George Ripley and The Brook Farm

Arkadiy Reydman

The Birth of a Transcendentalist• George Ripley was a church minister of a

Unitarian Church in Boston and was a central figure in the Transcendentalist movement of the 1830s and 1840s. (1)

• He graduated from Harvard College. (1)

• He often contributed his writings to a Unitarian theological journal called the Christian Examiner. (1)

• His rare skills and knowledge allowed him to define and interpret the thoughts that were going through the minds of many men. (2)

Transcendentalist Ideologies• George Ripley was one of the most leading and

prominent Transcendentalist in the movement. (3)

• The first transcendentalist club meeting was held at his home in 1836. (3)

• Ripley often shared his ideas with prominent figures of transcendentalist ideas like Ralph Waldo Emerson. (4)

• Transcendentalists believe that people are at their best when they are self-reliant and independent. (2)

Ripley’s Breakaway

• Ripley changed the course of Unitarian theological development because of a dispute he had with Andrews Norton. (1)

• Ripley argued that a belief in miracles was not the essential foundation of the Christian faith which was why he broke off from the more radical thinking transcendentalists. (1)

Ripley’s Wife• Ripley married Sophia Willard Dana

• She shared many of Ripley’s religious and intellectual interests and his growing commitment to social justice (1)

• Especially when Ripley became engaged in socialist theories that stressed cooperative, non-competitive social arrangements. (1)

Idea of Utopian Community• George Ripley and his wife spent several weeks in the

Massachusetts countryside in 1840. (5)

• Ripley’s growing ideology of theology and social reform was bound to be experimented on and he chose Ellis Farm as the location in which it should take place in. (5)

In a letter to his friend Emerson:

Brook Farm• Ripley gave up his pastorate and

created Brook Farm in 1841. (5)

• The Farm extended to one hundred and seventy five acres. The property mortgages amounted to $11,000. (5)

• An institute was established in the community as a joint-stock company and offered shares and other benefits. (5)

Life on Brook Farm• It proved to be a place where intellectual

life was stimulating, and where the schools had become a great financial success. (5)

• Work duties included chopping wood, milking cows, turning a grindstone, and other farming chores. Some people were traders and teachers. (5)

• Members enjoyed free healthcare for their work and enjoyed music, dancing, card games, drama, costume parties, sledding, and skating.• Women were treated more equally and

could get an education.

Brook Farm Embraces Fourierism

• In 1844 Brook Farm adopted the principles of Fourier. (5)

• Fourierism was a system for the reorganization of society into self-sufficient cooperatives. It was based on a cultivation of land type economy where the goods would belong to the community and the workers would get an hourly wage in return. (6)

Brook Farm’s Decline• Brook Farm often put itself in debt as it often

spent a lot of money. (5)

• Troubles with illnesses and low supply of food caused them to ration. (5)

• Brook Farm attempted to raise $100,000 to fund another association, but it was slow and failed. (5)

• A phalanstery (utopian building) was burned down before its completion and that wasted a lot of money. (5)

• The utopian community failed because of financial ruin. Slow dissolution (when Ripley left) – 1846-1849 (5)

Ripley’s Future• Ripley’s wife died and converted to

Catholicism before she died. (1)

• He was faced with poverty and debt. (5)

• He remarried and found financial success as a reviewer, critic, and editor. His publication New American Cyclopedia became vastly popular. (5)

Citations(1) http://uudb.org/articles/georgeripley.html

(2) http://www.alcott.net/alcott/home/champions/Ripley.html?index=0

(3) http://www.nndb.com/people/961/000114619/

(4) http://www.classzone.com/cz/books/americans05/secured/resources/applications/ebook/index.jsp

(5) http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/transcendentalism/brook_farm.html

(6) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fourier

Pictures

• http://www.americanunitarian.org/georgeripley.jpg

• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/George_Ripley.jpg

• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1e/UUA_Logo.svg/250px-UUA_Logo.svg.png

• http://hilobrow.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Ripley-500.jpg

• http://bwht.org/wp-content/uploads/sophia_ripley.gif

• http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/community.gif

• http://uudb.org/images/brookfarm.jpg

• http://people.albion.edu/ram/cdk/BrookFarmStringBand.jpg

• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Hw-fourier.jpg

Information Cited• http://hilobrow.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/wolcott-45-painting.jpg

• http://www.kellscraft.com/RomanceOldNERooftrees/RomanceNE14.JPG

• http://uudb.org/images/georgeripley.jpg