Sexual Communism

Dr. Robert Fogarty is an associate professor of history at Antioch College. If you don't know where that is, it's in Yellow Springs, Ohio. If you don't know where Yellow Springs Ohio is, look at a map. Dr. Fogarty is an authority, I think it's safe to say, on the history of American communal developments. He has published numerous articles in various periodicals, and he is editor of the book "American Utopian-ism." He's currently working on a study of communal societies in America from 1865 to 1920. His topic tonight is "Communal Societies and Sexual Variety: Three Examples" Let me first uh, thank, uh, Professor Hand for inviting me. I'd like to thank all of you for having come. I understand that there was some competition, ice follies uh, are in town.

One has to choose between the ice follies and sex, uh, that causes problems. Yeah. What I would like do is to give you give you some sense about the relationships between communal living and uh, sexual relationships, uh, by looking at three specific examples of communities which, um, developed, flourished in the late nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century. There is often a effort to somehow equate patterns of unusual sexual behavior with, uh, communal living so that one reads, uh, for example about contemporary communes, uh, they are often the preliminary phrase that goes before it is often, uh, "Free Love." It seems to me to be a mistake, having visited some communes, I know that uh, there is more

dysentery and uh, hepatitis in some communes than there is free love. And if one wants to equate any particular uh, malady, to communal arrangement arrangements in the present situation, that's a more appropriate one. So what I will do will go through the history of three separate communities, uh, trying to understand what the social dynamic is between their own theories of sex and communal patterns that they established, then I'll draw some general conclusions at the end. I'll probably talk for about forty minutes, uh, and uh, some of the material is, uh, fairly dense in the sense that it is material that you may not be particularly familiar with, and therefore I'll try to go slowly so that you can follow and if you want to take notes that'll make it somewhat easier. There appeared in 1870 a provocative and interesting book titled

"Free Love and its Votaries, Or, American Socialism Unmasked." And it appeared with the following subtitle: "Being a historical and descriptive account of the rise in progress of various free love associations in the United States and the effects of their vicious teachings upon American Society." It was written by Dr. John B. Ellis, and it was by and large based upon, uh, false material. Dr. Ellis' purpose was, and he wrote this in the preface to the book, to exposed to the public the real character of the advocates of free love, which general term is here applied to all the enemies of marriage, since they are but two alternatives offered to the world: marriage or free love. And the consequences of their teaching. The book was essentially an attack upon the united community, but also dealt with uh, the Berlin Heights Free Love Community, west of of Cleveland, which was founded in the early 1850s. Francis Wright's Nashoba

community, which was founded in Tennessee by the female reformer Francis Wright, uh, and the uh, infamy set forward in the Womens' Suffrage Party as outlined in the recently published, uh, Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, which was published in the early 1870s and uh they vowed the cause of womens' suffrage. Uh recently, there has appeared a book called "Sex and Marriage in Utopian Communities," which surveys the attitude of a wide range of nineteenth century communal experiments in relationship to their attitudes about and practices regarding the flesh. The book's devoted to sex among the utopians are inevitable since most interpreters of communal life have probed it's exotic, rather than its pedestrian, aspects. It was a rare community that did not take a stand on the marriage question why as some experimenters modified or abolished the monogamous family

while others tried to incorporate the family and conventional attitudes within an evolving framework of communal development, some communities, like the Shakers, you most widely known american group the rap rights were established initially in pennsylvania then moved to New Harmony in Indiana and then eventually moved back to uh Pennsylvania. ? which is an eighteenth century monastic group, they adopted celibacy as the ideal state while others- Nashoba, Onedia, the Mormons- openly challenged prevailing customs. These communities, which went against the grain and adopted free love, polygamy, or forms of orgyastic sex as a way of life were often forced to modify those practices and return to conventional forms. Therefore, the Mormons gave up polygamy. Uh, some pressures were brought to bare from um, the part of uh, local authorities against communities like Oneida, so there was always pressure from the external world. Those that adopted celibacy within a religious tradition had greatest chance of success. Those that tried to

combine monogamous nuclear family relationships and the communal life were the least successful. Therefore, if you're going to start a commune and wish to be successful I would urge that you get religion, uh, decide that you're going to lead a celibate life, and then hope for the best. My interest is not in determining the success or failure of such communities, or making judgments about the relative merits of orgies, vis-a-vis the celibate life, as a preferential mode for communal living, but to try and examine the dynamic relationships between the development of communal living and sexual communism by looking at three nineteenth century communal experiments. One that is well known, the Oneida community, and two that are considerably less well known: the Woman's Commonwealth and the House of David. By "sexual communism" I do not simply mean free love but rather patterns of communal living which arise from a view of the world based upon sex differentiation, the centrality of sex within a community, and the role of sex in community life and

its mission to the world. Therefore, when we talk about sex in relationship to communal living it's a mistake to emphasize the free love aspects of it, let me go back over that, uh a view of the world based upon sex differentiation, the centrality of sex within a community- therefore, its role- and thirdly, the role of sex in community life and its mission to the world. The first community I'll deal with will be the Oneida community, which was led by a man by the name of John Humphrey Noyes and founded in the state of New York in 1848. During the 1830s and the early 1840s, Noyes had created a stir among religious reformers with his espousal of an extreme form of religious enthusiasm, known as perfectionism, and had gathered about him in the village of Putney, Vermont, a small group of believers who placed their faith in of messianic abilities and divinely inspired message. In 1846 the believers of Putney did away with the traditional marriage bond and engaged in sexual freedom. The kingdom of Heaven had come for them as they abandoned sexual

exclusiveness in much the same way that they had abandoned property exclusiveness at an early period when they began to live in common. Noyes began his theory with the proposition that there was a unity of life among all believers, and that it was neither really male nor female. He envisioned what he called a "vital society," in which both men and women would mingle in their peculiar departments of work and where the partition of the sexes is taken away and man ceases to make women of propagate of drudge, and where love takes the place of shame. There was a community of interest in sex, which precluded any marriage agreement, which would limit one man to one woman. The community spirit abolished ownership of both property and person, and freed men from conventional pressures of marriage. And this is a quote needs that it's something which he called the complex marriage arrangement, and I'll talk about that in a few minute, buts this is a quote in which he describe what it is that he's going to do and what he hopes it will bring about. He says a system of complex marriage, which shall match

the demands of nature, as to both to time and variety, will open the prison doors to the victims of both marriage and celibacy to those in married life will are starved. He begins a checklist; uh, you can raise your hand as I go along. To those who are oppressed by lust, to those who are separated from their natural mates, to those in the unmarried state who are withered by neglect, diseased by unatural abstinence, or plunged into prostitution or self- pollution by desires which can find no lawful channel. And for his, he's offering the complex marriage solution to all of those individuals, and that's a fairly, uh uh, large group. This new sexual epic, which Noyes introduced in 1846, was the source of both his converts and his discontent. In 1848, it was this tenant that made Oneida a distinctive community among numerous experiments. Brook Farm, Hopedale, uh, any number of a wide range that existed in the 1840s and 50s. Noyes said the new commandment is that we love one another, not by pairs as in the world but

en masse. Sexual exclusiveness this was abolished, and a method instituted whereby individuals would be free to have sexual intercourse with any partner who so desired. Noyes rejected the notion that this was free love and insisted that he advocated social, rather than sexual, control. One important aspect of the complex marriage system was the concept of ascendind and descending fellowship that permitted a novice to have intercourse with those who were above them spiritually, therefore he did not see it as a kind of a libertine practice. It was that there were those who were higher than some, on a spiritual plane, and those who were lower. Therefore, one associated with those that would draw them upward. Physically, the same principle was applied so that young men who had not mastered the principles of male continence, and I'll try, I'll explain that... I'd better explain it now so it doesn't get confused. The practice of male continence that Oneida instituted was something that is called in medical terms "coitus reservatus." It essentially means means that the male does not reach an orgasm

and that it is possible to enjoy certain preliminary stages and sexual relationships but that uh there is no, no orgasm takes place. So he instituted this as a practice. Um, young men who had not mastered the principles of male continence could be initiated by women who had passed their menopause. Makes eminently good sense. It is uh, reasonable on one level. Maybe not uh, something for you or something for me, but within a framework of an evolving society in uh which there is an attempt to understand the problems of sexuality, and also an attempt to avoid the problems of child bearing, it is a fairly good technique. Which, uhh, was urged by people like Aldous Huxley. If any of you have ever read his novel Islandia, uh, of the island. As time passed, the ascending and the descending fellowship brought together the youngest and the oldest because the leaders were knowledged to be spiritually superior. It was agreed that, and I quote something, "All should associate with

those who draw them upward. Noyes worked out a plan by which individuals could improve their spiritual state. Young members were encouraged to associate with community members who achieved a high degree of personal perfection. The older members were expected, in turn, to guide and instruct new members along paths of perfection. An example of this impact of the ascending/descending relationship can be seen in the following exerpt from someone's personal diary... this is a quote from a journal that was kept in the late 1840s. "From a deceitful woman, he [and this means god] has transformed me by his grace into a sincere and strong one, and he has given me power to conquer many difficulties in my mind. He has given me companionship and fellowship with Mr. Noyes and advanced my education. Enlarges my heart and mind and enables me to converse with my superiors that I had never dreamed of before." In theory, such a relationship would move individuals from the very bottom of their religious life towards the perfection of the primitive church. And by that, meaning the first century Christians who had adopted the perfect form of Christianity.

This is a quote from one of their, uh, early documents: "True circulation requires that love should take an upward direction from the young towards the old, the immature towards the experienced, the less spiritual towards the more spiritual. Community critics charge that the ascending and descendong relationship was simply a device employed by the older members to obtain young companions. Cynics. This seems improbable considering the fact that all sexual proposals had to go through a third party and the younger members were free to refuse any offer, before there was a guarantee sort of fixed-in. What the ascending/descending relationship did, um, was to keep both prestige and authority in the hands of the older members. The latter believed in a biblical religious tradition, resisted change, and eventually came in conflict with a generation that was scientifically minded and removed from a patriarchal and biblical tradition. The other sexual aspect of the complex marriage system that had a bearing on the social life of the community, was the distinction that Noyes made between what he termed the "amative" and the "propagative" aspects of sexual

intercourse. He believed the amative superior to the propagative, because the expenditure of the seed in the propagated method might produce unwanted children, and Noyes was opposed to excessive, random procreation. He came to this position based upon the fact that his wife had had uh, three miscarriages in the early 1840s and he was concerned about her health. Therefore, he saw the propagative aspect of marriage as being something which was destructive; however, the amative aspects of it- the love aspects of it- he though were superior. And therefore, in any sexual relationship, it ought to be amative aspects that were emphasized. Um, ordinary sexual intercourse quote "without the intention of procreation is properly to be classed with masturbation." Therefore, it was a waste; it was something that ought not be done. So Noyes, although described as a free lover, uh, was opposed to masturbation as a sexual device. He was therefore closer to the shaker position, which is a celibate position, than to that of the reformer Robert owen david another method of abstinence moises system

a self control method of male continents in which the male did not reach the orgasm that satisfied himself with the earliest stages of intercourse heightened the amateur functions of intercourse and did not carry with it the problems of childbearing noise hope that the principle of male consonants and an active intercourse could one day have a place among the fine arts and that it would and this is a quote a rank above music painting sculpture for combines the charms and benefits of them all members of the community were urged to place an emphasis on the gamut civil the social side but the course and to view it as a quote joyful active fellowship placing emphasis on the fellowship of sex these communists attempted to elevate their own sexual life to that of a corporate mission residents of putney later oneida were taught to believe that they will part of god's plan to form really honor and other men could observe and copy a perfectionist who worked out the plan would not evil men and strong by the tightness in their own view regenerate men perfect in their dedication to almighty plan

the spirit is clearly revealed some correspondence between two community members or anything fifty thought it reflects a sense of community dedication involvement abroad will work and play together this is a letter essentially a yellow leather between to community members do you see going on another must be some patents that were building rotated something now to say i was thinking this morning of a lot of the news sent yesterday and it occurred to me that i might show my love for you by giving you a little advice you were just beginning to be a lover and want to be a true one let me now advice you in the first place that love and work along together and are to be fairly makes the union which god is forming among us just so far as you are true love or you will be a faithful worker learn to despise any lover the man's you will make you slap in business or improvement love is a science in god is calling you to study it and is offering to help us in theory

and in practice let us walk worthy of publication yours for improvement pragmatic point that said not yours so that the standard hallmark of the lakeview the scientific and practical aspects of life and love and community about wanting to let it reflect quality of messiness and that the members believe that they embody they would be periods so when that mission of the society was clouded by disputes dissension in revolt but as the essential messianic mission continued well that particular night it to bring people together and to keep an incentive the inauguration of the system of no confidence could not weaken the fate of the party factions the noise probably rally to support an enthusiastically adopted the plan no oyster gets his first made in the new system a woman by the name of mary cracker and out of his unique in a sense when you think about the townspeople of putney reacted with less enthusiasm grand juries of windham county charge that noisy bell

but at forty eight and eighteen sixty eight united community proper the membership grew by taking converts and are only a few members who edited by natural that therefore the practice were successful that the birth control the practice of male partner to a success in the complex marriage arrangement acted as a bond to hold the community in in the state of tension by which its members had in fact saw as an advance team when compared to the widespread infanticide and abortion practice in the outside world so successful committee those of you know when you look on the back of a box of wheat and it says it might still play the origins of the united steel plate which is now an homage to marrige had its origins in this particular community however by eighteen sixty nine the kingdom the noise invasion that it was slow in coming and we're all seen heedless to be a message is the four fourth in the press is of the night and wallingford connecticut time was running out he was now fifty eight years old and a shortcut had to be found it would ensure the success of the experiment

began an eighteen forty a noise the other leaders wish to see some tangible proof but their hopes for the production of a new man had not been in pain they're essentially committee that helped to construct as most people think i'm in houston some kind of a woman awarded based on religious and social assumptions they instituted therefore a eugenics experiment called sturdy culture which would lead to the destruction of the society and yet leave its mark on the history of nineteenth century thought lawyers argue that this plan was a natural progression from a complex arrangement but there is no doubt that his decision to inaugurate the change came at the urging of a young group of scientists from the community would during the late sixties and early seventies return from medical colleges and scientific studies at yale and elsewhere these young men had been influenced by the right goals and our darwin huxley and her enthusiasm for the proper process of scientific meeting was coupled with noises enthusiasm for a process whereby the religious generation could be produced using the findings of nineteenth century science in his essay on scientific

propagation noyce set our duty is playing we say that we ought to do what we must allow our god or jesus on society holds us back there are other reasons why the experiment was begun first the system of complex marriage for many flexibility in may now explain a eugenics experiment itself that we're going from a system in which the reasons actually i know children are born from scientific experiment in which there are children who come into existence as the result of a of a of a system of elaborate scientific meeting and this was a successful commune with their angst except with the ballpark it lasted for thirty years we now see itself rooms are in the in it so well the complex marriage arrangement for many flexibility they have with the pairing off going on prior to this point secondly the community had brought sufficient income and members to undertake an experiment by at sixty nine or at least three hundred members of the community they had an income in excess of thought by that point about an average about sixty seventy thousand dollars in

profits each year further were capable leaders in the membership at confidence in their leaders for the sexual system of male continence is permitted the continuation of normal sex life even if an individual did not take part in the starter culture plan before normal sax inventor in a new wine bar on his new experiment and sexuality in in eugenics fifth and most importantly we still extraordinary religious devotion as a study later indicated these characteristics made a large majority of the community members fervently desires not only to avoid selfishness but to positively engage with all their powers in any enterprise which they talk in the interest of the kingdom of god before they were furthering the king you got and 1they found this man was a method whereby that come about that we could be acceptable participants in the experiment were chosen political spiritual intellectual and moral qualities at sixty nine eighteen seventy five the direction of the experiment was in the hands of a so called central members of a community mainly a group of elders

basically noise gold records of those who love science well enough to make him an equal value next the kingdom of christ sake was answered by at least fifty three young men fifty three young women and thirty eight men who took part in the initial experiment the following resolution was signed by the original group of women trying to entering into the scientific union and its an interesting combination of scientific and really just education this is a document they signed one that we do not belong to ourselves in any respect for that we belong to god and second to miss the noises got to represent two that we have no rights or personal feelings in regard to childbearing which shall in the least agree oppose or embarrass him in his choice of scientific combinations great but we put aside all envy childish innocence self seeking and rejoice in those who are the chosen candidates and that we will if necessary become martyrs to science and cheerfully resign or desire to become mothers and for any reason is the noise deems as unfit material property the bottle

we offer ourselves as living sacrifices the garden took on communism and of course there's a remedy nowhere is the sense of commitment to the sign it's gold more explicitly revealed in that statement noise was able in numerous situations to dictate the destiny of the community members and as we've seen through a system of asked sending in these ending spiritual asian ship and finally in his role as god's chosen profit in retrospect there is an obvious coldness about the girls statements as they had no rights of personal feelings but when placed within a framework of millennial faith in the night air and in the concept of the new jerusalem that harshness often applications were made to a committee by couples desiring to become parents and into china committee even accepted or rejected the air the application was was beat out then the board attempted to find suitable combination agreeable to wall part ii according to a study may nineteen twenty nine it's about a fifteen month period fifty one applications were received of which orbit nine works at a relatively wide

pattern of involvement at least among those who were interested it is important to note however approximately twenty five percent of the matches were brought about the initiation of the central committee that would it would shooting people base basically upon spiritual ground that wanted to perfect a race not of love an exceptionally handsome and that a gorgeous individuals with those who would be morally fit and it was given as sending the standing relationship a possibility of understanding what that would be during the first six years the elder noise personally chose the participants in the experiment on the bases of the leadership qualities and religious experience in fact i have the men were on an average of twelve years older than the women indicated the community leaders played a prominent role in the experiment is interesting to note that of the fifty eight children born under the plan some forty eight percent followed by ten then there's no indication available records of the ten men wear except that it is known that noise himself father of nine children disproportionate number but if you aside from david's at that sky that's not a dirty old man

and you can dismiss him in that sense but if you accept that theory but he was at the pinnacle of the religious experience it makes logical sense that they're going to create a new race that he would be a farmer the central problem is not too fond of the majority of the children but rather wide community of all eventually revolted against the screen and initially they had placed great favor noises ability to lead and direct the community operation but by eighteen seventy four certain groups had begun to question his leadership the key did this disaffection on the part of some of the male members lives in the dual nature of the community successes utopian venture success lay in its ability to communicate to its members corporate sense of involvement on both a social and sexual level o'leary included the day to day involvement of the members in the affairs of the society the sexual embrace the sense of mission that suggested on it is peculiar contribution to the world independent of any organization making forty eight to eighteen sixty nine each member of the association had been involved on both levels beginning in eighteen sixty nine however with the starter

culture experiment the corporate effort was replaced by an exclusive one step away first experiment placed scientifically oriented generation in a prominent position for their pet theories have been adopted second place the community elders an exclusive position in terms of the experiment says there would naturally be a flaw that the new rates for it tonight equal participation in the experiment by alienating both a younger generation and those who did not measure up to the spiritual standards set by the informal central committee before the shift in sexual orientation with in any way the most exciting thing that they did in terms of social history but in terms of the life and community led to its breakup and for your many who wish to regular arrived the marriage relationship a new generation of been born and he did not wish to engage in what the whirlpool three law yeah like a mini adopted a pattern of sexual communism which it reinforced community values enable a society to manage its economic and social affairs and at the same time to intensify its own sense of mission to the world its adoption of the startup culture plan

was done with an eye towards continuing that nations of the world and the members saw the new pattern of sexual communism as being consistent with what an old pattern of bible communist therefore that led to the breakup of the community and maybe one of the reasons for its downfall may be irrelevant. Irrelevant because the experiment on its own terms is unique in the history few american social thought and irrelevant because it fails to come to grips with the internal dynamic of a society which was to perpetuate itself through patterns actually want to take a look at a relationship with it theories of a complex marriage what it meant to institute a practice of coitus reservatus and how that fit into an evolving theories society and look at the practice of eugenics and how that fit into practice of an evolving communal society and it was the second of the second until society is no less complex boats approached about the sexual and camille pattern was somewhat more easily seen a women's commonwealth and this is one of her not not many people know much about

or the sanctified sisters as they were called originated in belton texas two A hundred and forty miles south of Dallas. A town of five thousand, therefore the only community which was based and an led by women i was not found on the west side of new York where a radical she may insist that found in a small provincial town in-uh, in South Central Texas. they're experience began with a weekly prayer meeting in eighteen fifty six within fifteen years these women had challenged paternalistic doctrines of the local churches asserted the financial and sexual independence from their husbands i reverse a town wide boycott to become economically successful and established the tight union household of some thirty people sanctified sisters as they will call were essentially separatist by their female membership even though the sisters occasionally admitted men for the rams they believe that the truth came not from a literal interpretation of the bible or from their pastors advice but for once in a search an understanding from dreams

and from a simple life of goodness to find on one's own terms now those of you read to them and noted about the controversy in relationship and hutchinson there are elements of that in this the issue of celibacy brought on the opposition of the front first their husbands and a fire and a leader of the group one market worker approach the matter in a mystical fashion and roberts dating that the group believed in sexual abstinence she stated that a sanctified wife should separate herself from her and sanctified husband facing her belief upon the teachings of st paul that we're talking essentially religious one had a religious experience when the sanctified and it wants to that would not have a sexual relationship with him and sanctified individual i'm in this case it was always their husbands the first instance of this experience within the group came to visit him at work or an eighteen sixty six following a revival meeting soon after the deaths of her brother and two of her twelve children chosen and know that i'll let go pro celibacy was

practically an escape from the unavoidable connection between sex children are cheap and grief of most frontier women possibilities of contraception personal choice regarding childbearing were limited. The only alternative was through the Religious Center of Sexual Activity. The religious stance of the Sanctified Sisters was clearly an assertion of this social equality and independence this report openly acknowledge the feminist nature of the revelations and this uh, this is very little that you've wrote but this is from a-uh, it's actually from a court document. It was no longer a woman's duty to remain with a husband who bossed and controlled her. God has made man and women equal, and to women these last few days he has revealed his will concerning his own elect view. We are to are to come out and to be the peculiar people. While Martha McWhirter did a line with the theological premises of what is called perfectionism as taught by John Wesley. She probably derived her celibate theories from reading some Shaker Material. The Shakers were completely celibate in their social arrangements. Uh-if you have ever visited a Shaker village there are number of 'em on the East Coast, and there's

some in Kentucky. The Shakers were so elaborate in their sexual arrangements that there were two separate staircases. Men went up one staircase, women went up another staircase. Men and women could not talk with one another unless a, uh-uh, a ten year old was present. So they had an elaborate system of sexual segregation and sex differentiation based upon the teachings of uh-uh, an eighteenth century woman Mother Ann Lee, and it was extraordinarily successful community. From eighteen sixty six on when the women began to separate from their husbands one by one, and eventually organize themselves into a communal household, but the process was slow and curiously a conservative one. In their personal lives and in their dealings with the local institutions these women were quietly establishing an image that was both individualistic and independent. For example; when the Methodist Church was locked during a scheduled prayer meeting of the sisters in eighteen seventy they climbed in the windows and quote "occupied the institution". In eighteen eighty-two when a husband tried to prevent their using his house for their communal laundry venture

they launched into a fierce fight that brought them both blows and the police. they stood up to harassment threats and a posse of angry husbands shooting bullet holes in their front door. They cut logs, they hauled firewood and lumber and built several houses themselves. Martha McWhirter believed that work was an essential part of the good life and was an essential tenent of their existence. Since they had begun in a household they slowly turn their attention to perfecting household tasks and being of service to the local community. From the start of their movement their work brought them results. They did not begin in any formal communal sense aside as the result of their prayer meetings that they ought to organize along that, that was not the first order of business they separated slowly from their husbands, uh- they began to try and establish some kind of a financial base for themselves. From the start of their movement their work brought them results. they sold milk, butter, eggs, vegetables that were superior to that of other local enterprise. They began in some ways from a household economy. During the eighteen seventies they establish slowly but surely a common fund based upon a variety of things, inheritance, upon the money that they

got from small ventures. Since by law they had no property apart from their husbands and no security if they left their homes. In eighteen eighty-two one of the sisters suggested that a laundry project might be undertaken since families had become dissatisfied with the quality of washing and ironing that some local negroes usually did. The first washing was done at the McWhirter house with the sisters all working together, later rotating from house to house in eighteen eighty three they launch their experiment in running a boardinghouse, uh- which had to come to one of the members through the death of her husband and the house came to her; which proved to be the genesis of their success. Uh-they began to take in boarders. This is a small Central Texas town with the travelling salesmen??? you can imagine the extent of dissension that they undertook for separating both. there were also extreme on the religious question itself. In eighteen eighty five they had gathered enough money to build a hotel. They constructed the Central Hotel and operated it for the next fourteen years. They ran it, they rented out rooms. Uh- they uh- purchased some fields outside of the town in order to

provide produce for the uh-for the hotel itself. In eighteen ninety-nine the community was anywhere between thirty and fifty individuals. Uh- eighteen ninety-nine they sold the hotel for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and went to Washington D.C. to lead the good life. Uh- they left, they uh- went to Washington, they lived then in a suburb outside of Washington D.C. and enjoyed themselves from all I can gather it's not easy to put it all together. Uh-they-they traveled widely, they went to Mexico. Uh-they generally enjoyed the fruits of their labor. Uh-Martha McWhirter died in nineteen-o-three, uh-and the community slowly but surely disintegrated because uh- she had been the motivating force behind it. Therefore one has in the case of the women's commonwealth, a-uh- community in which there is clearly a sexual basis, namely that one ought to leave ones husband based on religious premises, and one therefore ought to organize a community around religious principles, but at the same time that the sexual element was clearly important. It does not have in turn, it does not have the centrality however of uh- say the case the Oneida Community.

I'll move on to a uh- a third community in order to give you some sense of comparative relationships between communal arrangements and what roles sex would play in such arrangements. I'll talk about a community uh- called the House of David which um- is well known maybe not to the students but to uh-to-uh-to-to-uh your parents. They're usually well known to most Americans because they had travelling baseball and basketball teams Uh-and they traveled around the country usually playing the first half of the double header as a kind of an exhibition game, uh- they traveled as late as into the nineteen forties and fifties, uh- usually the first half of the Harlem Globetrotters. Uh-uh they had long hair, they had long beards. Uh-they were in many ways they were successful community. What I would like to do is to give you the history of that community it in order to deal with the question of success and failure in a community. Namely, it's very simple to talk about communal societies, and emphasize that, oh, they'll always fail or, um- it'll never work, or any number of things, uh-neglecting to point out the

five percent of all the small business ventures only five percent of all the small business ventures this country ever succeed anyway and that probably five to three percent of all communal societies make it in a generational sense. The best place to begin the history of the uh- House of David is in the religious enthusiasm of eighteenth century England. Uh-there were a series of prophetic figures, uh- who eventually lead up to the seventh prophet who begins the House of David, and I'll go through and give you a history of some of the prophets and how they view the question of sex so that when we get to the House of David which has a uh-uh marvelous conflicted history in terms of uh- there were two communities that were operative basically, one that one was celibate, the other that was free love. Marvelous in many ways. The first prophet was a woman by the name of Joanna Southcott who published in eighteen o- eighteen thirteen a book called the Third Book of Wonders and in that she prophesied that she was going to give birth to the Shiloh, the second Christ in October of eighteen thirteen she

went to confinement and her followers waited expectantly for the Shiloh's birth. The following August she was examined by nine physicians and several said that he had all the symptoms of an approaching birth, and her followers were overjoyed and a crib costing in excess of a hundred pounds was made to order along with a large quantity of pap spoons, feeding spoons. Her hysterical pregnancy came to an end in December, eighteen thirteen with her death the fact that she failed, failed to bring forth the Shiloh did not seem to lessen the devotion of her followers; for they believe the process of this confirmation, the, the uh- idea of the process of when the when the flying saucer doesn't appear it doesn't make any difference, you continue continue to believe, when Jesus Christ doesn't come, in the case Jehovah's Witnesses it doesn't matter you continue to believe. Um- there were numerous contenders for leadership of what's called a Southcottians. The most notable be a man who was called John Zion Ward. He had uh- he had read her Fifth Book of Wonders which had been published in eighteen fourteen, and on her death he offered himself to the sex, sect, to the sect as the next messenger.

They refused him, and they turn instead to one George Turner who had been a follower of another individual. Uh-let me uh, i'll jump over over, Wards career, I'll jump over some of this, I'll go on to the fifth prophet. A man by the name of John Rowe who had a full history, and one that compares favorably with the leader of the House of David, a man by the name of Benjamin Purnell. According to one source; Rowe was as a lad neither robust in mind, nor in body, and as a result of some hard labor was hunch backed. He had joined the Southcottian group in eighteen twenty and had a number of visions in heavenly visits, visitations. In eighteen twenty-one an angelic guide instructed him to visit the Jews and he walked in various English cities delivering his message, he even attempted to deliver the message to the queen paralleling an earlier effort by one of the Southcottians. In eighteen twenty three he traveled abroad visiting Gibraltar, France, Germany, and Italy, and during the journey let his beard grow. His father was a de-uh, adopted his bearded habit, and the practice of circumcision, after Rowe had been publicly

circumcisedin April, eighteen twenty four. Charges of having had criminal intercourse with, with one of his twelve year old apprentices were brought against him in eighteen twenty seven but he was acquitted of the charge. His disciples called Roweites were described in somewhat more placid terms as respectable shopkeepers who were noted for their wide brimmed hats, beards and the practice of closing their shops and six on Friday 'til six on Saturday evening. During the eighteen thirties John Rowe operated a printing shop in Wakefield and continue to prosthelytize in England. In the eighty forties he visited the United States, and Australia and established a substantial following in Australia to compliment the sixty Christian Israelite societies in England after Rowe there were two other potential prophets, one in England, and one in the United States before the mantle fell to one Benjamin Purnell, and his successful colony located in Benton Harbor Michigan. Photographs taken of Benjamin Purnell at the height of his power, and influence show him a thin bearded man dressed in a white suit and wearing a large round medallion around his neck, neck. The photographs convey a sense of power

assurance, and worldliness. The same impression radiates from the photographs of his wife Mary Purnell whose dress, and bearing give credence to her title Queen of the House of David. There are other photographs of the pair, some taken during a police raid on Purnell's hideout in nineteen twenty seven, and others taken during a trial in which he was dying. But an earlier one sometime taken around nineteen hundred shows a homelier view of the Purnells beside the traveling wagon which it take the itinerant minister throughout the Lower Midwest. Benjamin Purnell's origins were far from regal as he was born into a poor farm family in Kentucky in eighteen sixty-one. At sixteen he had married one Angelina Brown, and shortly thereafter began traveling around. Presumably he was preaching and, uh with,uh while his new wife continued to live with her parents. In eighteen seventy nine a daughter was born to the Purnells, and yet he continued to travel and preach in the Lower Midwest settling for a while in Indiana where he worked as a broom maker and embrace the faith of one of these American groups that were established by one of the messengers

from the Southcottian line, the-the-there the, uh- there was a group located in Ohio. A year later he drifted further away from home and he met one Mary Stallard and he presently then appeared before the justice of the peace in Aberdeen Ohio and underwent the odd procedure of formally acknowledging themselves as man and wife; that's a quote. In short he became a bigamist and though he didn't-did notify a few years later his wife Angelina that he was free. His first marriage-marriage was never formally dissolved. between eighty ad in at ninety three little is known about the pear although it can be assumed that he led an itinerant existence throughout the midwest and then in at ninety two he joined another colony becoming uh-which was called the New House of Israel. by nineteen- o- Purnell was fortytwo years old and his prophetic career a failure. Since he had tried time and time again to gain a substantial bodies of believers around him with little success. There were numerous indications that he had the potential to be a neurotic seventh messenger in the tradition of James Rowe. Charges of

immorality, the hostility of crowds and repeated failures had not deterred the earlier propherts- prophets and there was little reason to doubt that the messages that would fall-would not fall fruitful ears at any moment. Like them he had proclaimed his inspiration, printed some prophetic books, and was willing to move wherever, and whenever the spirit called.The message was essentially the same as that of the earlier messengers, that they all things simply said the same thing in varying forms and with some vary unsocial practices. He was preparing a place for; And this a quote. "The executive rulers of the earth call the elect one hundred and forty-four thousand, and the mysterious mysteries would be unsealed and reveal to them, and they must be gathered for this, and to fulfill the scriptures". Drawing on a variety of biblical sources and elaborating on his inspired message Purnell developed a millennial message which served as a religious magnet for the society, namely he was establishing a gathering in place based upon the projections in The Bible of twelve times the twelve tribes of Israel that there would be a hundred and forty four thousand both male and female who would be saved

and he was establishing a gathering in place uh- not, not explicitly indicated where that was going to be. It happened to wind up in Benton Harbor in Michigan. His social philosophy was the following; He promised that his followers could attain immortality of the body by good works, and by purifying from the blood evil traces inherited from Adam's sin, before evil had entered into the world uh- through uh- sexual intercourse. It had remained in Adam's blood and therefore remained in the blood of humanity down through the generations. one could purify the evil inheritances by keeping what he called the virgin law or total abstinence from sexual intercourse for all even married couple, therefore he found as his um- method of organization uh- establishing the gathering in place uh- saying that sexual abstinence would purify people in a, in a process of spiritual regeneration. The Virgin Law was based upon the belief that Adam and Eve were originally without evil, and that evil was

communicated to Eve by sexual intercourse with the Devil's serpent. Therefore; through intercourse Adam's blood became tainted. Only abstinence could cleanse the blood and purify it of it's evil elements, and when that occurred the body would live through a millennium of a thousand years that when that process had occurred uh- one would live for a thousand years. They were like the Shakers what are called social and sexual pre-millenialists, they were ushering in a new kingdom, and that one could purify oneself in the process. The membership of the House of David hoped to achieve that high state of christian perfection by passing through four stages on the way to the millennium therefore as people entered into the community they would pass through a series of stages in which they would eventually become perfected. The first stage found man with evil in his blood, or the condition of man since the fall. The second existed when they became sons of god with cleansed blood. Third; that they when they were without blood and by that it means entering into a spiritual state and had an immortal life namely had an internal

spirit within them. The second and third stage is came as the result of sexual abstinence progressive sort of unfolding at this and then the fourth state that became god man before they were exulted in their religious and social states. All new members were in stage one that will fall and subject to adam's law at when they enter the colony while Benjamin was already at stage three, and therefore preparing the way for the fourth stage to be located at Benton harbor so he was again in a hierarchical position in relationship to having his blood already been purified. By moving from a town in central Ohio, Forstoria, to Benton harbor the Punrell's were able to tap to important sources for any profit. A receptive body of potential believe and some wealthy sponsors. From 1903 to 1907 they recruited members from michigan and overseas an established the legal base for themselves under Michigan law. During the same period however there was strong public reaction to their presence and first hand to some scandalous activities associated with this prophecy. Although individuals and families came to the House of David for varied

reasons they came into what was in reality two separate communities. First, there was a millennialist religious organization charted under the laws of Michigan and founded within a perfectionist tradition which had deep roots in England and in America. The converts from the John Rowe church in Melbourne, Australia had clear expectations about their biblical commonwealth that they were entering. However, second what I'll call the notorious House of David which burst into full view during the 1920's and which filled Michigan papers with lurid stories of seduction, abduction, and fraud. Throughout the first 20 years of the community's existence there were hints in the press and courts about the notorious nature of the colony but the exotic history the community was to most observers in 1905 only vague rumors about the long-haired Israelite's who had a curious religion seemed to be proporing even more startling was the fact that many members of the colony never knew about king Ben's sexual exploits and lived fully satisfied lives embracing the perfectionist faith and working to bring in the millennia. Therefore is important to keep in

mind the existence of two communities at the House of David. One sober, religious and simple in its beliefs and the other one, luxuriously scented with scandal and fascinating in it's both it's complexity and success. Let me give you a brief example of that sexual life which Benjamin Parnell engaged in, and his activities in relationship to the virgin law and what our reviewer calls out of mostly on court records says a deposition that was given during quote on trial in the 1920's the woman gave a deposition. she says when i first came to that place Benjamin at me in the ?holeme? and hug me. Another time he came out of that to the big farm where i was staying and asked me to go down to the orchard with him to look for mushrooms. And as we started, he told me to hook my mind- my arm in his and I done so for a few steps. I made an excuse to get loose and he said you are afraid of me and i said no and he said take a hold of me then but i did not and said no more to me and so lots off times at headquarters he would meet me on the walks in streets and slap me on the breasts. i didn't think that very good coming for a messenger of God. [Laughter]

marvelous understatement. Mrs. Giles provided the attorney general's office with additional information about Pernels notorious advances towards women in the community. Josie Lewis is another deposition. Came running down the stairs like something scared to death and i asked her what was the matter she said she would tell me when she got home the big farm and we got home i asked it the tell me she said benjamin met her in the upper hallway and grabbed her and runner into her room and closed the door after her and tried to throw around the bed and hugged and kissed her and felt of her tits and another time she said he prince pinched her in the privates. Her statement went on to relate that she had work like a slave. Failed to receive adequate shoes and dresses while the quote young virgins at the headquarters were wearing silk in all manner of fine woolen goods every day. Rumors circulated in Benton harbor and throughout the state of michigan about questionable activities but local and state officials failed to move against the colony. In 1910, a serious dispute came up which threatened to wreck

in gathering involved the community with federal officials and serious charge of kidnapping. It appears that while two of the members were in a trip to Australia on a missionary trip they trusted their daughter harriet to Pernell. When she returned from australia, when they returned from Australia um she decided to leave the colony only to find that her daughter then 16 had "gone away" in fact she had been spirited out of the colony and taken to Chicago to prevent her from telling her mother about Pernell's advances towards her. In mid December of 1910, the colony moved quickly to hide Pernell's sexual escapades in a move that must have shocked even the truest believers. Twenty couples were married in a group ceremony contrary to the stated rules of the society. Later the state was to argue that the girls were married in order to protect Pernell so that in the case that they should be are required to have physical examination the condition could be attributed their husbands Under Mary Pernell's direction, each girl chose a husband and then Mary made the arrangements with the men involved. Those marriages of convenience, the community later argued enable

couples to travel together as preachers without getting scandal and to work on the farms as pairs Benjamin Pernell did not attend a group marriages which occurred on successive evening just prior to christmas in 1910 the brides all wore white gowns and the couple spent at their wedding night in separate bedrooms. Between 1903 and 1910, the House of David established itself as a substantial religious and business organization. As its membership grew, so did its ability to sustain a common and economic religious enterprise. By 1900. By 1910, the membership was at three hundred and were a number of newly constructed buildings in use. Residence halls were constructed in the early years and some members lived in cottages and apartments scattered over the three hundred acres which the colony occupied just out outside the Benton harbor town limits. Until this day, the community of the House the David still owns about a quarter of the city of Betnon Harbor. During the same period they started a variety of businesses including its famous baseball team, the traveling band and the amusement park. The amusement park catered to visitors from Chicago who crossed the lake on steam ships in

search of a weekend of quiet, relaxation, and amusement. However the group marriages in 1910 and 1914 failed to stop Pernell as his 1914 activities were recorded in these depositions he kept up, and I'll just read one of them. I went to live at the House of David about 6 six years ago. I was fourteen years old when i went there. I came from Charleroi in Pennsylvania. My brother heard them preach on the street enjoying the ?secked? My sister August and I joined them afterwards. In about a year we came to the colony at Benton harbor. We lived in Bethlehem which was one of the houses a few days and then we went to live in the ark, that's where Benjamin lived. I always roomed with three other girls I've seen Benjamin come into a room a great number of times. He talked with us and told us he was just like Jesus and had the right to have intercourse with us girls. He then took me into another room and there were two girls in another bed. He placed me on the bed. I protested but he told me that he would come to my room when the other girls were, and I've had intercourse with him and have seen him have intercourse with other girls many times in the same room. The fact is well known among some women in the colony.

Edith Clark observed Pernell, a woman also give a deposition, as having relations with some of the girls and he approached by saying that he was the son of man and that it was our duty to have sexual intercourse with him in order to be in the inner court, that every woman must be passed by the king. Uh I won't read revive the next one it's a similar sort of thing a final affidavit take a nineteen fourteen indicates that Purnell managed the group marriages in nineteen ten because he had had relations with all of the women in the colony he said over the age of twelve. There is some doubt as to the truth of that but he asserted it. The members of the house of David, um, resisted the war effort they were pacifists, uh, but the colony pros-prospered with cheap farm labor. Beginning in nineteen twenty one litigation began to haunt the colony and in nineteen twenty three Purnell went into hiding. Uh, he was actually hi- uh, hidden in the community in one of the buildings which had a secret room. Uh, Purnell's capture came shortly before midnight on November, uh the 16th, 1926 as a detachment of police

broke down the doors of the diamond house and arrested the sick and dying prophet. The raid and arrest of the sixty year old leader followed disclosures by former members. Um, one of the members had led the police to the hiding place and identified the emaciated messenger, ill with tuberculosis and diabetes. He was arraigned before a Justice of the Peace forehand and the bail was set at fifty thousand dollars. In addition seven prominent Benton Harbor businessmen vouched for his appearance he was not he was a man of substance in the community. Uh, they either were indebted to him, he was a large land owner. Uh, free love or not- certain things have to be sustained. Purnell was a wreck of his former self since he had lost some eighty pounds while in hiding and he had to be carried to an automobile for his ride to the jail. During his three years in hiding, he had been in constant contact with some of his followers and was ministered by a group of young women some of whose clothing was found in the closet [muffled laughter] the state now moved to entertain the public and destroy the in gathering the original suit by the state for the quote abatement of a nuisance, I love the phrase,

had been entered in July of 1924 and came to a hearing, uh, in 1926. During the next 3 months it was the largest trial in Michigan history. Uh, The prior one had been the uh, the uh, uh raids, uh the uh, prosecution of some communists in uh an area north of there. Uh, 4 major charges were made against Purnell and a host of minor ones alluding to an arguing that the House of David was a mite- was a public nuisance, um, these are the charges brought against him and, what, uh, you can see that these charges for example could've been brought in many ways against almost any community which had unusual sexual practices as defined by the community outside of itself therefore the question of how do you view sexuality you just simply say that what is normative exterior to a community is, um, uh, the only way to judge either that one ought to use that as the standard of judgment or one won't want to look at the sexual relationships in some kind of a dynamic relationship in, in rushings to the the membership the founders and their own social ideology, uh, this is the the charges that were

brought about to him. In maintaining a young charge of the public nuisance and maintaining a religious system and a system which is fraudulent and he is a religious imposter and that the whole scheme is designed to, to defraud credulous persons and to afford Benjamin an opportunity for immoral practices and gross immoralities committed by Benjamin upon the women and girls of the colony induced by him through his position as the spiritual leader and usually upon representations that sexual intercourse with him is a religious right see and that the members are taught to commit perjury for the protection of Benjamin, the colony, and the faith. In the, uh, in the proceedings in the proceedings that went on, ah, certain members community that perjured themselves defend him, the mothers testified on one side, daughters testified on another uh, in that members conspired to obstruct justice in aiding him. Uh, much more interesting are all of the minor issues which were raised against the, uh, against the community some of which were true most of which were false that home life is frowned upon in families broken up, uh the recent Supreme Court decision by a vote of 8 to 2 which, uh, uh, said that, uh

communal households that a 1 family house means you can't, you must be blood relationships you cannot have a 1 family household which means, uh, uh, Brother Sam and Sister Fire, uh living in the, uh, the doughnut hut, uh comunue. That's not a one family dwelling and the Supreme Court says it isn't and that's fairly definitive. Home life is frowned upon and families broken up but the faith requires celibacy and prohibits the reproduction of the species, that's a charge but the faith requires celibacy and prohibits the reproduction of the species. See? The husbands and wives and parents of children are separated and made to live apart these are all things that one could level at contemporary communes, not all but some, To uh, D, that the children do not receive an adequate education. Uh, E, that disloyalty to the government is taught and that during the war fin- ficticious dependancies were created to mulch the government of military expenses of military allowances, that the members are held in peonage. That the members are forced into marriage to subvert justice and to, and the, and to hide crime. Goes on and on. That Sunday is not observed as a day of rest but is used as a particulary

profitable business day. All the other merchants in Benton Harbor were closed down. They were open up to the tourist trade from uh, from uh, across the river, the prosecution began to introduce its evidence and became obvious that Purnell could not survive the onslaught. He was a very sick man and had to be brought to the court in a stretcher from where he categorically denied all the charges brought against him but did admit his failure to obtain a divorce from his first wife. [Laughter]. He also expred- expressed a fear that his current wife Mary, or Queen of the House of David and Francis Thorpe the colony treasure might try to undermine his authority and power within the community. In November of 1927 the judge issued his decree declaring that the colony should be put into receivership and Purnell should leave the colony. Community holdings were reported in excess of a million dollars. On December the 27th, 1927 Benjamin Purnell died of tuberculosis and many of the colony waited for his resurrection he lay in state and for a short period and, uh and when the time passed for the resurrection he was embalmed with a quote, "non-poisonous fluid" in order that he may still be

resurrected. Mary Purnell wept and said that his enemies had crucified him. Well, what I've given you is essentially three different communities all of which have, um, sexual orientation, sexual differentiation uh, in some ways unique views of sex, uh, and I'll make some general conclusions, uh, and then I'll and then I'll stop you can so- you can ask questions. It seems to me that it is very difficult to talk about the relationship between sex and success. Therefore there are books which one can look at, uh which will say that the only successful communities can operate, uh, if they are celibate or other monogamous relationship is not an appropriate one. Uh, secondly, um, that the sexual aspect must be seen in league, uh rather than in conflicts with other social policies and patterns in the society cannot be viewed in isolation, uh it's a mistake for example to look at the Shakers and just look at the fact that they separated all of the cows could not be mixed with the

chickens. They never cross fertilate, uh, uh, they never cross pollinated, uh it was all palaco- part of the millennial order that one had to understand. Uh, third, uh, Um, that the membership quite often as long as they perceive the sexual pattern to be consistent then with the religious goal of the community it was possible therefore to sustain a community no matter how bizarre, no matter how corrupt, no matter how, whatever kind of a term you wanna use, as long as the membership sees it a consistent pattern, as long as they accept it within the framework of religious, socici- social ideology the community can sustain itself. I could give you other numerous examples of communities which have had uh, forms of sexual arrangement uh, which have, uh, uh, been unusual and yet the colonies have been successes in and of themselves. And then finally and this is at, a uh, a point which I didn't touch upon but it puts a conclusion that I've made that is rarely that is the hostile outside world that destroys such community that often it is his view that such communities fall under the weight of public censure um, that they are

destroyed by kind of an evil world that is going to set a crackdown upon it, uh, and this is a kind of benevolent rather liberal view of communes at this point in history saying that there's a terrible world in that these commune people are going to be driven out of existence by them, uh, it's my own view that the outside world, and the House of David's a good example of it, can be held that bay um, by a variety of techniques, by subterfuge, um, by political power uh, or by simple diplomacy and therefore communes which now exist in Arkansas or in Tennessee, uh the Gaskin farm, uh, for example, is able to somehow sustain itself they grow, they grow, from what I understand, they grow, they grow dope on the premises, uh, they engage in uh, not just in sort of free-love but are elaborate complex arrangements which are called doubling, and tripling, and quadrupling, uh and yet they somehow still exist, um so that the question of the success and failure of such communities is in many ways a function of the internal relationship between satisfying social and sexual relationships and that the outside world has little or nothing to do

with whether a community will succeed or fail. Uh, let me stop, uh and entertain questions about either individual communities that I've spoken about or about other questions which relate to, um, and you haven't yet you have a lot of straight they will not going to know whether you know unusual passat