The Revolt of the Bees (London: Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Browne and Greene [1826] 1839), 22–27

Drawing upon Bernard Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees and upon Robert Owen’s New Lanark experiment, John Minter Morgan’s parable was serialised in the Co-operative Magazine, which was one of the leading socialist publications in Britain during the late 1820s and early 1930s. Using the bees as an allegory for human society, Morgan showed how the insects were now in a state of misery after having traded their natural state in favour of competition and private property. Embracing communitarian socialism was the only way to bring about a better future which would reconcile the advantages of modern technical innovation and the harmonious co-operation of old. The Revolt of the Bees proved very successful, and was important in promoting Owen’s views while the latter was living in New Harmony between 1825 and 1828. Morgan helped popularise the imagery of the beehive, which later became a prominent working-class and co-operative symbol.