BROOK FARM/
TRANSCENDENTALISTS
By Kaity Lynch
WHAT DOES THAT WORD MEAN?
• Transcendentalism- a religious and philosophical movement that was developed during
the late 1820s and '30s in the Eastern region of the United States as a protest against
the general state of spirituality and, in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard
University and the doctrine of the Unitarian church as taught at Harvard Divinity School.
• Brook Farm- a historic community that existed in the 1840s in West Roxbury, now a
southwestern section of Boston in Massachusetts, associated with Margaret Fuller and
other writers. Brook farm consisted of many intellectuals who are now well known.
• Fourierism- a system for the reorganization of society into self-sufficient cooperatives, in
accordance with the principles of the French socialist Charles Fourier
WHAT WAS THE POINT?
• Founders believed that they could form a “perfect” community, however, they forgot
about the common ways of human nature. Ex. Laziness, greed, etc…
FACES OF BROOK FARM
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George Ripley (founder)
Sophia Ripley(wife)
Nathaniel Hawthorne
John S. Dwight
Charles A. Dana
Isaac Hecker
Ralph Waldo Emerson
W. E. Channing
Margaret Fuller
Bronson Alcott
Theodore Parker
Horace Greeley
Orestes Brownson
POEM
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-- Louise Guiney
DOWN the long road, bent and brown,
Youth, that dearly loves a vision,
Ventures to the gate Elysian,
As a pilgrim from the town.
Coming not so late, so far,
Rocks and birches! for your story;
Not to prate on vanished glory
Where of old was quenched a star;
Where of old, in lapse of toil,
Time but mocked a prayer pathetic;
Where the flower of good prophetic
Starved in our New England soil.
Ah! to Youth with radiant eyes,
For whom grief is not, nor daunting,
Lost glad voices still are chanting
‘Neath those unremaining skies,
Still the dreams of fellowship
Beat their wings of aspiration;
And a smile of soft elation
Trembles from its haughty lip
If another dare deride
Hopes heroic snapped and parted,
Disillusion so high-hearted
All success is mean beside.
BIOGRAPHY
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Brook Farm began in April of 1841 with George Ripley as the founder, his wife, Sophia Ripley, and about fifteen other
members.
Ripley's goals were what transcendentalists had been looking for: individual freedom, humane relationships, harmony,
the merging of values, ideas, and spiritual matters with physical events, the union of mind and body, spirit and flesh.
Physical labor was thought of as a condition of mental well-being and health.
All members worked hard daily. Their main goal was self-improvement.
Brook Farm was an organized as a joint stock company. The price of a share was $500.00. Upon purchase, a member
could then have the right to vote on community policies.
Brook Farm began as an experiment in Christian living and became a center of reform activity to promote the beliefs of
Fourierism.
The members were attempting to work out an economy that allowed everyone an equal chance for social, intellectual,
and spiritual growth.
The members of Brook Farm had a desire for pleasure: music, dancing, card playing, charades, tableaux vivants,
dramatic readings, plays, costume parties, picnics, sledding and skating.
Brook Farm influenced many of the social reform movements: abolitionism, associationalism, the workingmen's
movement, and the women's rights movement.
MAJOR INTERESTS/WORKS/
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• In the United States, Fourierism was introduced to the American public in 1840 when a
New Yorker named Albert Brisbane published a compendium of Charles Fourier's
writings entitled “The Social Destiny of Man.”
• The Scarlet Letter- The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical
setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston,
Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who
conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance
and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.
SIGNIFICANT QUOTES
• George Ripley wrote:- "Our objects as you know, are to insure a more natural union between
intellectual and manual labor ... guarantee the highest mental freedom, by providing all with labor,
adapted to their tastes and talents, and securing to them the fruits of their industry ... thus to prepare
a society of liberal, intelligent, and cultivated persons, whose relations with each other would permit a
more simple and wholesome life, than can be led amidst the pressures of our competitive
institutions.“
In an article in The Harbinger Ripley wrote of "the systematic organization of labor, to make it more
efficient, productive, and attractive; in this way to provide for the abundant gratification of all the
intellectual, moral, and physical wants of every member of the Association; and thus to extirpate the
dreadful inequalities of external condition, which now make many aspects of society so hideous; and to
put all in possession of the means of leading a wise, serene and beautiful life in accordance with the
eternal laws of God and the highest aspirations of their own nature.“
Elizabeth Peabody - "everyone prescribes his own hours of labor, controlled only by his conscience."
IMPACT ON PUBLIC
• The members of Brook Farm believed that they could create a utopian microcosm of
society that would eventually serve as a model for and inaugurate the social macrocosm.
• Brook farm members influenced members and other people to work hard and stay
spiritually toned.
FUN FACTS
• 300 days was considered the equivalent of one year's labor, and ten hours in the
summer and eight in the winter were considered one day.
• Literary societies and reading clubs were very popular at Brook Farm, as were the
readings and performances of Shakespeare's plays.
• George Ripley's library included many rare English, German, and French titles as well as
Indian and Chinese works in translation.
• Brook Farm went bankrupt in 1847.
QUIZ TIME!
1.) How many days was considered one years worth of labor?
A. 300
B. 500
C. 365
D. 200
2.) Who wrote The Scarlet Letter?
A. Sir Walter Raleigh
B. Nathaniel Hawthorne
C. Elizabeth Peabody
D. J.K Rowling
3.) What is Fourierism?
A. A place where people bought flowers
B. The name of Charles Fourier’s family.
C. A system for the reorganization of society into self-sufficient cooperatives, in
accordance with the principles of the French socialist Charles Fourier
4.) What was the price of a Brook Farm share?
A. $200
B. $600
C $550
D. $500
5.) Who said this: “Everyone prescribes his own hours of labor, controlled only by his
conscience."
A. Elizabeth Peabody
B. Nathaniel Hawthorne
C. George Ripley
D. Sophia Ripley
ANSWERS
1.) How many days was considered one years worth of labor?
A. 300
2.) Who wrote The Scarlet Letter?
B. Nathaniel Hawthorne
3.) What is Fourierism?
C. a system for the reorganization of society into self-sufficient cooperatives, in accordance
with the principles of the French socialist Charles Fourier
4.) What was the price of a Brook Farm share?
D. $500
5.) Who said this: "everyone prescribes his own hours of labor, controlled only by his conscience."
A. Elizabeth Peabody
CITATIONS
• http://www.transcendentalists.com/brook_farm.htm
• http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Brook_Farm.aspx
• http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/transcendentalism/brook_farm.html
• http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu.edu/ideas/brhistory.html
• The blue book