1800’s.
George Ripley endeavored to create one of the first utopian societies in West Roxberry, Massachusetts. The community was called Brook Farm, and was established in 1841. Everyone in the community shared labor and leisure time equally. Ripley believed that leisure was the most important step to understanding yourself. The problem with Brook Farm was that the residents ended up believing in a form of communism, despite its objective of being a community where the individual would be able to become ‘whole’. A fire late in 1847 caused the community to disband and separate. Brook Farm is important because not only was it one of the first utopian society experiments in the 1800’s, but it proved that people were confident about trying new things. Critics of Brook Farm said that the point of the community was nothing more than the desire to become better than other people. This demonstrates that (even though it failed) Brooke Farm was created solely for the purpose of bettering the way in which people lived.
In 1948, John Humphrey founded another utopian experiment in Oneida, New York. This was another important utopian society experiment in the 1800’s. In this society, children were raised by the whole community, and businesses were run by the whole community. In other words, everyone who lived there was part of one big family. The Oneida experiment grew fairly large over 30 years, including over 200 people. Oneida challenged traditional practices, and it represented the views of many Americans during the time. Oneida’s fault lied in the fact that is was easily targeted by critics as an excuse to bypass conventional monogamy.
Another example of a utopian experiment is the Mormons. The Mormons began when Joseph Smith published a book called The Book of Mormon. Mormonism began to gain followers, but was never truly accepted in the United States. Joseph Smith was persecuted due to such Mormon beliefs as polygamy. After Joseph Smith was arrested and killed, the Mormons found haven in present day Salt Lake City. There, they created their own form of a utopian society. Although Mormonism is still around today, it is not in wide practice. Mormonism is another example of people trying to...
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