Industrial America was flourishing with technological advancements, but a number of failures left what would usually suffice for the happiness of its citizens, kept it open for scrutiny. During an age of reform, American Romanticism produced a group called American Transcendentalists who were the first to condemn these new advancements. Due to this, many activists sought to make utopian societies in the shadow of industrialism that loomed and circled around them. Robert Owen’s second community experiment in America, Socialville, was entirely based on socialist ideals of science and reason; this community had the potential to enforce the weak economy during America’s everlasting quest for perfectionism. No other groups attempted to solely embrace economic ideals in order to make a successful community expect for Robert Owen.
The rapid expansion of Industrialism caused the development of huge cities, built around 
the factories the kept the economy a-float. Technological advancements like the cotton gin, steamboats, railroads, and canals pushed the U.S.into being a self-sufficient urban machine (Davidson 259-269). These advancements were positive for America’s economy, but were scrutinized and associated with political weakness or according to Josiah Warren, the American individualist anarchism brought on by free market and strong advocacy for private property (Wikipedia Foundation 4). Both left the possibly successful American economy always on the edge of disaster. Many economic problems pushed Americans into the unemployment and poverty that made the government vulnerable to criticism. One disaster that rattled the everyday life of many Americans was The National Bank Panic of 1819 that led to an economic depression. As stated in Nation of Nations, this break down “made the 20s a time of soul-searching, during which many uneasy 
farmers and workers came to view the hard times as punishment for having lost sight of the old virtues of simplicity, frugality, and hard work. For these Americans, banks were a symbol of the commercialization of American society and the rapid passing of a simpler way of life” (Davidson 303). The economic downfalls would not end there, as the next depression was much larger and hit a broader range of people. The Panic of 1837 during Martin Van Buren’s presidency left the economy in shambles as the international cotton market collapsed (Davidson 306).
American Transcendentalists identified the problem with America’s market economy, no matter how successful, and would ultimately destroy the nature of human beings and of the land our country was founded upon (Davidson 323). Transcendentalists could be called the first group of hippies because of their identification with perfectionism only through peace of mind within nature. Unlike hippies, the Transcendentalists in the early 1800s displayed most of their influence through the literature world having followers like Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Fennimore, and Bronson Alcott (Davidson 332-333). Due to the massive wave of Romanticism and Transcendentalism thinking, the individual quest for perfectionism sparked the idea to make utopian communities away from this economic monster.
Thanks to the Romanticism infiltration of living in close connection with nature; religious groups sought to totally isolate themselves from the outside world in order to achieve perfectionism (Davidson 324). The two main religions that made the most communities were Christianity and the Mormons (Davidson 326). These communities made up rules and regulations specific to their religion’s ideals along with a focus on agriculture being a pure means of community survival (Davidson 325-326). Since government interference was limited, these societies, at the time, were ideal. No other groups attempted to solely embrace economic ideals in order to make a successful community expect for Robert Owen.
Robert Owen was a Scottish industrialist that drew up the plans for Socialville. His belief was “that the character of individuals was shaped by their surroundings and that by changing those surroundings, one could change human character” (Davidson 327). Also, the weakness in America’s economy was it’s frailty in authority, individual need for material goods, and cause for mass impoverished people (Wikipedia Foundation 2-3). His planned community, Socialville, was a socialist run community with a classless society. Owen recommended that Socialville contain about 1200 people, “all living in one large building in the form of a square, with public kitchen and mess-rooms. Each family has its own private apartments, and the entire care of the children till the age of three, after which they should be brought up by the community, their parents having access to them at meals and all other proper times… Work, and the enjoyment of its results, should be in common” (Wikipedia Foundation 3).
Ultimately, Socialville did not last due to a lack of individual sovereignty and property ownership in a time of expansion and freedom on a newly discovered land. The ideals of a perfect society were there, but the time, place, and greed would not handle such a task. This was not the first attempted society based on a utopia, but one of the many that failed. Utopian societies continually evolved into different ideologies such as Techno-Communism, which believes that digital development will advance society, and Nazi Germany had utopian-led ideals during their massacres in World War II.
The Socialist Utopian belief was one of many attempts to expand and create a society for a group of people, just as the original settlers had done. The involvement of major thinkers and writers helped its cause to be recognized by the American government, and attempted to be elected into office on multiple occasions. Although the Socialist movement was not successful in America, many countries have relished under a socialist rule for many years.
Wikimedia Foundation Inc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Owen
Wikimedia Foundation Inc http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_individualist_anarchism
Davidson, James W., Gienapp, William E., Heyrman, Christine L., Lytle, Mark H., Stoff, Michael B. Nation of Nations. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2006
This group project went extremely smoothly. After class on Tuesday the group got together to work out the final details and get the map together. In this group project the mapmakers were Taylor and Estefanie. To follow that job Jamison took on the researching to back up our map. After researching Candi completed the job of writing the draft and changing anything in it that the proofreader and editor, Lauren, made to the document. Lauren was also the reporter for this group. This project was different from the others and the group worked extremely well on it. More like this would be great!
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