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John Humphrey Noyes

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: John Humphrey Noyes
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(born Sept. 3, 1811, Brattleboro, Vt., U.S. — died April 13, 1886, Niagara Falls, Ont., Can.) U.S. social reformer. While studying for the ministry at Yale, Noyes declared his belief in "perfectionism," announcing that he had achieved a state of sinlessness. Because his views were in direct opposition to the prevailing Calvinism, he was forced to leave Yale. In 1836 he organized a community of "Bible communists" in Putney, Vt., where he advocated free love and "complex" marriage as opposed to "simple," or monogamous, marriage. Arrested for adultery in 1846, he fled to Oneida, N.Y., where he established the Oneida Community, which he led until 1879, when he fled to Canada to avoid legal action. He wrote several books on perfectionism and a history of U.S. utopian communities.

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Biography: John Humphrey Noyes
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John Humphrey Noyes (1811-1886) was the founder of the Oneida Community, one of the notable experimental societies of his century.

John Humphrey Noyes, born on Sept. 3, 1811, in Brattleboro, Vt., was raised in an individualistic family by a religious mother and a father who became an agnostic, succeeded in business, and served in the U. S. Congress. Noyes graduated from Dartmouth College in 1830 and entered law. Converted by revivals, he attended Andover Theological Seminary and then Yale College. His studies centered on biblical passages which persuaded him that one could be free of sin.

In 1834 Noyes experienced a "second conversion"; his assertion that he had achieved perfection cost him his place at Yale. His essential point, expounded in The Perfectionist, was that, being free of sin, he was restricted by man-made laws. Also, God, being composed of man and woman, required both in full relation for salvation from sin. As early as 1834 Noyes expressed dissatisfaction with formal marriage.

This view matured into an article of faith but did not impede Noyes's marriage in 1838 to Harriet A. Holton. In 1846, when his religious followers first engaged in "complex marriage," they created a scandal. Noyes was arrested and faced charges of adultery. He ran off to Oneida, N.Y., in an area noted for its social and religious experimenters. He was joined by the greater number of his followers in 1848. Noyes's writings of that year, Bible Communism and Male Continence, along with The Berean (1847), summed up his views.

The Oneida community outraged its neighbors and precipitated several scandals, yet its several hundred members settled into an equitable society, living together in a vast house of many chambers, with other establishments for housekeeping and industry. The sales of a steel trap gave the colony economic security. Efforts were made to develop other colonies, and a small one at Wallingford, Conn., succeeded.

"Father" Noyes was absolute dictator of Oneida. Despite defections, the community solidified through such traditions as public confession of egotistical behavior. Noyes pioneered in selective childbearing, expressing his principles in Scientific Propagation (ca. 1873). A student of communities, he concluded in his History of American Socialisms (1870) that only religiously based communities could flourish. In time, however, elements at Oneida tired of public disapproval. In 1879 Noyes himself prepared plans to dissolve the community, and in 1881 it was reorganized as a corporation. Noyes, to avoid legal suits, moved to Canada. He died at Niagara Falls, Ontario, on April 13, 1886.

Further Reading

Excellent introductions in Noyes's own words are provided in two works edited by George W. Noyes, Religious Experience of John Humphrey Noyes, Founder of the Oneida Community (1923) and John Humphrey Noyes: The Putney Community (1931). Noyes is sympathetically treated in William A. Hinds, American Communities (1878; rev. ed. 1908), and critically treated in Gilbert Seldes, The Stammering Century (1928). See also Pierrepont Noyes, My Father's House: An Oneida Boyhood (1937).

Additional Sources

Thomas, Robert David, The man who would be perfect: John Humphrey Noyes and the Utopian impulse, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1977.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: John Humphrey Noyes
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Noyes, John Humphrey, 1811-86, American reformer, founder of the Oneida community, b. Brattleboro, Vt. He studied theology at Yale but lost his license to preach because of his "perfectionist" doctrine. This took its name from Mat. 5.48 and was based on the belief that man's innate sinlessness could be regained through communion with Christ. At Putney, Vt., he formed (1839) a society of Bible communists, later called Perfectionists. In 1846 they began the practice of complex marriage, a form of polygamy, but this so aroused their neighbors that Noyes was forced to flee. In 1848 he established another community at Oneida, N.Y. (and later a branch at Wallingford, Conn.), where he developed his religious and social experiments in communal living. By 1879 internal dissension had arisen and outside hostility became so strong that Noyes went to Canada, where he spent the rest of his life. His writings include The Berean (1847, repr. 1969) and many pamphlets.

Bibliography

See G. W. Noyes, comp., Religious Experience of John Humphrey Noyes (1923, repr. 1971) and John Humphrey Noyes: the Putney Community (1931); R. A. Parker, A Yankee Saint (1935); P. B. Noyes, My Father's House (1937); C. N. Robertson, ed., Oneida Community (1970).

Wikipedia: John Humphrey Noyes
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John Humphrey Noyes
Born September 3, 1811(1811-09-03)
Brattleboro, Vermont
Died April 13, 1886 (aged 74)
Niagara Falls, Ontario
Occupation Utopian socialist
Known for Oneida Community
Spouse(s) Harriet Holton (m. 1838)
Children Pierrepont Noyes

John Humphrey Noyes (September 3, 1811 – April 13, 1886) was an American utopian socialist. He founded the Oneida Community in 1848.[1] He coined the term "free love".

Contents

Life

Early activism

Noyes was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, and was not even 21 before he started voicing his first "heretical" ideas. While studying at Dartmouth College, Andover Theological Seminary, and Yale Theological College he used his skills at theological argument. He combined this with his skill in religious science, and the common sense he had gained as a farmer, to “make the application of a revolutionary religious doctrine to everyday life, an application that produced a social revolution.”[2]

It was in his second year at Yale that he made his first theological discovery. He was trying to determine the date of the second coming of Christ, and determined it had already occurred. His conclusion was that Christ’s second coming had taken place in 70 A.D., and that “mankind was now living in a new age.”[3] With this in mind he became increasingly concerned with salvation from sin and with perfection. He began to argue with his colleagues that unless man was truly free of sin, then Christianity was a lie, and that only those who were perfect and free of sin were true Christians. This internal religious crisis brought about a religious conversion within Noyes. From there he began to proclaim that he “did not sin.”[3] The idea of Perfectionism—that it was possible to be free of sin in this lifetime—caused his friends to think him unbalanced, and he began to be called a heretic by his own professors. From the moment of his conversion Noyes maintained that, because he had surrendered his will to God, everything he chose to do was perfect because his choices “came from a perfect heart”.[3] His theory centered around the idea that the fact that man had an independent will was because of God, and that this independent will came from God, therefore rendering it divine. The only way to control mankind’s will was with spiritual direction. And Noyes proclaimed “it was impossible for the Church to compel man to obey the law of God, and to send him to eternal damnation for his failure to do so.”[4] Noyes claimed “his new relationship to God canceled out his obligation to obey traditional moral standards or the normal laws of society.”[3] As a result Noyes started acting on impulses from his intuition rather than giving thought to the actions or consequences. On February 20, 1834, he declared himself perfect and free from sin. This declaration caused an outrage at his college, and his newly-earned license to preach was revoked.

Upon his expulsion from Yale and the revocation of his ministerial license, he returned to Putney, Vermont, where he continued to preach, declaring, "I took away their license to sin and they go on sinning; they have taken away my license to preach but I shall go on preaching". At this time his Putney community began to take shape. It started in 1836 as the Putney Bible School and became a formal communal organization in 1844, practicing complex marriage, male continence and striving for Perfection.

Oneida

In 1847, Noyes (who had legally married Harriet Holton in 1838) was arrested for adultery. Upon receiving word that arrest warrants had been issued for several of his loyal followers, the group left Vermont for Oneida, New York, where Noyes knew some friendly Perfectionists with land. They made the decision to settle there, and built their first communal dwelling in 1848.

The Oneida Community, as it came to be known, survived until 1879. It grew to have a membership of over 300, with branch communities in Brooklyn, New York; Wallingford, Connecticut; Newark, New Jersey; Cambridge, Vermont; and Putney, Vermont. The Community had many successful industries. They manufactured animal traps and silk thread, and raised and canned fruits and vegetables. Smaller industries included the manufacture of leather travel bags and palm-leaf hats.

Exile

In June 1879, one of Noyes' most loyal followers alerted him that he was about to be arrested for statutory rape. In the middle of the night, he fled Oneida for Ontario, Canada, where the Community had a factory. In August, he wrote back to the Community, stating that it was time to abandon the practice of complex marriage and live in a more traditional manner. The Community formally dissolved and converted to a joint stock company on January 1, 1881.

Although Noyes never returned to the United States, he remained a powerful influence over many of his followers. Some even left Oneida to come to the Niagara Falls area. One young woman, entertaining marriage proposals from two young men, wrote to Noyes for his advice. When Noyes advised her to reject both proposals and take up with Myron Kinsley—the follower who had tipped him off to his impending arrest, and a man twenty years her senior—she took Noyes' advice.

Death

John Humphrey Noyes died in Niagara Falls, Ontario, in 1886. His body was returned to Oneida and is buried in the Oneida Community Cemetery with those of many of his followers. [1]

Legacy

In the early decades of the 20th century, Noyes' son Pierrepont consolidated the Community's industries and focused solely on silverware production. The company became known as Oneida Limited and was the largest producer of flatware in the world for much of the 20th century. The Community's second communal dwelling, the 93,000-square-foot (8,600 m2) brick "mansion house", survives today as a multi-use facility encompassing a museum, apartments, dormitory housing, guest rooms, and meeting and banquet facilities.

Works

  • The Berean (1847)
  • Bible Communism (1848)
  • History of American Socialisms (1870)
  • Mutual Criticism (1876)

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "The Oneida Community. The Life And Death Of Its Founder, John H. Noyes.". New York Times. April 15, 1886. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E07E2DD1638E533A25756C1A9629C94679FD7CF. Retrieved 2008-05-29. "The death at Niagara Falls, on Tuesday, of John Humphrey Noyes brings conspicuously before the public, probably for the last time, one of the most curious of the Socialistic experiments for which the first half of this century is noted, the Oneida Community of Perfectionists, which Noyes founded, and which, so long as he was able to manage it, maintained a wonderful degree of material prosperity and vitality." 
  2. ^ Bernstein, Leonard. "The Ideas of John Humphrey Noyes, Perfectionist". American Quarterly 5 (1953): 158. JSTOR. IUPUI University Library, Indianapolis. 15 Apr. 2008.
  3. ^ a b c d Sandeen, Ernest R. "John Humphrey Noyes as the New Adam". Church History 40 (1971): 83. JSTOR. IUPUI University Library, Indianapolis. 15 Apr. 2008
  4. ^ Bernstein, Leonard. "The Ideas of John Humphrey Noyes, Perfectionist". American Quarterly 5 (1953): 162. JSTOR. IUPUI University Library, Indianapolis. 15 Apr. 2008.

Further reading

  • Kennedy, David M., et al. (2002). The American Pageant. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
  • Klaw, Spencer (1993). Without Sin: The Life and Death of the Oneida Community. New York: Allen Lane, Penguin Press.
  • Noyes, Pierrepont B. (1937). My Father's House: An Oneida Boyhood. New York and Toronto: Farrar and Rinehart, Inc.

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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