ABSTRACT
The American communes existed as separate autonomous and exclusive settlements. As any other attempt at generalization, this may pose a problem because the ideological and religious motivations that brought about the establishment of 270 communes encompass an enormous variety. The hardships they suffered during the crossing, the difficulties of adapting to a new land, and their decision to establish separate settlements for their sect were steps toward a profound process of communitarianism. A review of the religious communes in America does show that most adopted millenary doctrines. Perfectability was the foundation of their doctrine and they were convinced that communal life would morally cleanse them. The idea that communes were model communities surfaced at several stages in Shaker history, especially during Frederick Evans's leadership in the late nineteenth century, and in Oneida during the 1870s. The socialist communes regarded the religious ones as their "older sisters," acknowledged their seniority, and admired their survivability.
