ABSTRACT
The interesting second quarter of the nineteenth century is that to which belongs the era of communism based upon fraternity and rationalism. Some communistic settlements of this class may have been founded after 1850, but the faith in the regeneration of mankind through this sort of communism had already begun to wane by that date. The communistic settlements of this class, having as their watchwords “Liberty, equality, fraternity,” are connected chiefly with three names, and I think we may indeed say three great names, even if these leaders were visionaries. These names are Robert Owen, a great manufacturer, at one time the “prince of cotton-spinners,” the friend of lords and sovereigns, who was listened to with respect by the Congress of the United States; the French enthusiast, Etienne Cabet, who wrote his romance Voyage to Icaria, and in the year 1848 led to this country an advance-guard of communists who, as they thought, were to redeem the world. 1 The third among these leaders is the one who produced, after all, the greatest impression in the United States, namely, Charles Fourier, who captivated the hearts and imaginations of a considerable number of the noblest Americans – Americans whose names adorn our history. 2 We naturally think in this connection of Brook Farm, and of men like Horace Greeley, George William Curtis, Nathaniel Hawthorne, George Ripley, and William Henry Channing. 3 Hinds mentions some twenty communistic settlements which attempted to carry out the fraternal ideas of Fourier. 4 Alas! these all long since followed to the grave the settlements of Robert Owen and his friends.
