Brook Farm
Brook Farm was a mid-nineteenth-century utopian community located in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, established in 1841 by George Ripley, a Unitarian minister, and his wife, Sophia. The community aimed to create a harmonious society blending agricultural work and education, fostering a cooperative lifestyle among its members. Brook Farm gained prominence due to its association with transcendentalism, attracting key literary figures who contributed to its cultural significance. Despite its idealistic foundations, the community faced financial instability from the outset, largely due to unpaid member shares and increasing debts. By 1846, after a series of challenges including a smallpox epidemic and a devastating fire, Brook Farm disbanded. However, its legacy endures, as it remains a site of historical interest and is preserved for public access. The community was also involved in various social reform movements, advocating for issues such as abolition and women's rights. Ultimately, Brook Farm serves as a notable example of the American utopian experiment and the complexities surrounding such endeavors.
Brook Farm
Brook Farm was a community set up in the mid-nineteenth century in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. Based on utopian principles, Brook Farm was led by George Ripley and his wife, Sophia. Ripley was a Unitarian minister, and Brook Farm is associated with the Unitarian or Universalist organization. Three other utopian communities were established by the Unitarians; however, Brook Farm achieved the most fame and is widely known. This is in large part due to the transcendentalist way of life that ran through the community, with many of its residents as key literary figures of the time. Living according to a cooperative lifestyle, Brook Farm’s supporters joined as communal members.
George Ripley’s letter to Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1840 laid out his plan to organize the utopian community of Brook Farm. Ripley, his wife, and friends collaborated to transform Ellis Farm in West Roxbury, close to Boston, into Brook Farm, initially formulated as a "Practical Institute of Agriculture and Education."
Brief History
Brook Farm was established in 1841 and it lasted six and a half years. The context and premise within which Brook Farm was created was as a utopian society. The main components of the community were the symbiosis of a farm and a school. The farm would cater to manual labor and agriculture while the school would satisfy and promote the benefits of intellect and education. Ripley and colleagues would be responsible for fulfilling the teaching roles in the school.
Financially, Brook Farm was started by George and Sophia Ripley, who raised money and conducted the community according to a joint-stock venture format, which required members to purchase shares. Although potential members pledged, many did not pay for the shares, resulting in a lack of funds. Loans were taken from friends and locals, with mortgages taken out to boost the capital. The fact that the finances were not solid to begin with did little to mitigate the unstable position in which the community found itself, no matter how successful the school or farm became. This escalated with the building of new homes on borrowed cash, an increasing debt that kept rising, until finally they had to look elsewhere to pull themselves out of the quagmire. The Associationist (or Fourierist) Movement was approached, but this meant altering the focus of Brook Farm from a farm milieu to an industrial one. The year 1844 marked the time during which many of the founding members of Brook Farm resigned. Debts escalated further until 1845 when the collapse was near. A smallpox epidemic in the community caused members to remove their children, so that the last remaining vestige of financial hope, the school, was almost empty. By 1846, following a fire and the concomitant loss, Brook Farm had to disband. There were no finances; instead the community was overcome with debt. The Ripleys had to leave Brook Farm, moving to New York City. Although Brook Farm met its demise, interest in the community has not waned.
Overview
George Ripley (1802–80), a Harvard graduate, was both a Unitarian minister and a transcendentalist. Together with his wife, Sophia (1803–61), Ripley envisioned Brook Farm offering a sense of utopian living with the Ripleys as the leaders. George Ripley rose as a central figure in the meeting point between Unitarianism and transcendentalism. Brook Farm, an extension of the ideal, was a place where Ripley could expound his ideas and nurture the community per a noncompetitive and classless society. He began the project as soon as he announced he was leaving his job as pastor in 1841. Brook Farm was often referred to as Ripley’s Farm, given his primary position. Ripley authored Discourses on the Philosophy of Religion from 1833 to 1836, reflecting his religious thoughts and perceptions on truth. For him, Brook Farm was to be a "city of God, anew." When Brook Farm ended, Ripley utilized his writing skills to become a journalist and literary critic. He remarried following his first wife’s conversion to Catholicism and the strained relations that ensued as a result of this and the project’s downfall.
Brook Farm was inhabited by transcendentalists who lived there predominantly during the 1840s. The experimentation with the utopian ideal revolved around the notion of regenerating and perfecting society. The notion of a model society providing a framework, and living the utopian dream became molded in reality. Generally initiated as a means of creating a certain religious outlook, Brook Farm purported to farm the land while living in brotherhood, peace, and harmony.
Utopian communities were based on the pursuit of social harmony. Intended as a system that was free of government rule, the community was then theoretically open to perfect the members in a way that would not be possible if chained to restrictive authority elsewhere. In reality, members of Brook Farm were not unanimous in their feelings that Brook Farm was working. Nathaniel Hawthorne not only wrote a satire in 1952, The Blithedale Romance, based on community life, but was also disillusioned by what Brook Farm purported to give its inhabitants and did not.
Impact
The Brook Farm community were involved with the country’s reform movements to instigate change. These included working against abolition and advocating for women’s rights. In addition, they aligned themselves with a system called associationism, a precursor to socialism. The Workingmen’s Movement was another cause they championed.
In the twenty-first century, Brook Farm remains a national historic site, protected by the Massachusetts government, and its Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. Hiking and picnic facilities are available for the public in this West Roxbury landmark location. Tours are also available to allow people to enjoy the 179 acres of fields, woodlands, and wetlands on which Brook Farm was established.
Bibliography
"Brook Farm." Unitarian Universalist Association. Unitarian Universalist Association, 2015. Web. 17 May 2016.
"Brook Farm Historic Site." Mass.Gov. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2016. Web. 17 May 2016.
"Experiments with Utopia." US History. Independence Hall Association, 2014. Web. 17 May 2016.
Gordon, Jessica. "History of Brook Farm." American Transcendentalism Web. American Transcendentalism Web, n.d. Web. 17 May 2016.
McEmrys, Aaron. "Brook Farm." Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography. Unitarian Universalist History & Heritage Society, 4 Apr. 2006. Web. 17 May 2016.
Ripley, George. "Discourses on the Philosophy of Religion, 1." American Transcendentalism Web. American Transcendentalism Web, n.d. Web. 17 May 2016.
Robinson, David. "George Ripley." Dictionary of Unitarian and Universalist Biography. Unitarian Universalist History & Heritage Society, 3 Nov. 2001. Web. 17 May 2016.