History of American Socialisms - dana ward's homepage

14 AMERICAN SOCIALISMS.
in Macdonald's list, the names of eleven Communities.
These were not all strictly Owenite Communities, but
probably all owed their birth to the general excitement
that followed Owen's labors, and may therefore, properly
be classified as belonging to the Owen movement.
Fourierism was introduced into this country by Albert
Brisbane and Horace Greeley in 1842, and then comn1enced
another great national movement similar to that
of Owenism, but far 11l0re universal and enthusiastic.
We considet= the year 1843 the focal period of this
social revival; and around that year or following it within
the forties, we find the main group of Macdonald's
Associations. Thirty-four of the list may clearly be referred
to this epoch. Many, and perhaps most of them,
never undertook to carry into practice Fourier's theories
in full; and some of them would disclaim all affiliation
with Fourierism; but they all originated in a common
excitement, and that excitement took its rise from the
publications of Brisbane and Greeley.
Confining ourselves, for the present, to these two
groups of Associations, belonging respectively to the
Owen movement of 1826 and the Fourier movement of
1843, we will now give a brief statistical account of each
Association; i. e., all we can find in Macdonald's collection,
on the follpwing points: I, Locality; 2, Number
of members ; 3, Amount of land; 4, Amount of debt;
5, Duration. We give.the amount of land instead of
any other measurement of capital, because all and more
than all the capital of the Associations was generally
invested in land, and because. it is difficult to distinguish,
in most cases, between the cash capital that was actually
paid in, and that which was only subscribed or talked
about.