Noyes taught that:
These doctrines gradually led to the establishment of communism in property among the believers, and finally to a system of "complex marriage." Which stated that any exclusive or monogamic relationship between the sexes was sternly disallowed as partaking of selfishness, and hence of sin. It was not, however, a system of promiscuity or license, and sex relations were carefully regulated by the community, which assumed responsibility for the support and education of the children. To this system in its entirety Noyes applied the term, "bible communism" (Ferm 188).
Noyes attributes the success at Oneida, N.Y. to the novel system of "mutual criticism," under which each member sat silent while all the others disclosed his most intimate faults and attainments. These moral and emotional purges proved so successful that the Oneidans used it to treat illness, which they regarded as having spiritual origins (Kyle 80). These social pressures, tactfully guided and tempered by Noyes, served the ends of government and discipline within the group. (This may be the reason Smith described Oneida as a dictatorship.)
For instance, the system of "complex marriage" came from Noyes� prediction that in heaven there would be no marriage and it was based on the notion that "the marriage supper of the lamb was a feast where every dish is free to every guest" (as interesting as that sounds!). All members of Oneida were to consider themselves as united in a group marriage and were encouraged to "keep in circulation" (Hayden 187). The asceticism of the system was that exclusive relationships or special feelings between two members of the community was prohibited (Kyle 79).
Colonists: Beginning in 1849, branches were maintained at Putney and Cambridge, Vt., Wallingford, Conn., and Brooklyn and Manilus, N.Y., but after 1855 all the interests of the community were concentrated at Oneida and Wallingford, and the membership limited to a more gradual increase. The success of the experiment dates from this concentration, and the next decade and a half was later looked back upon by the older members as their "happiest years."
Reason for Demise: Internal dissention, court litigation, and public hostility forced the community to leave Putney and relocate at Oneida, N.Y. early in 1848.
The community carried on an extensive propaganda through periodicals, books, and pamphlets published by its own presses. This publicity aroused an intense hostility against the communists, especially among the churches, which was greatly intensified by their attempt to apply what scientific knowledge they possessed to the production of the best possible offspring by a system of selective mating within the community. Internal difficulties also developed with the rise of a new generation who lacked the religious fervor of the early founders and converts who had never ceased to consider themselves as revivalists and Perfectionists first, and social reformers secondarily. As a result of these influences, the system of "complex marriage" was abandoned in 1879, and a year later the community was reorganized as a joint stock company known as Oneida Community, Limited. It has gradually withdrawn from its varied industries, but has continued to prosper as manufacturers of Community Silver, for which it is internationally known. The present company declares that it "has no connection with the old beyond the personnel and traditions which it inherited from its forty years� experience as a community."
Please note that all dates vary depending on the text.
Ferm, Vergilius, Ed. An Encyclopedia of Religion. The Philosophical Library, New York: 1945.
Hayden, Dolores. Seven American Utopias. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.:1976.
Kyle, Richard. The Religious Fringe: A History of Alternative Religions in America. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Ill.: 1993.
Moore, R. Laurence. Selling God: American Religion in the Marketplace of Culture. Oxford UP, New York: 1994.
