John Humphrey Noyes: The Putney Community

by George Wallingford Noyes (Editor)

Hardcover

Reviews

[Aliavander · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We are opposed to random procreation, which is unavoidable in the marriage system."

[Fred Kohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second in a series of three books written by George Wallingford Noyes, nephew of John Humphrey Noyes, tracing the history of J. H. Noyes from his birth to his years in the Oneida Community. The first of these books, Religious Experience of John Humphrey Noyes: Founder of the Oneida Community, covers the period from J. H. Noyes's birth up until his move to Putney, Vermont. This present book covers the founding of the Community up until the move to Oneida, New York. I have not been able to locate the third book, but it seems that it has been substantially preserved in the form of the book Free Love in Utopia: John Humphrey Noyes and the Origin of the Oneida Community edited by Lawrence Foster, and published in 2001. I suppose that only the last book has been republished because people aren’t especially interested in Noyes's religious journey prior to his establishment of the Oneida Community. Nonetheless, I found the story of how Putney came to be established fascinating. This book and the first volume are both available online.

The thing about the establishment of the Putney Community is that it was definitely a process. I was getting the story from the horse's mouth, and nevertheless I had to consult Wikipedia: "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." I was able to confirm the 1836 date from the book. In a document dated 1846 Noyes wrote, "We had studied the Bible systematically for ten years, and were trying to express our conclusions in appropriate external forms." The 1844 date probably comes from the "Contract of Partnership," in which members of the community made financial commitments to the community. It was adopted on February 26, 1844. However, complex marriage did not begin until 1846 when the Noyeses and the Cragins moved in together, and male continence (coitus reservatus) seems to have begun around the same time.

A primary value of the first two volumes is the preservation of a large amount of correspondence between principal players in Noyes’s life. I found the correspondence in this volume more helpful than the correspondence in the first volume, which to me seemed mostly of historical interest. For example the chapter The Belchertown Imbroglio preserved many letters between Joshua Longley and John H. Noyes that discussed conflicts between Noyes and the Perfectionist in Belchertown. These conflicts involved many theological points and I, at least found them interesting.

It was at Putney that Noyes established the practice of mutual criticism, a practice that was to continue at the Oneida Community. This involved basically members of the Community ganging up on one individual pointing out his or her faults. This seems like a really awful practice to me, and contrasts with a practice we used to have at an old church of mine called Affirmation Dinners. At an Affirmation Dinner, there was a guest of honor. All the other people were only allowed to talk about the guest of honor, and the point was to affirm all the good points about that person. This, to me, seems like a better practice than mutual criticism.

Nonetheless, nobody seemed to much mind mutual criticism. Years later Allan Estlake wrote, "Today I feel that I would gladly give many years of my life if I could have just one more criticism from John H. Noyes."

I was grateful to learn of Estlake's book on the Oneida Community, which I promptly read. Another book that I learned of via this book on the Putney Community, was Noyes's book Bible Communism, which unfortunately is out of print and does not seem to be available on the internet. Fortunately we can glean insights into Noyes's views on the subject from passages such as these: "In Bible Communism excessive labor will be done away. Labor is excessive or not according to the proportion between strength and work. Bible Communism increases strength by placing the individual in an organization which receives life from its source and distributes it with the highest activity. It reduces work by reducing the needed amount of food, raiment and shelter. As society becomes vital and refined, drawing its best nourishment from happiness, the grosser kinds of food, especially animal food, will go out of use, and the fruits of trees will become staple. Woman's dress will be simple and beautiful and nearly the same as man's. Buildings too will be more compact, and much labor now expended in accommodating egotism and exclusiveness will be saved."

Does Bible Communism work? Apparently not. Though there were several experiments in Bible Communism in the 19th century, Oneida was apparently the most successful, and it did not outlive its leader by more than a few years. One commune that caught my interest was the Yellow Springs Community, occupying the site of what is now Antioch College in Ohio. It comprised seventy-nive or a hundred families and lasted about a year. It caught my interest because I have been to the wonderful community of Yellow Springs.

I have yet to read Noyes's book A History of American Socialisms, although I have the Kindle version. Also on my to-read list is Practical Christian Socialism, by Adin Ballou. I learned of Adin Ballou's connection to Christian Socialism via this volume on the Putney Community.