In the early nineteenth century a large number of communal experiments, both secular and religious, sprang up in the northeastern United States. Perhaps the most famous secular commune was Brook Farm, founded by transcendentalists George Ripley and William H. Channing to promote the pursuit of leisure and culture through the proper application of time and labor. Its members (among the more notable were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Margaret Fuller) pursued field labor by day, art and philosophy by night. For a time the system worked so well that two afternoons a week were set aside for leisure and Brook Farm began outcompeting local farmers at the produce market. But by nature the Farms members were thinkers, not workers; despite their success they remained mainly interested in the theoretical and philosophical implications of the experiment. Thus, when a devastating fire brought the community considerable financial burdens in its fifth year, the members felt little compunction about closing shop and returning to their comfortable Boston homes. One of the most notable religious utopias was the Oneida community. Its founder, John Humphrey Noyes, believed that Christs second coming had already occurred and that everyone alive was favored by Divine grace, which Noyes saw as an imperative to live a better life. Perhaps surprisingly, the Oneidans embraced industry and commerce, achieving success in fruit packing, trap making, and silk thread winding. They owned everything communally, and this principle extended to each other. The Oneidans saw monogamy as a selfish act and asserted that the men and women of the community were united in one "complex" marriage; sex between any two consenting members was perfectly acceptable. The Oneidans maintained order solely through "criticism"—anyone acting out of line was made to stand before the other members and hear his or her faults recounted. Oneida remained viable for some thirty years, until the leadership devolved on Noyes son, an agnostic. The old religious fervor died out, and the dream degenerated into a joint stock company. Doubtless the most successful communalists were the Shakers, so called for the early propensity to tremble ecstatically during religious worship. Their guiding light, Mother Ann, espoused four key principles: Virgin Purity, Christian Communism, Confession, and Separation from the World. Though the Shakers were less adamant on the last pointmaintaining social relations and some commerce with heir neighborsthey insisted on the other three, and renounced both personal property and sex. Men and women lived in a single large "Unitary Dwelling" and were considered complete equals, but they occupied separate wings and could speak together only if a third person were present. Despite their religious strictness, Shakers were known as simple, sincere, intelligent people, healthy and long- lived, producers of lovely books and hymns, and of furniture still prized for its quality and durability. In their eyday, six thousand Shakers lived in fifty-eight separate "families" throughout the Northeast. Later their celibacy, combined with their strict discipline, led to a decline in numbers, but even today a small number of elderly Shakers in two communities in Maine and New Hampshire continue to keep the faith. According to the passage, all of the following were characteristic of the Oneida community EXCEPT: Reveal Solution Hide Solution Discussion Correct Answer: D 🗳️ This is a detail question about the Oneida community in the "All of the Following Except" format. The Oneida community is discussed in paragraph 2. In the middle of that paragraph, the author states that the Oneidans believed that all the men and women of the community were united in one "complex’’ marriage, choice (A). Order was maintained through "criticism", a sort of social pressure, choice (B). You can infer that present grace, choice (C), refers to the Oneida founder’s belief that the second coming of Christ had already occurred. But communal living, choice (D), is mentioned in relation to the Shakers, not the Oneidans.
Select an option, then click Submit answer.
- ○ complex marriage.
- ○ maintenance of order through social pressure.
- ○ belief in present grace.
- ○ shared living quarters.