What the
antebellum communes, or utopian communities, had in common was a belief that, by moving away
from society as a whole, groups of people could create perfect, or at least better societies.
Many believed that they might offer an example to the rest of the world, one that would improve
life for the population as a whole.
Generally, the founders and the members
of utopian communities shared a desire to challenge the status quo in society. Mormons, for
example, formed a community based on a shared belief in the teachings of Joseph Smith, who
rejected both mainstream Christianity and the new "Finneyite" reforms of the Second
Great Awakening. Shakers, another explicitly religious organization, coalesced into communities
founded upon a commitment to simple living and to total devotion to religious life, one
manifested by their practice of celibacy. Even the famous Oneida community, which practiced
"free love" was based upon a spiritualism that derived from the Second Great
Awakening.
Some other communities were less explicitly religious, often based
on other theories of social organization. Robert Owen's New Harmony, for example, sought to
structure an industrial society based on sharing the fruits of work. Brook Farm, in
Massachusetts, was essentially a community united by commitment to Transcendentalist thinking.
It also owed much to the thinking of European utopian socialists, more than explicitly religious
beliefs. Generally speaking, these communities lacked the staying power of some of the
higher-profile religious communes. Most only lasted a few years, where the Shakers and Mormons
in particular endured.
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