“The industrious classes have been called the bone and marrow of the nation; but they are in fact the nation itself. The fruits of their industry are the nation’s wealth; their moral integrity and physical health is the nation’s strength; their ease and independence is the nation’s prosperity; their intellectual intelligence is the nation’s hope. Where the producing laborer and useful artisan eat well, sleep well, live comfortably, think correctly, speak fearlessly, and act uprightly, the nation is happy, free and wise. Has such a nation ever been? No. Can such a nation ever be? Answer, men of industry of the United States! If such can be, it is here. If such is to be, it must be your work.”
Frances Wright spoke these words on December 5, 1829, in a public address at the “Hall of Science” in New York City.
I first encountered Frances Wright in a rare book display from Duke University’s Utopian Collection. Her book A Few Days in Athens caught my eye. The card in the display case said that Frances Wright founded a communal society in 1826 to educate and emancipate slaves. She was the first woman editor of a general circulation newspaper and the first woman to tour the country giving lectures on social issues.
This piqued my curiosity. Who was this person? Why had I never heard of Frances Wright? I decided to investigate. I read A Few Days in Athens, her biography, some of her speeches and sections of several books containing information on Frances Wright. I found inspiration in the life and ideas of Frances Wright. I wanted to share this with you.
Frances Wright was a visionary thinker. In the 10-year period from 1819 through 1829 she poured forth her energy and ideas about how to reinvent and improve the human condition. I have characterized her ideas during this period into 5 Utopian Visions. Chronologically, they are:
Although not born in the United States, Frances Wright found her dreams and visions in America. America was also the place where her dreams were left incomplete, unattained, compromised, and ultimately lost.
Who was Frances Wright?
She was born in Dundee Scotland in 1795 into a family of moderate wealth. Losing her parents when she was 3, she was raised by her unmarried aunt, Frances Cambell, and her conservative grandfather, Major General Duncan Campbell, retired, of the Royal Marines. Fanny, as she was called, received a fine classical education, somewhat unusual for women of that time. Her childhood experience was one of material comfort in the midst of emotional isolation. Fanny was not close to her guardians. Once while traveling in London, her Grandfather remarked that the throngs of London’s poor, who were forced out of the countryside by land enclosures, were “too lazy to work”. Young Fanny thought otherwise. She thought that the poor should be treated with compassion.
When Frances Wright was 18, she settled with other relatives in Glasgow, where she was reunited with her younger sister Camilla, who would henceforth be her companion and confidant. Fanny became involved in the intellectual life of Glasgow. She joined a group headed by Professor John Millar, which encouraged the participation of women. This group opposed slavery and supported the American Revolution – in the interests of, as she wrote: “That love of liberty, so congenial to the mind of man, which nothing but imperious necessity is able to subdue.”
In Glasgow, the stimulating intellectual community invigorated Fanny. Her ideas and outspoken demeanor were developing. Fanny began to write.
Frances Wright outlined her first Utopian Vision in her treatise on Epicurean philosophy called A Few Days in Athens. Set as a discovered and translated manuscript from Athenian days, A Few Days in Athens presents several differing Greek philosophies through discussions by the students in Epicurus’ school.
Frances Wright’s first Utopian Vision was a vision where cultivation of aesthetics and true friendships are valued. It presented a moving plea for tolerance, self-restraint, and loyalty. It also implicitly attacked Christianity as a moral guide by describing a moral life in which neither guilt, sacrifice, nor suffering plays a leading role.
This vision was born from Frances Wright’s experience in Glasgow. Her community was a community of friendships and ideas, of discourse and idealism. Glasgow was her Athens.
However, elsewhere in Great Britain this idealism was not as evident. In 1816 and 1817 an anti-reformist conservative backlash swept through the country. Dissidents opposing government policy were persecuted and imprisoned. Extremists were executed. Fanny looked around at her repressive government and the stifling British class structure and was discouraged. She sought someplace where society could be recreated. Someplace unencumbered by hundreds of years of tradition, someplace with the promise of a new beginning.
Fanny read Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence: We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…
In Frances Wright’s interpretation of these words, “men” included women, the bit about the “Creator” was nonsense, but “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” appealed to her Epicurean sensibilities.
America became Frances Wright’s second Utopian Vision. She set her sights on America seeing it as the place where a just society was still possible. In 1818, Fanny and Camilla set off for America boarding the packet ship Amity bound for New York. Frances Wright was 21.
Upon arriving in New York Fanny and Camilla plunged into American society. They were received and feted by those of wealth and privilege. Fanny used her newfound social connections to have a play that she wrote, Altorf, produced in New York and Philadelphia and subsequently published. Altorf, was set during the Swiss struggle for independence from Austria, with lots of noble sentiment and a love triangle to enhance the plot.
It was well received but Fanny drew some criticism on herself by associating her name, a woman’s name, with both the production and publication of Altorf. Many considered this too bold and forward for a woman in society.
Excited by the possibilities of America Fanny wrote that the representative system of government “ …has been carried to perfection in America: by it the body of people rule in everything… Thus, though the form of government should in some cases be found deficient, yet the door is ever left open to improvement, in system it may always be pronounced to be perfect.”
Frances Wright approached her encounter with America with an unflagging naive enthusiasm. In her youthful romance with America, all was possible to anyone determined and hard working enough to struggle for it.
However, Frances Wright’s perfect vision of America was shattered when she traveled to Washington.
She encountered slavery first hand.
“The sight of Slavery is revolting everywhere,” she wrote, “but to inhale the impure breath of its pestilence in the free winds of America is odious beyond all that the imagination can conceive… Were the whole race emancipated their education would necessarily become a national object.”
These sentiments foreshadowed a cause that Frances Wright would later champion. However, this cause would wait, for in 1820 Fanny and Camilla returned to England.
As a capstone to her American experience Fanny wrote and published Views of Society and Manners in America. It was the first serious book written about the United States by an Englishwoman. It was unapologetic in its uncompromising praise of America. This caused it to be condemned by the Tory press. Many Americans eager for praise embraced it – but not all. James Fennimore Cooper described Views of Society and Manners in America as “nauseous flattery”. Never the less, Fanny had become a woman whose opinions were taken seriously, quite an accomplishment in 1821 England.
Fanny became part of the movement for Liberty in Europe, called “The Cause”.
This took her to France, where Fanny became enthralled by one of the leaders of “The Cause”, someone who had become the embodiment of Liberty, Monsignor Maria Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette. Fanny and Camilla joined Lafayette’s social circle, often staying at his semi-palatial country residence, La Grange.
History seems undecided as to the full extent of Fanny and the Marquis mutual affection. All agree that Fanny and Lafayette had a close personal relationship.
In 1824, Fanny and Camilla returned to America as part of Lafayette’s entourage. This conferred on the Wright sisters a social prominence even higher than they experienced on their earlier visit. She met the eminent men of the day, dining with the likes of Jefferson and Hamilton.
Frustrated with the social limitations placed upon her as part of Lafayette’s entourage, Fanny had begun to focus her attention on slavery. She began to wonder what she could do to fight this terrible injustice. Leaving Lafayette’s entourage, Fanny and Camilla moved on to Washington.
Fanny’s stay in Washington was marked by both disillusionment and inspiration. Disillusionment with American politics came when Fanny observed John Quincy Adams’ election to the presidency by the House of Representatives after Andrew Jackson had won a plurality in both the general election and the electoral vote.
Inspiration came when Fanny met a fellow Scott, Robert Owen, and heard him address Congress on February 25, 1825. Robert Owen had radically improved working conditions in the mills that he owned in England. He demonstrated that it was both efficient and profitable to improve the treatment of workers. Like Fanny he was drawn by the promise of America.
In his speech, Owen held forth on A New System of Society, a communal arrangement where work was equably divided and property was jointly held. Listening to Robert Owen speak, Frances Wright heard him articulate the values and beliefs that she had held all of her adult life. Neither Owen nor Wright trusted “…Commercial instinct and self interest to create a society where justice and generosity would prevail.” Both looked to cooperation rather than competition for the foundation of the decent life.
To demonstrate his New System of Society Robert Owen announced that he had purchased the town of Harmony Indiana where he intended to put his ideas to practice. Renamed New Harmony, he set out to found a society where people could live far happier, more economical, and more productive lives. New Harmony was Robert Owen’s Utopian Vision.
Owen’s vision was both a social model and an economic model. Frances Wright found in Robert Owen a shared vision, and with Owen and his son Robert Dale Owen, a friendship that would influence the rest of her life.
Inspired by Robert Owen’s ideas, Frances Wright began to formulate her plan to address slavery. In 1825 she visited New Harmony several times to consult with the Owens and by the end of the year she had produced her plan to eliminate slavery.
Frances Wright’s plan was both a social and an economic model. She intended to establish a communal society where slaves would work for 5 years to earn their freedom, while receiving an education that would provide them with the skills needed as free men. After obtaining freedom, the former slaves would be resettled in Haiti.
Slaves earning their emancipation while receiving education was Frances Wright’s third Utopian Vision.
Having established her goal Fanny wasted no time. She obtained land in the frontier of western Tennessee, near Memphis, suitable for growing cotton. She called her community Nashoba, the Indian name for the Wolf River which ran through the land.
Frances Wright envisioned Nashoba as a model community, whose social and economic success would inspire similar ventures, thereby eliminating slavery by making it economically obsolete. She believed that slaves at Nashoba, living communally and working to earn their freedom, would be more productive than plantation slaves. She felt that the economic success caused by this socially superior arrangement would generate market forces that would force others to emulate Nashoba’s model.
Fanny’s vision of Nashoba was broader than the mere education and emancipation of slaves. She imagined Nashoba to be “…an establishment where affection shall form the only marriage, kind feeling and kind action the only religion, respect for the feelings and liberties of others the only restraint, and union of interest the bond of peace and security.”
In 1826 Nashoba broke ground. Frances Wright was 29.
During its first year, Nashoba grew from 320 to 1800 acres. It remained primitive, with about 100 acres cleared and a half dozen crude log buildings. Nashoba had a school, a general store, and it was populated by 30 slaves, the Wright sisters, and 10 other whites. For much of this first year Fanny and her sister Camilla were stricken with illness but Nashoba, despite its material deprivations, held true to it vision.
For all its high ideals, Nashoba was not egalitarian. Nashoba’s African Americans were still slaves and expected to do the labor. White residents were there to supervise and teach. However, all of the children received the same lessons in the same classroom.
The Utopian communities of Nashoba and New Harmony arose during a time of expanding frontiers and boundaries. The great western migration was beginning. It was a time of optimism and social experimentation when all was considered possible. It was a time for experimental religious movements as well. Mormons, Shakers, the Oneida Community and others were having their beginnings. “The second great awakening”, an evangelical protestant revival was beginning to sweep the country.
Growing restless in Nashoba and seeking a moral boost, Fanny visited New Harmony in the spring of 1827 only to find it dissolving. Robert Owen and his son Robert Dale announced on March 28, 1827, “The experiment, to ascertain at once whether a mixed and unassorted population could successfully govern their own affairs as a community was a bold and hazardous attempt, and, we think, a premature one.”
New Harmony continued but it was essentially divided and privatized. While no longer a communal experiment, it retained its secular focus and continued as a center of progressive social views.
With New Harmony in a period of transition, Robert Dale Owen decided to cast his lot with Frances Wright and he returned to Nashoba with Fanny. However, after a month Robert Dale and Fanny decided to go to Europe where they would raise funds for Nashoba.
Prior to Fanny’s departure, the Nashoba Trustees met and adopted several resolutions concerning “…all matters regarding the Negroes.” One resolution stated that “…slaves who neglected their duty would be treated ‘according to the slave system’.”
That this resolution was contrary to the philosophy of human dignity and community that established Nashoba, seems to have escaped Fanny’s notice. The essence of Nashoba was that inspired self-interest, rather than coercion and harsh punishment, motivated the slave’s labors.
Without further thought, Fanny and Robert Dale left for Europe leaving Camilla to manage Nashoba.
After Fanny left Nashoba immediately began to unravel.
In July an abolitionist newspaper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation, included excerpts from the diary of Nashoba’s supervisor, James Richardson.
His diary was a chronicle of callous treatment, cruelty, and an occasional flogging of the slaves at Nashoba. It also illustrated that Nashoba tolerated, and even encouraged sexual intercourse without marriage. Richardson further mentioned that he had started living intimately with a free black teacher at Nashoba’s school.
The publication of James Richardson’s diary galvanized public outcry against Nashoba. However, the prevailing morality was not overly concerned with the harsh corporal punishment of slaves, true outrage was reserved for the sexual liberties at Nashoba, in particular, cohabitation across the wall of racial separation. Letters of protest flooded American newspapers. By the end of the summer, the uproar would reach Fanny across the Atlantic.
Concerned but not alarmed when she heard of the public criticism of Nashoba, Fanny returned to America arriving on Christmas day, 1827. She found that Nashoba had deteriorated materially and spiritually in her absence.
The Nashoba that she found was not the Nashoba of her founding vision. Nor was it the Nashoba of James Richardson’s diaries. Richardson had recently departed and her sister Camilla, despite Fanny and Nashoba’s views of marriage, had opted for a socially sanctioned relationship and married another Nashoba resident.
Instead of quenching the fires of criticism, Fanny’s published response to Nashoba’s critics fanned the flames by failing to condemn Richardson’s behavior and restating her controversial views on religion, marriage, sexual conduct and racial equality.
Fanny had seriously misjudged the climate against her. Her response further heightened criticism and public opposition. Prominent friends and supporters deserted her. For the rest of her life Fanny would live with the notoriety that Camilla and Richardson had given Nashoba.
Lack of economic success has caused Nashoba’s Trustees to replace Fanny’s model of self-motivation and adopt the overseer model for managing the slaves. Slaves would continue to work to buy their freedom, but under constant, strict supervision. Frances Wright’s vision of Nashoba had been lost.
Two years after Nashoba was founded, Fanny realized that it had not succeeded in producing a social and economic model that would lead to the elimination of slavery throughout the south. She was ready to move on.
Fanny joined Robert Dale Owen in New Harmony as joint editor of the New Harmony Gazette. Soon she became its dominant force. As joint editor of the Gazette, Fanny became the first woman since colonial times to edit an American general circulation newspaper.
In the New Harmony Gazette, Frances Wright found a new vehicle to communicate her ideas for social reform. Fanny had no shortage of ideas. She supported equality, rationality, tolerance and peace. Fanny spoke out for public education, women’s rights and freedom of speech. She opposed conventional sexual morality, religion, the corrupting power of wealth, militarism, and blind patriotism. Frances Wright believed that American institutions, unlike those of Europe, were still open to change. She called for a return to the ideals of the American Revolution. She called for America to live up to its promise of Liberty and Justice for All.