John Humphrey Noyes Totally Explained

Everything about John Humphrey Noyes totally explained

John Humphrey Noyes (September 3, 1811 – April 13, 1886) was an American utopian socialist. He founded the Oneida Community in 1848.

Life

Early activism

Noyes was born in Brattleboro, Vermont wasn't 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'd gained as a farmer allowing him to “make the application of a revolutionary religious doctrine to everyday life, an application that produced a social revolution” (Bernstein, 158).
It was in his second year at Yale that he made his first theological discovery. He was trying to determine the second coming of Christ and determined it had already occurred. His conclusion told him that Christ’s second coming had taken place in 70 A.D and that “mankind was now living in a new age” (Sandeen, 83). With this in mind he became increasingly concerned with salvation from sin and 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” (Sandeen, 83). It was this idea of in the idea of Perfectionism — that it was possible to be free of sin in this lifetime — that caused his friends to think him unbalanced and he began being called a heretic by his own professors. From the moment of his conversion Noyes maintained that because he'd surrendered his will to God everything he chose to do was perfect because his choices “came from a perfect heart” (Sandeen, 83). 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” (Bernstein, 162). Noyes claimed “his new relationship to God cancelled out his obligation to obey traditional moral standards or the normal laws of society” (Sandeen, 83). As a result Noyes started acting on impulses from his intuition rather than giving anything 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've taken away my license to preach but I'll 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 written 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; 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.
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 two marriage proposals from two different 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.
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 many of his followers.

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 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)

Further Information

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