American Utopia

American Utopia tells the story of the Oneida Community, a radical 19th century free-love experiment in communal living. Building on his own research, as well as interviews with top historians, host Dan Greenstone illuminates the fascinating lives of the liberated women and men who overturned society’s conventions about gender, marriage, love, sex, work and childrearing. Subscribe now and be sure not to miss the first episode, which comes out on Wednesday, February 28th.

In the first episode of American Utopia, we meet Harriet Worden. After Harriet's mother died, Harriet's father, in a decision that would profoundly shape her life, brought his 9 year old daughter to live in the brand new Oneida Community. Through Harriet's eyes, we learn about the excruciating process of Mutual Criticism, what it was like to grow up in the Children's House, the vibrant cultural pursuits that made life joyous, and the complicated, and sometimes painful sexual practices of the Community.

In this episode we meet Oneida's founder, John Humphrey Noyes, a painfully shy boy whose life and character are transformed after he attends a wild, four day religious revival. We watch as Noyes becomes a religious and sexual revolutionary so extreme that Yale College expels him. Still, Noyes manages to convince himself, and others, that he's actually perfect. And with the help of historians Christian Goodwillie and Ellen Wayland Smith, we compare Noyes’ ideas to those of other fringe religious visionaries of the 1830s and 1840s.

In 1848, when word of his free-love practices spread in his hometown of Putney, Vermont, John Humphrey Noyes and a few followers fled to Oneida Creek, in central New York state. There, bucking terrible odds, a harsh climate, and the nostalgic pull of the agrarian past, Noyes, and his followers managed to build a flourishing, vibrant community of 300 people who lived and loved together under one giant roof. This is the story of how they did it.

In 1881, an Oneida Community alumnus named Charles J. Guiteau, shot and killed president James A. Garfield. And in many ways, Guiteau’s trial centered on the six year period that Guiteau had spent at Oneida. Guiteau’s lawyers, who mounted one of the first uses of the insanity defense, argued that the tyrannical policies and leadership style of John Humphrey Noyes had sent their client over the edge. And while Guiteau’s portrait of Noyes was hyperbolic and self serving, there was some truth to his critique of Noyes. And despite their many differences, these two men, one an assassin, the other a prophet, were surprisingly similar.

At the Oneida Community, everything was meant to be shared, including sex and love. And becoming too attached (or sticky) to another person, especially a lover, was regarded as sinful. But it turns out that sharing love is really, really hard. Even if, like John Humphrey Noyes, you're perfect.

On a summer night In 1879, wearing socks but no shoes, John Humphrey Noyes crept out of the Oneida Community Mansion House, and fled to Canada. He never returned to community he'd created. And soon after his escape the remaining residents of Oneida voted to end Communal living. This is the story of why.

How should we remember Oneida? Was John Humphrey Noyes a cult leader, akin to David Koresh? Did the communards of Oneida achieve their goals? Were the people who lived there happy? What can we, today, learn from the experience of Oneida? In this, the final episode of American Utopia, we answer these questions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to Ellen Wayland Smith for sharing her experience as a descendant of Oneida. You can buy her excellent book here. https://tinyurl.com/y7kapfmw