1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,000 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,120 --> 00:00:12,639 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome 3 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:15,680 Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy Wilson 4 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:18,960 Speaker 1: and Tracy. We recently went on a little trip. We did, 5 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:23,040 Speaker 1: we didn't. We visited the Indiana Historical Society at their invitation, 6 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:26,360 Speaker 1: we did a live podcast there we did. That show 7 00:00:26,600 --> 00:00:29,640 Speaker 1: actually took place the night before their Midwestern Roots Conference 8 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:32,080 Speaker 1: began UH and it was such an honor to kick 9 00:00:32,120 --> 00:00:36,640 Speaker 1: off the festivities and they being in Indianapolis. They asked 10 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:39,599 Speaker 1: us to do something Indiana related and we ended up 11 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:43,640 Speaker 1: talking about the village slash town of New Harmony and 12 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:48,000 Speaker 1: a couple of interesting communal living experiments that were conducted there. Yes, 13 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:50,680 Speaker 1: we did not get to go to New Harmony while 14 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:53,159 Speaker 1: we were there. It was a very fast trip, but 15 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:55,520 Speaker 1: there are lots of things about it online. You can 16 00:00:55,800 --> 00:01:00,200 Speaker 1: have a lot of experience through all of these documents 17 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:04,520 Speaker 1: and records and pictures and cool stuff. Yeah, the Indiana 18 00:01:04,600 --> 00:01:08,840 Speaker 1: Historical Society UM has a really impressive digital archive online, 19 00:01:09,200 --> 00:01:11,480 Speaker 1: including things not just about New Harmony but about a 20 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:14,280 Speaker 1: lot of different topics. So we encourage people to absolutely 21 00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:16,640 Speaker 1: go explore, but for now we'll hop her right into 22 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:21,680 Speaker 1: our live show. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm 23 00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:26,280 Speaker 1: Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. Today we're talking 24 00:01:26,280 --> 00:01:28,800 Speaker 1: about the town of New Harmony, and in the window 25 00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:33,680 Speaker 1: from eighteen fifteen to eighty seven, there were two communal 26 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:38,119 Speaker 1: society attempts there in the town, one right after the other, 27 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:42,760 Speaker 1: one way more successful than the other. But to talk 28 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:45,560 Speaker 1: about all that, we actually have to start in the 29 00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:50,240 Speaker 1: eighteenth century in Germany and talk about George Rapp. George 30 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:54,640 Speaker 1: Rapp was born Johann George Rapp on November one, seventy 31 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:59,720 Speaker 1: seven in Iptingen, which is in the Duchy of Wurtemburg, Germany, 32 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:02,360 Speaker 1: and as he was growing up he learned to be 33 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:06,160 Speaker 1: a weaver. He got married to Christina Benzinger in seventeen 34 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:09,000 Speaker 1: eighty three, and then they had a son named Johannes, 35 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:12,680 Speaker 1: who went more often by John later on, So when 36 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:14,720 Speaker 1: we talk about John, that's who that is. And they 37 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:17,800 Speaker 1: also had a daughter named Rosina. Yeah, Unfortunately we don't 38 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:21,240 Speaker 1: know a whole lot about Rosina. Um I can't imagine 39 00:02:21,320 --> 00:02:26,840 Speaker 1: why her one of her children shows up a little 40 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:28,880 Speaker 1: bit later in the record. We won't talk about her 41 00:02:28,919 --> 00:02:32,120 Speaker 1: in this podcast, but her offspring becomes a little bit 42 00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:34,440 Speaker 1: more important to the story. But we really don't know 43 00:02:34,520 --> 00:02:37,440 Speaker 1: much about their daughter. But by the seventeen eighties, Rap 44 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:40,560 Speaker 1: had kind of moved away from textiles as a vocation 45 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:46,080 Speaker 1: and into his growing religious passion and he had started preaching. Uh. 46 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:49,799 Speaker 1: He was Lutheran in terms of his upbringing, but he 47 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:54,400 Speaker 1: ended up becoming a Pietist, and in very simplistic terms, 48 00:02:54,639 --> 00:02:58,160 Speaker 1: that is an ideology that focuses on the individual's religious 49 00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: experience as guided by the Bible. And the movement of 50 00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:06,360 Speaker 1: Pietism really began out of this perception of shortcomings of 51 00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:10,880 Speaker 1: the Church and its doctrine and the formality of it 52 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:15,240 Speaker 1: and its followers. Pietisms followers really believed that there needed 53 00:03:15,240 --> 00:03:18,400 Speaker 1: to be reformation within the church so that they centered 54 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:21,640 Speaker 1: theology again on truly living a Christian life and looking 55 00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:24,600 Speaker 1: to the Bible as the one true authority rather than 56 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:27,920 Speaker 1: any sort of hierarchy put together by the Church. Yes, so, 57 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:31,560 Speaker 1: because of this conflict between the established church and his 58 00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:35,839 Speaker 1: personal beliefs, Rap ultimately separated from the Lutherans in Sight five. 59 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:38,480 Speaker 1: And he didn't go by himself. He had a small 60 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:41,400 Speaker 1: group of followers who started meeting at his home, which 61 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:45,000 Speaker 1: this was the eighteenth century in Germany that was not legal, 62 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:48,680 Speaker 1: and their numbers got bigger over time, even though they 63 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:54,200 Speaker 1: were having these illicit religious meetings. By the early seventeen nineties, 64 00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:58,880 Speaker 1: this little, the little, their little gatherings as they had grown, 65 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:01,840 Speaker 1: had become very concerning to the church. And the church 66 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:06,040 Speaker 1: was worried about this separatist group and the influence they 67 00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:09,400 Speaker 1: were having, and they considered it to be undermining the 68 00:04:09,480 --> 00:04:13,000 Speaker 1: social order. And rap also believed that he was a 69 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,359 Speaker 1: prophet uh, something which he stated openly, and that was 70 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:21,120 Speaker 1: essentially a pretty big piece of rebellion against the established 71 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:23,760 Speaker 1: Lutheran Church. And he was actually brought before a church 72 00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:28,320 Speaker 1: commission in sevente charges of heresy, and in his testimony 73 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:31,000 Speaker 1: he said to them quite plainly, quote, I am a 74 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:34,080 Speaker 1: prophet and I am called to be one. Uh. He 75 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:38,360 Speaker 1: was imprisoned briefly, so that's how that worked out. Um. 76 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:42,560 Speaker 1: But this actually had the opposite of the commission's desired 77 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:46,640 Speaker 1: effect in imprisoning him. More people started to take notice 78 00:04:46,680 --> 00:04:49,800 Speaker 1: of him, and as a consequence, his followers just grew 79 00:04:49,839 --> 00:04:53,479 Speaker 1: in number. So in an effort to control this problem. 80 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:55,880 Speaker 1: They told Rap in seventeen eighty nine that he needed 81 00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:59,600 Speaker 1: to submit a formal statement of faith, and that instruction 82 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:01,880 Speaker 1: didn't I actually come from the church. It came from 83 00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:04,640 Speaker 1: the government of Wurtemburg. Because the church in the state 84 00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:07,279 Speaker 1: were really deeply interconnected, as was the case and so 85 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:10,159 Speaker 1: much of Europe at that point. That was actually one 86 00:05:10,200 --> 00:05:13,599 Speaker 1: of the things that Rapp and his followers really objected to. Yeah, 87 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:17,160 Speaker 1: the writing that Raps submitted. He did make his formal declaration, 88 00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:19,919 Speaker 1: but it was really not what the government or the 89 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:23,719 Speaker 1: church was looking for. Uh. Rap took advantage of this moment, 90 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:25,200 Speaker 1: said you want to know what I think, Here's what 91 00:05:25,279 --> 00:05:28,480 Speaker 1: I think. So he stated quite clearly that while he 92 00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:30,880 Speaker 1: respected the government, he was very respectful. He was like, 93 00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:34,320 Speaker 1: I get it. But my followers and I who started 94 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:37,560 Speaker 1: calling themselves the Harmonists, you'll also see that UH mentioned 95 00:05:37,560 --> 00:05:39,719 Speaker 1: as the Rappites, and we used those two terms pretty 96 00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:44,080 Speaker 1: interchangeably in this this episode. They felt that people should 97 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:47,160 Speaker 1: just have freedom to form their own congregations as they wished, 98 00:05:47,200 --> 00:05:50,000 Speaker 1: without the involvement of any civic body or rules from 99 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:54,359 Speaker 1: the government. And additionally, though his statement indicated that the 100 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:57,080 Speaker 1: Harmonists really didn't have a whole lot of use for 101 00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:00,760 Speaker 1: some pretty standard social norms and customs that were part 102 00:06:00,839 --> 00:06:03,960 Speaker 1: of of government and church practice. So they didn't want 103 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:07,760 Speaker 1: to baptize infants because they believed in believer baptism later 104 00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:10,279 Speaker 1: in life. Uh. They also did not believe in serving 105 00:06:10,279 --> 00:06:13,280 Speaker 1: in the military, so that was another big problem. You 106 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:17,359 Speaker 1: can imagine how that went over Over the next four years, 107 00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:21,200 Speaker 1: the relationship between the Lutheran government of Wurtemburg and George 108 00:06:21,279 --> 00:06:24,560 Speaker 1: Rapt just became increasingly tense, and then in eighteen oh three, 109 00:06:24,800 --> 00:06:28,880 Speaker 1: rap was questioned one more time. This time the authorities 110 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:32,120 Speaker 1: told him that he was not allowed to speak outside 111 00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:35,520 Speaker 1: of his town. That seems like an odd instruction, but 112 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,880 Speaker 1: they're thinking was that he had converted everybody that he 113 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:43,400 Speaker 1: was going to persuade within the town, so if they 114 00:06:43,400 --> 00:06:46,200 Speaker 1: could just stop him from going to find new people, 115 00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:50,280 Speaker 1: it would at least stop the spread of this dangerous rhetoric. Yeah, 116 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:55,120 Speaker 1: it's an interesting it's thing, But he was so defiant. 117 00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:58,040 Speaker 1: They kind of knew he wasn't going to stop preaching, 118 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:01,919 Speaker 1: so they were like, just don't go outside city limits. Um, 119 00:07:01,960 --> 00:07:04,039 Speaker 1: I feel like those were like rules my parents gave 120 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:09,320 Speaker 1: menture don't go outside city limits. We won't. We won't 121 00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:13,720 Speaker 1: pick you up from the jail anywhere but town. Um. Look, 122 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:17,320 Speaker 1: I was a wild child, Um. But this was the 123 00:07:17,440 --> 00:07:19,920 Speaker 1: end of life in Germany for rap so he set 124 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:23,400 Speaker 1: out for the United States. He landed in Philadelphia in 125 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:26,400 Speaker 1: October of eighteen o three, and he had a son, 126 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:28,600 Speaker 1: John with him, as well as two other men who 127 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 1: were part of his separatist group, kind of scouting the 128 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:35,360 Speaker 1: situation out. So this show is about new Harmony here 129 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:38,560 Speaker 1: in Indiana. But the village in Indiana was not the 130 00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:41,000 Speaker 1: first rap Bite settlement in the United States, and this 131 00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:44,400 Speaker 1: precursor that they started with was the template that Rapp 132 00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:48,440 Speaker 1: and his followers used to establish the Indiana Harmony. So 133 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:50,400 Speaker 1: we're going to talk about how it came to be 134 00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:53,600 Speaker 1: founded and what those rules were, because then they carry 135 00:07:53,640 --> 00:07:57,360 Speaker 1: over to new Harmony here. And the choice of the 136 00:07:57,480 --> 00:08:01,080 Speaker 1: US for this new settlement was based on raps interpretation 137 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:04,480 Speaker 1: of the Bible, the passage in Revelation twelve six, which 138 00:08:04,520 --> 00:08:07,640 Speaker 1: reads quote and the woman fled into the wilderness, where 139 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:10,920 Speaker 1: she had a place prepared for God had convinced him 140 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:13,800 Speaker 1: that the unsettled land in North America was where he 141 00:08:13,920 --> 00:08:17,760 Speaker 1: and his followers should make their new home. Rapid hoped 142 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:19,960 Speaker 1: that he could either get a land grant from the 143 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:22,600 Speaker 1: US government or a provision for the purchase of some 144 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:27,760 Speaker 1: discounted land. He did not really understand the process involved. 145 00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:30,320 Speaker 1: This was well before things like the Homestead Act that 146 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:32,280 Speaker 1: made it a lot easier for people to get land. 147 00:08:32,720 --> 00:08:36,800 Speaker 1: Congress had to approve either of those options. Rap did 148 00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:40,120 Speaker 1: not anticipate that as being part of it, and he 149 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:43,520 Speaker 1: wasn't really dissuaded when he found it out. He had 150 00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:46,559 Speaker 1: been hoping though, that, like even though people were telling him, no, 151 00:08:46,640 --> 00:08:49,880 Speaker 1: Congress has to do that for you, honey, um, but 152 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:53,440 Speaker 1: he was hoping that he really had something special going 153 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:55,880 Speaker 1: on and that he could be given a parcel of 154 00:08:55,960 --> 00:08:58,560 Speaker 1: land to start his community without having to mess with 155 00:08:58,600 --> 00:09:02,080 Speaker 1: all that red tape. And so his his big idea 156 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:04,120 Speaker 1: was that he was going to go straight to President 157 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:07,839 Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson, which he did. He went and spoke with 158 00:09:07,920 --> 00:09:10,280 Speaker 1: Jefferson on July twelfth of eighteen o four, and he 159 00:09:10,360 --> 00:09:13,000 Speaker 1: explained his plans in the situation and what he had 160 00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:17,119 Speaker 1: come from. And while the President thought this whole conversation 161 00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:21,160 Speaker 1: was pretty compelling, he also deferred to Congress, and he 162 00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:24,880 Speaker 1: clarified for Rap that that was the only governing body 163 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:28,480 Speaker 1: that could grant him land. UH. Jefferson did, though, use 164 00:09:28,559 --> 00:09:30,800 Speaker 1: his influence. He wrote some letters so that there would 165 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:34,360 Speaker 1: be an offer of land and that offer would be protected. Uh. 166 00:09:34,520 --> 00:09:36,760 Speaker 1: He had give it made sure that Rap had this 167 00:09:36,800 --> 00:09:40,720 Speaker 1: option to purchase a forty thou acre township here in Indiana. 168 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:42,640 Speaker 1: Rap did not have enough money for that one at 169 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:45,760 Speaker 1: the time. UH, so that one did not happen. So 170 00:09:45,840 --> 00:09:48,280 Speaker 1: part of the reason that Rap was willing to take 171 00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:51,480 Speaker 1: his request directly to the President was because he needed 172 00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:54,440 Speaker 1: to get things settled as quickly as possible. He had 173 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:57,199 Speaker 1: nothing to send him back to Germany. He had nothing 174 00:09:57,200 --> 00:10:00,280 Speaker 1: to return to their His estate had been seen eased 175 00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:02,959 Speaker 1: by the Wurtenburg government and he was considered to be 176 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:06,000 Speaker 1: a fugitive, so he could not just go back, and 177 00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:09,120 Speaker 1: he didn't want to. Uh. He only had those few 178 00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:11,440 Speaker 1: people with him when he traveled to North America, but 179 00:10:11,520 --> 00:10:13,440 Speaker 1: he had already written back to Germany that was like 180 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:16,960 Speaker 1: I am never coming back. UM. He didn't want to 181 00:10:16,960 --> 00:10:18,880 Speaker 1: return to Europe at all. He really thought like he 182 00:10:18,960 --> 00:10:21,480 Speaker 1: was where God wanted him to be. And he also 183 00:10:21,640 --> 00:10:23,760 Speaker 1: in those letters spoke about the potential of the U 184 00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:26,320 Speaker 1: S settlement, and as a consequence, more of her his 185 00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:29,600 Speaker 1: followers were already on the way. Uh They were ready 186 00:10:29,640 --> 00:10:33,120 Speaker 1: to set up this new utopia, and they started arriving 187 00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:36,800 Speaker 1: in Baltimore aboard the ship Aurora on July four, eighteen 188 00:10:36,840 --> 00:10:40,240 Speaker 1: o four, and two more groups of Harmonists followed in 189 00:10:40,280 --> 00:10:43,000 Speaker 1: the next six weeks aboard the Atlantic and the Margaretta. 190 00:10:43,559 --> 00:10:45,520 Speaker 1: So that meant he had an urgent need to have 191 00:10:45,600 --> 00:10:48,040 Speaker 1: a home for all these new arrivals, and without the 192 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:50,600 Speaker 1: assistance that he was hoping for from the US government, 193 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:55,360 Speaker 1: so Rap wound up purchasing several thousand acres of land 194 00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:59,000 Speaker 1: north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in Butler County. That cost him 195 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:01,600 Speaker 1: a little more than ten thousand dollars, and he had 196 00:11:01,640 --> 00:11:05,800 Speaker 1: decided that Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, or Maryland would all be 197 00:11:05,880 --> 00:11:08,320 Speaker 1: good options for where they could set things up, but 198 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:11,440 Speaker 1: this particular piece of land was not his first choice 199 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:15,920 Speaker 1: of location. Nevertheless, though, the Harmonists pulled all of their 200 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:18,000 Speaker 1: resources to try to make a go of it, and 201 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:21,400 Speaker 1: they finalized that purchase on December twenty, eighteen o four. 202 00:11:22,160 --> 00:11:26,160 Speaker 1: Not everybody was pleased with this particular Pennsylvania land, though, 203 00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:29,079 Speaker 1: and some folks did leave Wraps group and go strike 204 00:11:29,120 --> 00:11:32,760 Speaker 1: out on their own. On February of eighteen o five, 205 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:37,400 Speaker 1: Rap officially founded the Harmony Society that became the governing 206 00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:40,840 Speaker 1: body of the town that he founded, Harmony, Pennsylvania, and 207 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:44,040 Speaker 1: the Society maintained all of their documents in the official 208 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:48,240 Speaker 1: language of the Society as designated by George Rapp, which 209 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:52,120 Speaker 1: was German. He was like, we'll talk about this more 210 00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:54,360 Speaker 1: in a minute, but like Christ is coming you guys, 211 00:11:54,360 --> 00:11:57,120 Speaker 1: we don't have to learn another language. We're good. Uh 212 00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:00,560 Speaker 1: literally really he was like, don't let's not waste time 213 00:12:00,559 --> 00:12:02,800 Speaker 1: with that. Like we're just let's keep what we know. 214 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:06,920 Speaker 1: This is going to be more efficient. Um. He also 215 00:12:07,160 --> 00:12:10,559 Speaker 1: established himself sort of in this this document as the 216 00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:14,400 Speaker 1: ultimate leader. And when you start looking at biographies of 217 00:12:14,440 --> 00:12:17,640 Speaker 1: Rap and stories about him and how his society worked, 218 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:23,560 Speaker 1: he is characterized in two very very different ways. There 219 00:12:23,559 --> 00:12:26,320 Speaker 1: are somewhere he is described as as very benevolent and 220 00:12:26,400 --> 00:12:29,880 Speaker 1: loving father figure. Uh, you know, kind of like a 221 00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:34,400 Speaker 1: hippie love figure that wants to start a cool community everybody. Um. 222 00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:37,360 Speaker 1: And then in others he's really represented much more as 223 00:12:37,360 --> 00:12:40,400 Speaker 1: a manipulative dictator who's like, well, I'm going to America 224 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:43,400 Speaker 1: because Europe is not going to happen for us. You'll 225 00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:47,160 Speaker 1: die if you stay, you should come. Um. Probably those 226 00:12:47,200 --> 00:12:49,319 Speaker 1: are two sides of the same coin, and he may 227 00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:51,560 Speaker 1: have been both of those things, depending on who he 228 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:54,120 Speaker 1: was dealing with and what topic was at hand. But 229 00:12:54,920 --> 00:12:57,680 Speaker 1: in all matters, no matter whether they were just the 230 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:01,240 Speaker 1: logistics and finances of the community or matters of faith, 231 00:13:01,760 --> 00:13:04,440 Speaker 1: or how members of the group would interact with outsiders, 232 00:13:04,480 --> 00:13:07,720 Speaker 1: including how they voted later on, rap was deferred to. 233 00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:11,480 Speaker 1: He made all the decisions and his word was absolutely final. 234 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:16,320 Speaker 1: So if you signed on to Harmonies Articles of Association, 235 00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:20,240 Speaker 1: you relinquished all personal assets to the community and you 236 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:23,480 Speaker 1: promised to live by the communities rules. The number of 237 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:27,160 Speaker 1: initial members who first signed on with this charter was 238 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:31,520 Speaker 1: first established. That estimate varies different accounts site, anywhere from 239 00:13:31,559 --> 00:13:34,079 Speaker 1: thirty one to a hundred families. So that was as 240 00:13:34,080 --> 00:13:36,920 Speaker 1: many as four dred to five hundred people. Yeah, some 241 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:39,360 Speaker 1: were like tracking by families, some were trying to tract 242 00:13:39,360 --> 00:13:42,599 Speaker 1: by individuals, and I think that leads to some confusion 243 00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:45,360 Speaker 1: in what those numbers really were, but after that initial 244 00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:49,040 Speaker 1: charter was established, any new prospective members had to agree 245 00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:51,240 Speaker 1: to a trial period, which was usually like six to 246 00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:54,680 Speaker 1: eight weeks before they could become full members. And the 247 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:58,960 Speaker 1: charter initially included a provision for any members who left 248 00:13:58,960 --> 00:14:01,400 Speaker 1: the group that were in good standing to be given 249 00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:03,800 Speaker 1: a sum of cash when they left, so that they 250 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:05,440 Speaker 1: were getting a little something back of what they had 251 00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:07,880 Speaker 1: put in, and also they could start their life elsewhere 252 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:10,320 Speaker 1: without having to go from zero. We're going to talk 253 00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:13,160 Speaker 1: about what happened to that little plan later, because they 254 00:14:13,160 --> 00:14:14,920 Speaker 1: didn't work out so good. I bet you can get 255 00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:20,600 Speaker 1: so the groups quickly set to work. They cleared about 256 00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:22,800 Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty acres of land in just the 257 00:14:22,840 --> 00:14:26,360 Speaker 1: first year, they built an estimated fifty log homes plus 258 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:29,120 Speaker 1: a mill, and of course at church there was also 259 00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:32,040 Speaker 1: a committee of elders hand chosen by WRAP to help 260 00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:34,880 Speaker 1: lead the adjustment into more communal living. I feel like 261 00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:38,120 Speaker 1: this is the first place that they really diverge from 262 00:14:38,160 --> 00:14:41,160 Speaker 1: all the utopian communities that we have ever talked about, 263 00:14:41,560 --> 00:14:44,760 Speaker 1: and that they actually showed up and got some things done. Yeah, 264 00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:48,760 Speaker 1: and there was a transition team. Like I I like 265 00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:51,320 Speaker 1: the idea that They recognized that these people were all 266 00:14:51,360 --> 00:14:54,720 Speaker 1: part of a group in Germany, but they weren't accustomed 267 00:14:54,720 --> 00:14:57,240 Speaker 1: to this idea of like, we all lived together in 268 00:14:57,280 --> 00:14:59,720 Speaker 1: one big community and share of resources. So he did 269 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:01,400 Speaker 1: have people that were like, here, we're going to get 270 00:15:01,400 --> 00:15:05,080 Speaker 1: you through this transition, which is probably why his communities 271 00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:08,640 Speaker 1: worked better than some others. Um two years into this 272 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:12,480 Speaker 1: communal living effort, the Harmonists, in pace with the Second 273 00:15:12,480 --> 00:15:15,840 Speaker 1: Great Awakening, which was sweeping through the US, had their 274 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:20,120 Speaker 1: own reawakening. Beginning in eighteen o seven. The belief among 275 00:15:20,320 --> 00:15:23,000 Speaker 1: Raps followers that Christ was soon to return to Earth 276 00:15:23,240 --> 00:15:27,520 Speaker 1: took on a much more immediate tone. Rap had come 277 00:15:27,560 --> 00:15:31,640 Speaker 1: to the conclusion that the Napoleonic Wars, which had started 278 00:15:31,680 --> 00:15:34,160 Speaker 1: in eighteen o three, were a sign of the eminent 279 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:36,480 Speaker 1: return of the Son of God, and that was because 280 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:42,600 Speaker 1: he saw Napoleon Bonaparte as an anti Christ. I said 281 00:15:42,600 --> 00:15:44,560 Speaker 1: this to Holly while we were planning this episode. But 282 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:46,480 Speaker 1: we just got back from Paris not long ago, and 283 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:52,800 Speaker 1: we saw Napoleon's tomb, and I was unprepared for uh Napoleon, 284 00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:55,240 Speaker 1: who you know, We've always learned as a guy that 285 00:15:55,320 --> 00:15:58,440 Speaker 1: we had a lot of wars with in a giant 286 00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:03,480 Speaker 1: tomb surrounded by angel statues. France definitely did not think 287 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:08,200 Speaker 1: he was an antichrist. Um. So wrap thought that this 288 00:16:08,280 --> 00:16:11,240 Speaker 1: guy's rise to power really signaled the end of Europe 289 00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:13,480 Speaker 1: in the world order. Yeah, that was one of the 290 00:16:13,520 --> 00:16:16,080 Speaker 1: many reasons he was like, Europe was not gonna exist 291 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:19,480 Speaker 1: for long. Come on, um. Mysticism was also a huge 292 00:16:19,480 --> 00:16:23,320 Speaker 1: part of the Rabbite interpretation of scripture, So George Rapp 293 00:16:23,400 --> 00:16:26,760 Speaker 1: and his followers, But again, he was always really leading 294 00:16:26,760 --> 00:16:30,320 Speaker 1: the ideology. We're always watching world events. He was kind 295 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:33,000 Speaker 1: of a news junkie UM, and they were watching events 296 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:35,560 Speaker 1: closely to see what they might portend. Because he was 297 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:38,920 Speaker 1: always relating what was going on around them and throughout 298 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:40,960 Speaker 1: the world to what was in the Bible and trying 299 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:44,040 Speaker 1: to kind of parse out any deeper meaning he could. 300 00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:46,520 Speaker 1: And the group often discussed these matters as part of 301 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:49,680 Speaker 1: their religious practice. It would basically have like evening services 302 00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:51,600 Speaker 1: in discussion where they would talk about, Hey, this thing 303 00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:54,920 Speaker 1: happened over here, this might mean this um tying all 304 00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:58,760 Speaker 1: of these various events like we said to biblical prophecy. 305 00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:02,080 Speaker 1: So the Rabbites were linealists. They believed that the Son 306 00:17:02,120 --> 00:17:04,440 Speaker 1: of God was going to appear once again in human 307 00:17:04,520 --> 00:17:06,720 Speaker 1: form and then rule the world as his kingdom for 308 00:17:06,800 --> 00:17:10,120 Speaker 1: a thousand years of peace, and that this was going 309 00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:14,000 Speaker 1: to start at any moment. So they sought to purify 310 00:17:14,119 --> 00:17:17,760 Speaker 1: themselves in preparation. So soon there was no tobacco use 311 00:17:17,840 --> 00:17:22,840 Speaker 1: in harmony, raps followers shifted to a celibate life. The 312 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:26,600 Speaker 1: end times are coming. You don't need to have any babies. Uh. 313 00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:29,000 Speaker 1: Prior to this decision for celibacy, there had been a 314 00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:32,320 Speaker 1: number of marriages in harmony, and and Georgia's son John 315 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:34,639 Speaker 1: had actually been one of the last to get married 316 00:17:34,640 --> 00:17:38,320 Speaker 1: in harmony. But even married couples were encouraged to abstain 317 00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:41,120 Speaker 1: from sexual activity and to live as brothers and sisters 318 00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:45,840 Speaker 1: of faith. So John Ramp incidentally clashed with his father. 319 00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:56,119 Speaker 1: Uh during this jime. The cartoon that just ran in 320 00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:59,560 Speaker 1: my head was like if one of my parents pulled that, 321 00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:03,200 Speaker 1: like a world of no jan and Ron, This isn't 322 00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:07,600 Speaker 1: gonna happen. Um. But yeah, So John and George had 323 00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:11,120 Speaker 1: some problems, uh, and John left harmony. He moved to Ohio, 324 00:18:11,840 --> 00:18:15,280 Speaker 1: and he and his father, George later became embroiled in 325 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:18,280 Speaker 1: a legal battle over the money that John had contributed 326 00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:22,359 Speaker 1: to Harmony to the trust, which he wanted back, and 327 00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:25,280 Speaker 1: several other members that had decided that they were going 328 00:18:25,320 --> 00:18:28,359 Speaker 1: to leave joined this suit seeking their money as well, 329 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:32,360 Speaker 1: all of them after kind of having this drag out 330 00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:36,239 Speaker 1: for a while because it seemed like they were not 331 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:40,040 Speaker 1: in good standing per George's assessment, thus they were not 332 00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:43,280 Speaker 1: entitled to that. But they eventually abandoned legal action. They 333 00:18:43,359 --> 00:18:44,960 Speaker 1: just got tired of fighting and they gave up on 334 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:48,919 Speaker 1: ever reclaiming their assets. But John did go back and 335 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:52,280 Speaker 1: rejoin his father's community, although it was not for terribly 336 00:18:52,320 --> 00:18:54,080 Speaker 1: long because he died when he was still a very 337 00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:56,480 Speaker 1: young man in his late twenties, and that happened in 338 00:18:56,560 --> 00:18:59,720 Speaker 1: eighteen twelve. We will get right back to our New 339 00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:02,479 Speaker 1: her Any live show at the Indiana Historical Society in 340 00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:04,480 Speaker 1: just a moment, but first we're going to pause and 341 00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:15,320 Speaker 1: have a quick sponsor break. So George Rapp was setting 342 00:19:15,359 --> 00:19:18,280 Speaker 1: up this whole thing. The idea was that the Millennium 343 00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:21,680 Speaker 1: was coming, and there were naturally gonna be some expenses 344 00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:25,080 Speaker 1: related to the second coming. Rap knew they might have 345 00:19:25,119 --> 00:19:28,120 Speaker 1: to travel to New Jerusalem with all of his followers 346 00:19:28,160 --> 00:19:30,680 Speaker 1: so that they could meet Christ and present themselves. Uh. 347 00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:34,080 Speaker 1: And that was just one for another. There were concerns 348 00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:36,520 Speaker 1: that there was going to be global instability leading up 349 00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:39,679 Speaker 1: to this prophecied return that might put them in a 350 00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:42,359 Speaker 1: position where it would be uh pretty good to have 351 00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:45,160 Speaker 1: some ready cash, a little financial liquidity to get through. 352 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:49,360 Speaker 1: And the Harmonists also wanted to have money to help 353 00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:52,720 Speaker 1: support this new world order. So to that end, a 354 00:19:52,800 --> 00:19:56,280 Speaker 1: fund was started for donations in coin uh. And that 355 00:19:56,400 --> 00:20:01,040 Speaker 1: was a fund that Rap managed almost entirely on his own. Uh. 356 00:20:01,119 --> 00:20:04,879 Speaker 1: So while sexual activity and other pleasures were completely denounced, 357 00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:09,200 Speaker 1: financial success was a okay um seen in a completely 358 00:20:09,200 --> 00:20:11,480 Speaker 1: different light, the logic being that it could be used 359 00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:14,000 Speaker 1: in service of faith. And this is the second way 360 00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:17,679 Speaker 1: that these folks are totally different from every other utopian 361 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:21,440 Speaker 1: experiment we've ever talked about. Like money's cool, I'm gonna 362 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:23,920 Speaker 1: have a lot of it. So, even as the Harmonists 363 00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:27,200 Speaker 1: became more and more settled in Butler County, there were 364 00:20:27,320 --> 00:20:30,919 Speaker 1: some conflicts that arose. Rob was really think of thinking 365 00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:33,840 Speaker 1: of other locations that might be better, and as early 366 00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:36,280 Speaker 1: as eighteen o six he was submitting new request to 367 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:39,160 Speaker 1: the government for different land. And one of the things 368 00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:41,800 Speaker 1: that he and the Harmonists had wanted when they had 369 00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:46,399 Speaker 1: immigrated from Germany to North America was to cultivate vineyards 370 00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:49,400 Speaker 1: and orchards. And this Pennsylvania land that they were on 371 00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:52,439 Speaker 1: was just not working out in that regard. And it 372 00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:55,679 Speaker 1: was also not in a spot where exporting anything that 373 00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:58,560 Speaker 1: they did grow could be done at the level that 374 00:20:58,560 --> 00:21:01,639 Speaker 1: they needed to keep growing. They were just a little 375 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:05,040 Speaker 1: bit too geographically isolated, and he thought they weren't going 376 00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:08,520 Speaker 1: to continue flourishing if they stayed there. Yeah, that land 377 00:21:09,080 --> 00:21:11,280 Speaker 1: was near a river, but it was a very shallow river. 378 00:21:11,520 --> 00:21:13,760 Speaker 1: They it was not really like going to support heavy 379 00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:17,840 Speaker 1: duty irrigation, and they couldn't start shipping things. And additionally, 380 00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:21,520 Speaker 1: as the area around that settlement grew more populated, the 381 00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:24,720 Speaker 1: Harmonists found that, for one, their new neighbors really did 382 00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:28,679 Speaker 1: not understand their community, and they were particularly suspicious of 383 00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:32,440 Speaker 1: how wealthy the Harmonists seemed to be. Um. They did 384 00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:35,879 Speaker 1: not live like poppers. They had nice things. Um, you know, 385 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:38,639 Speaker 1: people that visited would comment on how beautiful everything was 386 00:21:38,680 --> 00:21:41,840 Speaker 1: and how you know, well appointed the rooms were and stuff. 387 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:45,280 Speaker 1: So Um. The Rabbites also had this little problem where 388 00:21:45,280 --> 00:21:47,840 Speaker 1: they refused to participate in the War of eighteen twelve 389 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:51,639 Speaker 1: and the disregarded draft notices. They were fined for it, 390 00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:54,119 Speaker 1: and they paid those fines, but other people in the 391 00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:57,320 Speaker 1: state really started to regard them with a lot of distrust. 392 00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:00,920 Speaker 1: So in eighteen fourteen they may the decision to head 393 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:03,840 Speaker 1: west after rapids sent a group out scout for some 394 00:22:03,880 --> 00:22:07,720 Speaker 1: possible new locations, and the Indiana Territory offered a better 395 00:22:07,800 --> 00:22:10,159 Speaker 1: climate for the crops that they wanted to grow. They 396 00:22:10,160 --> 00:22:12,480 Speaker 1: could get a bigger piece of land than they had 397 00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:17,879 Speaker 1: back in Butler County, uh and Harmony, Pennsylvania. The whole 398 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:22,159 Speaker 1: thing was sold to a Mennonite named Abraham Ziegler, who 399 00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:26,680 Speaker 1: paid one hundred thousand dollars for it in eighteen fourteen. 400 00:22:26,760 --> 00:22:31,480 Speaker 1: Y'all that's more than he bought the land for. Yes, 401 00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:35,679 Speaker 1: but he had improved it. I feel like we just 402 00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:41,000 Speaker 1: did history property hunters. But I don't like the color. 403 00:22:41,400 --> 00:22:43,879 Speaker 1: I don't do you guys watch shows and get frustrated 404 00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:45,760 Speaker 1: by those people that don't know that paint is real. 405 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:53,520 Speaker 1: Just paint the room. It makes me crazy. Um So 406 00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:57,480 Speaker 1: in eighteen fifteen, New Harmony, Indiana was officially founded on 407 00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:01,440 Speaker 1: the Wabash River as an assie. You will often see 408 00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:04,439 Speaker 1: this discuss simply as harmony without the new That was 409 00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:07,000 Speaker 1: rap sentent to just call it harmony again, but the 410 00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:09,880 Speaker 1: new got added over time to distinguish between the two 411 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:12,760 Speaker 1: locations uh and in reference to vote the first and 412 00:23:12,840 --> 00:23:16,080 Speaker 1: second settlements. Depending on what document you look at, sometimes 413 00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:18,399 Speaker 1: harmony has a Y and sometimes in I e. Just 414 00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:21,080 Speaker 1: f y I if you go looking so wrapping the 415 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:23,960 Speaker 1: Harmonists put a lot of work to turn this river 416 00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:28,240 Speaker 1: riverfront land, which at that point was unsettled, into a village. 417 00:23:28,280 --> 00:23:30,720 Speaker 1: They felled trees again and cut them into lumber to 418 00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:33,639 Speaker 1: use for construction. They dug out clay from the ground 419 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:36,520 Speaker 1: to make bricks for the same purpose. It was really 420 00:23:36,720 --> 00:23:39,520 Speaker 1: arduous work, and first they had to build kind of 421 00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:42,280 Speaker 1: a presettlement for everybody to live on. While they were 422 00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:46,239 Speaker 1: building the larger village, they also established farmland and they 423 00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:49,080 Speaker 1: were able to cultivate that vineyard and the fruit crops 424 00:23:49,119 --> 00:23:52,280 Speaker 1: that they had been wanting the whole time. So Father 425 00:23:52,359 --> 00:23:54,560 Speaker 1: Wraps home was in the center of town and everything 426 00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,920 Speaker 1: kind of radiated out from it. There were four dormitories 427 00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:01,159 Speaker 1: built adjacent to it, each of which could house sixty 428 00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:04,880 Speaker 1: eight residents. Uh, there were also individual homes and each 429 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:07,280 Speaker 1: street had a water well and an oven that were 430 00:24:07,359 --> 00:24:10,720 Speaker 1: there for communal use. And there were common use plants 431 00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:13,280 Speaker 1: like herbs that were grown in public spaces and anyone 432 00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:15,720 Speaker 1: could just come and take them as needed. Of course, 433 00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:18,880 Speaker 1: there were some difficulties in this move. Malaria was still 434 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:21,080 Speaker 1: really common in parts of the US at this point, 435 00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:24,960 Speaker 1: so malaria another disease, claimed the lives of a significant 436 00:24:25,040 --> 00:24:28,040 Speaker 1: number of harmonists in that first year and then for 437 00:24:28,080 --> 00:24:30,800 Speaker 1: in the first years in Indiana, a cemetery had to 438 00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:33,600 Speaker 1: be established a lot sooner than they were planning to 439 00:24:33,680 --> 00:24:36,640 Speaker 1: have to deal with these mortalities. And I think that's 440 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:39,200 Speaker 1: super fascinating to me about the cemetery is that it 441 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:42,640 Speaker 1: is on the site of native mounds that date back 442 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:44,840 Speaker 1: to the Middle Woodland period. So there was like two 443 00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:49,199 Speaker 1: thousand year old mounds where the cemetery went. Yeah, we 444 00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:51,160 Speaker 1: didn't we don't know what the logical to the best 445 00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:54,720 Speaker 1: of my knowledge. Um, but as this new community began 446 00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:58,320 Speaker 1: to grow, rap was pretty smart in that he knew 447 00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:01,639 Speaker 1: that to survive they needed to dive sify, and uh, 448 00:25:01,720 --> 00:25:04,040 Speaker 1: they wanted to do this so that they could ensure 449 00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:07,960 Speaker 1: their ongoing financial stability as well. So this was a 450 00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:10,160 Speaker 1: lesson that they had learned when they were in Pennsylvania, 451 00:25:10,200 --> 00:25:13,720 Speaker 1: where he eventually saw that the growth and commerce potential 452 00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:15,840 Speaker 1: of the settlement they had there was finite, and he 453 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:18,480 Speaker 1: did not want the same thing to happen again. So 454 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:22,280 Speaker 1: their agricultural efforts were geared not towards subsistence farming where 455 00:25:22,280 --> 00:25:25,119 Speaker 1: they might sell any extra, but to both providing the 456 00:25:25,119 --> 00:25:28,320 Speaker 1: food the community needed and having enough produce to sell. 457 00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:32,359 Speaker 1: They also established mills to process cotton and wool and 458 00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:35,720 Speaker 1: uh again for their clothes, but also they were making 459 00:25:35,800 --> 00:25:39,359 Speaker 1: enough to trade. These were essentially little factories, and this 460 00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:44,480 Speaker 1: made Harmony, Indiana p prosperous. Yeah, And this prosperity was 461 00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:47,640 Speaker 1: really in part due to this new location. They weren't 462 00:25:47,720 --> 00:25:50,680 Speaker 1: in a place that was heavily populated when they got there. 463 00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:54,119 Speaker 1: This was essentially frontier land, which the US had gained 464 00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:57,200 Speaker 1: possession of in the eight ten o four Treaty of Vincennes, 465 00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:00,439 Speaker 1: which read, in part the said Delaware Trial for the 466 00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:04,479 Speaker 1: considerations here and after mentioned relinquishes to United States forever 467 00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:06,960 Speaker 1: all their right and the title to the tract of 468 00:26:07,040 --> 00:26:10,719 Speaker 1: country which lies between the Ohio and Wabash rivers and 469 00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:13,400 Speaker 1: below the tracks seeded by the Treaty of Fort Wayne 470 00:26:13,680 --> 00:26:16,240 Speaker 1: and the road leading from Benson's to the Falls Falls 471 00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:18,840 Speaker 1: of Ohio. So this of course was all part of 472 00:26:18,880 --> 00:26:23,200 Speaker 1: the larger series of treaties that affected this whole part 473 00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:26,520 Speaker 1: of the us UH to let the government take land 474 00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:30,600 Speaker 1: that had been previously inhabited by native people's, which also 475 00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:33,439 Speaker 1: continued long after we're talking about today. So this is 476 00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:35,760 Speaker 1: all sort of going on at the same time as 477 00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:38,080 Speaker 1: all the stuff that we're talking about. Yeah, so the 478 00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:40,600 Speaker 1: nearest town at this point was more than thirty miles away, 479 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:44,240 Speaker 1: so there was not a lot of competition for traveler 480 00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:47,120 Speaker 1: business when people moved through the area and might need 481 00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:49,480 Speaker 1: to trade or purchase supplies to get them ready to 482 00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:52,960 Speaker 1: keep going wherever they were headed. And additionally, the settlement 483 00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:55,439 Speaker 1: was right there on the river, so they started shipping 484 00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:59,280 Speaker 1: their manufactured goods from that point of departure, establishing a 485 00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:02,920 Speaker 1: very wide reaching retail business. All run on a communal 486 00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:07,040 Speaker 1: model where everyone contributed. So while the men generally saw 487 00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:10,119 Speaker 1: to the agricultural efforts, the women and children worked in 488 00:27:10,119 --> 00:27:13,679 Speaker 1: the mills and workshops producing dry goods. So they had 489 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:16,639 Speaker 1: gotten to Indiana in eighteen fourteen, and that meant that 490 00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:18,920 Speaker 1: the Rabbites were really setting up their home and their 491 00:27:18,960 --> 00:27:22,880 Speaker 1: business settlement at the same time that Indiana was transitioning 492 00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:25,879 Speaker 1: to statehood. It became the nineteenth US state at the 493 00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:28,920 Speaker 1: end of eighteen sixteen, so the residents of Harmony were 494 00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:32,240 Speaker 1: basically able to get into the ground floor, so to speak, 495 00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:35,639 Speaker 1: of this new state economy. In addition to the fruits 496 00:27:35,680 --> 00:27:38,439 Speaker 1: and the vegetables that they were growing and selling, the 497 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:42,320 Speaker 1: town's general store had clothing and shoes, cold weather, cold 498 00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:47,199 Speaker 1: weather gear, saddles and bridles, and plows and wagons, anything 499 00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:54,120 Speaker 1: else that somebody might need. Yeah. It was pioneer target um. 500 00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:56,199 Speaker 1: And people went in they only needed shoes, but they 501 00:27:56,240 --> 00:28:00,359 Speaker 1: came out with like so much stuff. They had somebody 502 00:28:00,359 --> 00:28:02,159 Speaker 1: following you around, like do you need a cart? Do 503 00:28:02,200 --> 00:28:04,000 Speaker 1: you need a No, I don't need a car. If 504 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:08,359 Speaker 1: you give you a cart, I'm buying everything. Yeah. But 505 00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:11,720 Speaker 1: the town also produced beer, wine, and whiskey, which could 506 00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:13,920 Speaker 1: be purchased at the general store, or you can enjoy 507 00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:16,040 Speaker 1: it in the town tavern, which they had also built. 508 00:28:16,840 --> 00:28:20,040 Speaker 1: Harmonists were not anti alcohol, but they were very much 509 00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:23,679 Speaker 1: anti drunkenness. The whiskey that they produced, for example, was 510 00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:26,439 Speaker 1: not something any of them drank, uh, it was for 511 00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:29,480 Speaker 1: other people. They occasionally had wine, but the rest of 512 00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:33,600 Speaker 1: the alcoholic beverages that they produced were strictly commercial. The 513 00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:36,280 Speaker 1: Harmonists of the town could just ask for anything that 514 00:28:36,280 --> 00:28:39,000 Speaker 1: they needed without paying for it because their participation, their 515 00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:42,760 Speaker 1: participation in the community entitled them to it. But really, 516 00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:45,040 Speaker 1: at least in terms of food, there wasn't a whole 517 00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:48,200 Speaker 1: lot that the Harmonist households needed at the general store. 518 00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:51,640 Speaker 1: As part of the establishment of the community, every home 519 00:28:51,760 --> 00:28:53,840 Speaker 1: was set up to have its own gardens. There was 520 00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:57,160 Speaker 1: poultry and a cow for each household, and as we mentioned, 521 00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:01,200 Speaker 1: there were also public access gardens near the dormitories. But 522 00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:03,800 Speaker 1: outsiders of course coming through who had to pay, and 523 00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:08,000 Speaker 1: on occasion those outsiders found the prices a little bit high, 524 00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:10,440 Speaker 1: and they were kind of resentful that not everybody had 525 00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:13,720 Speaker 1: to pay for stuff. Uh. The idea of communal living 526 00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:16,480 Speaker 1: in this way was completely alien, and they sometimes felt 527 00:29:16,480 --> 00:29:22,120 Speaker 1: like they were being treated poorly. Additionally, people certainly noticed 528 00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:25,320 Speaker 1: that while the Harmonists were perfectly happy to sell hard liquor, 529 00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 1: they were not willing to drink it. Uh. And this 530 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:30,840 Speaker 1: led to some interesting discord because there were customers like 531 00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:33,200 Speaker 1: in the tavern that kind of just felt like they 532 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:36,480 Speaker 1: were being judged, like I'm gonna sit here and have 533 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:41,880 Speaker 1: a whiskey and there would just be people staring at them, 534 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:44,640 Speaker 1: just not how I enjoy a vodka. So I understand. 535 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:49,000 Speaker 1: So all this commerce was largely the work of Frederick 536 00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:53,120 Speaker 1: Reicher Rap, which was George Wrap, George wraps adopted son. 537 00:29:53,800 --> 00:29:56,880 Speaker 1: George had understood the need for diversification, but it was 538 00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:00,080 Speaker 1: really Frederick who managed all these various enterprises that is 539 00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:03,480 Speaker 1: making the community really profitable. The profits were used to 540 00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:07,480 Speaker 1: purchase additional land and expanding New Harmony's footprint and enabling 541 00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:11,240 Speaker 1: more crops to be planted for future commerce. Uh. Frederick 542 00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:14,520 Speaker 1: was Wrapped right hand and all these business dealings. And 543 00:30:14,520 --> 00:30:16,960 Speaker 1: it had been Frederick who had stayed behind in Harmony 544 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:19,840 Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania to wrap up the business affairs there after 545 00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:22,920 Speaker 1: George had moved on and Indiana. He was in charge 546 00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:27,400 Speaker 1: of both the commerce and the political rate relationships with outsiders. Yeah. 547 00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:31,040 Speaker 1: So when county officials had asked Rap to send a 548 00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:34,760 Speaker 1: representative from his group to the state Constitutional Convention in 549 00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:38,280 Speaker 1: eighteen sixteen. It was naturally Frederick who has chosen. This 550 00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:40,200 Speaker 1: was also in part because Frederick was one of the 551 00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:43,800 Speaker 1: few people who had learned a bit of English um truly, 552 00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:47,160 Speaker 1: so he could go. His English was allegedly not fantastic, 553 00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:49,760 Speaker 1: but he could get along um and he was assigned, 554 00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:53,240 Speaker 1: interestingly enough for a pacifist group to the committee that 555 00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:55,840 Speaker 1: drafted the section of the Constitution that related to the 556 00:30:55,880 --> 00:31:00,080 Speaker 1: militia um. This actually really worked out though, because, as 557 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:02,880 Speaker 1: it was due to his influence, that wording was included 558 00:31:02,920 --> 00:31:06,560 Speaker 1: at that point to allow uh conscientious objection to the 559 00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:09,440 Speaker 1: bearing of arms, with a provision to pay a fee 560 00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:13,240 Speaker 1: for exclusion from the draft. And just as had been 561 00:31:13,280 --> 00:31:16,160 Speaker 1: the case in Pennsylvania, the refusal of the Rabbites to 562 00:31:16,200 --> 00:31:20,120 Speaker 1: participate in military service kind of rankled their neighboring communities. 563 00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:23,560 Speaker 1: Around the same time, New Harmony was growing pretty rapidly 564 00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:26,440 Speaker 1: and they needed more able bodies to run all these 565 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:30,880 Speaker 1: manufacturing enterprises, and to meet that demand, the requirements of 566 00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:35,680 Speaker 1: religious devotions started relaxing a little bit. Frederick Rapp was 567 00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:38,480 Speaker 1: appointed as one of the commissioners of the State Bank 568 00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:42,920 Speaker 1: of Indiana, and this shift of focus to commerce was 569 00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:46,840 Speaker 1: particularly upsetting for a number of the Harmonists. Their society 570 00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:50,680 Speaker 1: had been founded entirely on their faith, with their commercial 571 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:54,680 Speaker 1: interests always framed as being necessary to support that faith, 572 00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:57,240 Speaker 1: but now it seemed less and less like that was 573 00:31:57,280 --> 00:31:59,720 Speaker 1: the case. There was an ebb and flow in New 574 00:31:59,760 --> 00:32:02,560 Speaker 1: harm He's population in the late eighteen teams as a 575 00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:05,880 Speaker 1: number of people left. New immigrants arrived from Germany and 576 00:32:05,920 --> 00:32:10,520 Speaker 1: replaced them, but the acceptance of new members turned out 577 00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:14,520 Speaker 1: to be completely unsuccessful. Rap later wrote that the newcomers 578 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:18,280 Speaker 1: were quote too wild for our congregation, uh, and that 579 00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:20,560 Speaker 1: he was and this is a quote, sick and tired 580 00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:25,320 Speaker 1: of them, um. And he had actually been paying for 581 00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:28,440 Speaker 1: the passage from Germany for some people who had written 582 00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:30,720 Speaker 1: and said that they wanted to join the community, but 583 00:32:30,800 --> 00:32:33,520 Speaker 1: he put an end to that practice. He also stopped 584 00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:36,360 Speaker 1: the existing members of the community from writing home to Germany, 585 00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:40,360 Speaker 1: being like the US is great, you guys, um He 586 00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:42,760 Speaker 1: because people were saying like, I have found a better 587 00:32:42,800 --> 00:32:44,680 Speaker 1: life here. You can come and you know, to family 588 00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:46,440 Speaker 1: members and friends, you could come and be part of this. 589 00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:48,920 Speaker 1: And he was like, please stop doing that. We can't, um, 590 00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:52,720 Speaker 1: can't do that. He wanted people of faith, and most importantly, 591 00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:55,840 Speaker 1: people so faithful that they would obey him in whatever 592 00:32:55,920 --> 00:32:59,120 Speaker 1: he said. Uh, and he just could not trust any 593 00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:01,960 Speaker 1: newcomers who live up to his high standard of what 594 00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:04,959 Speaker 1: exactly that meant. So even for the new members who 595 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:08,640 Speaker 1: were devout enough for George Rap's taste, it just wasn't easy. 596 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:11,640 Speaker 1: Members who had been with the Harmonists since eighteen o 597 00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:15,560 Speaker 1: five were pretty judgmental of the newer members, and factions 598 00:33:15,560 --> 00:33:19,160 Speaker 1: started to form of the old and new groups. In 599 00:33:19,320 --> 00:33:22,880 Speaker 1: eighteen eighteen, George Rapp revised those articles that have been 600 00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,960 Speaker 1: established thirteen years prior when the Pennsylvania Settlement began in 601 00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:30,000 Speaker 1: an effort to address the destabilization that was taking place, 602 00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:32,959 Speaker 1: and two major changes came from this revision. So first, 603 00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:37,560 Speaker 1: all records of how much any given person had contributed 604 00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:40,680 Speaker 1: to the community upon their entry into it were destroyed. 605 00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:43,320 Speaker 1: The intent was that the old and the new factions 606 00:33:43,320 --> 00:33:45,560 Speaker 1: would stop bickering about who was more valuable to the 607 00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:49,920 Speaker 1: community and who had like given more and deserved more. Uh. Second, 608 00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:53,280 Speaker 1: that provision for those choosing to leave to get a 609 00:33:53,360 --> 00:33:56,959 Speaker 1: cash grant upon their exit was stricken from the charter 610 00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:00,600 Speaker 1: because as people were wanting to leave. He was recognizing 611 00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:03,160 Speaker 1: that he couldn't just keep giving bushels of money away. 612 00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:06,240 Speaker 1: So at the same time as these internal issues were 613 00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:10,320 Speaker 1: plaguing New Harmony, there was also mountain friction with their neighbors. 614 00:34:10,840 --> 00:34:12,840 Speaker 1: At this point, immigrants who had been in the US 615 00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:16,000 Speaker 1: for a while and the first generation of European descendants 616 00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:19,360 Speaker 1: to be born on US soil started to view immigrants 617 00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:23,560 Speaker 1: new immigrants is potentially destructive to what they had built. 618 00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:31,600 Speaker 1: Little ironic uh and Raps community had a number of 619 00:34:31,600 --> 00:34:35,680 Speaker 1: things working against it as this settlement grew. So for 620 00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:38,800 Speaker 1: one thing, or as this sentiment grew rather, I'm sorry 621 00:34:39,160 --> 00:34:41,799 Speaker 1: uh for I think it was self isolating. So most 622 00:34:41,840 --> 00:34:45,440 Speaker 1: of the members still only spoke German. They refused to 623 00:34:45,480 --> 00:34:49,080 Speaker 1: bear arms, and that group was wealthy enough to pay 624 00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:52,600 Speaker 1: the penalty required to exempt them from military service, whereas 625 00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:55,480 Speaker 1: most people could not have afforded it. They also commanded 626 00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:58,600 Speaker 1: just a huge chunk of the area's financial capital, and 627 00:34:58,640 --> 00:35:01,440 Speaker 1: they seemed impervious to the various shifts in the market 628 00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:05,840 Speaker 1: that negatively impacted the communities around them. And they weren't 629 00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:09,360 Speaker 1: having children, so they weren't helping to build the US population. 630 00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:12,839 Speaker 1: A justice had been the case back in Pennsylvania. Rap 631 00:35:12,840 --> 00:35:16,480 Speaker 1: and the Harmonists were facing increasing resentment from the locals 632 00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:19,440 Speaker 1: and dealing with their own fractures within the commune, so 633 00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:22,319 Speaker 1: they decided to leave. They left all their hard work 634 00:35:22,320 --> 00:35:25,440 Speaker 1: in New Harmony, Indiana, to start all over again. Raps 635 00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:28,520 Speaker 1: still believed that the second coming was eminence. He wanted 636 00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:31,840 Speaker 1: to regroup, reset the community with the focus of preparing 637 00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:35,080 Speaker 1: for that. And in the decade that they spent here 638 00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:38,640 Speaker 1: in Indiana, rapping As people had really built something considerable. 639 00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:43,800 Speaker 1: So they had not only raised such varied crops as sugarcane, wheat, hemp, cotton, 640 00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:47,200 Speaker 1: and flax, among others, they had also built that general 641 00:35:47,239 --> 00:35:52,520 Speaker 1: store and in various specialty shops, textile mills, tanneries, and distilleries. 642 00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:56,360 Speaker 1: They were producing three thousand galons gallons of whiskey for 643 00:35:56,480 --> 00:36:00,359 Speaker 1: sale each year and harvesting thousands of bushels of things 644 00:36:00,400 --> 00:36:04,360 Speaker 1: like potatoes, rye, and oats. And they had started importing 645 00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:07,239 Speaker 1: sheep from Spain to make fine woolens and they were 646 00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:10,279 Speaker 1: able to get into a textile market that previously had 647 00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:14,120 Speaker 1: only included wool fabric that was imported from Europe. But 648 00:36:14,239 --> 00:36:16,920 Speaker 1: then in twenty four, New Harmony was sold to a 649 00:36:16,920 --> 00:36:19,640 Speaker 1: man named Robert Owen for another selling of an entire 650 00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:24,560 Speaker 1: town in this story, uh, and the Harmonists left Indiana. Okay, 651 00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:27,080 Speaker 1: So before we get into the next phase of New 652 00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:30,360 Speaker 1: Harmony's history, we're going to take another little break and 653 00:36:30,440 --> 00:36:32,160 Speaker 1: hear from one of the sponsors that keep stuff you 654 00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:43,000 Speaker 1: missed in history class going. Robert Owen was born on 655 00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:47,480 Speaker 1: May fourteenth of seventeen seventy one in Newtown, Montgomery, Share, Wales. 656 00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:50,000 Speaker 1: I have probably said that incorrect for the Welsh people. 657 00:36:51,239 --> 00:36:54,319 Speaker 1: His parents, Robert Owen and and Williams, had six other 658 00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:57,760 Speaker 1: children in addition to Robert and. As a child, Owen 659 00:36:57,840 --> 00:36:59,759 Speaker 1: moved to London and he became a cloth years of 660 00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:02,239 Speaker 1: print us at the age of ten, and in that 661 00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:05,960 Speaker 1: job he had access to his employer's vast library of books, 662 00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:10,000 Speaker 1: which he loved. He also really excelled in the textile industry, 663 00:37:10,040 --> 00:37:13,240 Speaker 1: and before age twenty he was already running a large 664 00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:17,359 Speaker 1: Manchester cotton mill that went on to great success under 665 00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:20,479 Speaker 1: his leadership. And through his success he started making little 666 00:37:20,520 --> 00:37:23,720 Speaker 1: efforts into the idea of communal living. And his first 667 00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:27,000 Speaker 1: such work started when he convinced his bosses to purchase 668 00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:31,280 Speaker 1: some mills in the Scottish village of New Lanark, which 669 00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:35,279 Speaker 1: was a really impoverished community, and Robert Owen wanted to 670 00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:38,360 Speaker 1: improve the quality of life for everyone in New Lanark, 671 00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:41,439 Speaker 1: so he worked on initiatives to make the housing they're 672 00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:44,160 Speaker 1: safer and cleaner, and to educate the children in the 673 00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:47,200 Speaker 1: area as well as the adults, and he was mindful 674 00:37:47,320 --> 00:37:50,000 Speaker 1: of the welfare of the workers in the mills he managed. 675 00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:53,200 Speaker 1: When the mills closed for several months during the War 676 00:37:53,239 --> 00:37:55,720 Speaker 1: of eighteen twelve, he actually made sure that the workers 677 00:37:55,719 --> 00:37:58,600 Speaker 1: continued to get paid during that time. Naturally, things like 678 00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:02,200 Speaker 1: this really endured him to the people he employed, but 679 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:06,920 Speaker 1: his business partners not so much. Disagreements over this led 680 00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:10,000 Speaker 1: Robert Owen to breaking from his established job and starting 681 00:38:10,040 --> 00:38:13,640 Speaker 1: his own company in eighteen thirteen. The stockholders and his 682 00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:17,120 Speaker 1: new venture were pretty like minded. They were content to 683 00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:19,960 Speaker 1: take a smaller share of the profits so that the 684 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:24,320 Speaker 1: money that was made could be put towards benevolent benevolent projects, 685 00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:28,759 Speaker 1: and soon they bought out his old partners. Uh And 686 00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:31,640 Speaker 1: one of the drivers in Owens's work was actually his 687 00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:35,560 Speaker 1: attitude towards religion. He thought that all established religions were 688 00:38:35,560 --> 00:38:39,720 Speaker 1: really problematic, and he thought that people's circumstances had greater 689 00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:43,160 Speaker 1: influence over their behavior and their lives than any church 690 00:38:43,239 --> 00:38:47,080 Speaker 1: ever could, and so he thought that if everyone's circumstances 691 00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:50,000 Speaker 1: were improved, the world would just become a better place. 692 00:38:50,520 --> 00:38:53,080 Speaker 1: And he was working to make New Landard an example 693 00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:57,080 Speaker 1: of how that ideology worked, and as a consequence, the village, 694 00:38:57,120 --> 00:39:00,440 Speaker 1: which was pretty successful in his efforts, was sited and 695 00:39:00,480 --> 00:39:04,640 Speaker 1: studied by everyone from royals to philosophers. He kept working 696 00:39:04,640 --> 00:39:07,960 Speaker 1: on bettering the lives of people in the village, particularly 697 00:39:07,960 --> 00:39:11,320 Speaker 1: the children, and he wanted to extend that beyond the town. 698 00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:15,080 Speaker 1: He lobbied among manufacturers to reduce the number of hours 699 00:39:15,080 --> 00:39:19,920 Speaker 1: that children worked that was initially voted down. He also 700 00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:23,920 Speaker 1: opened Great Britain's first kindergarten in New Landard in eighteen sixteen, 701 00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:27,520 Speaker 1: called the Institution for the Formation of Character. And all 702 00:39:27,600 --> 00:39:30,560 Speaker 1: of this was really like a slow burned build up 703 00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:34,040 Speaker 1: to lead oh into the idea of communal living. And 704 00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:38,000 Speaker 1: he thought particularly that if unemployed workers displaced by machinery 705 00:39:38,080 --> 00:39:42,040 Speaker 1: in the Industrial Revolution just had safety and security and 706 00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:45,240 Speaker 1: a reasonable standard of living, a lot of the world's 707 00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:47,640 Speaker 1: ills would be cured. Like he saw it as a 708 00:39:47,680 --> 00:39:50,359 Speaker 1: pretty obvious chain of events, like people are without work, 709 00:39:50,360 --> 00:39:52,920 Speaker 1: they don't have money, they turned a crime, or they 710 00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:54,920 Speaker 1: just fall on hard times and they suffer, and we 711 00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:58,960 Speaker 1: could prevent all of that. Uh. He envisioned these villages 712 00:39:59,080 --> 00:40:02,200 Speaker 1: that were designed for the this idea where family oriented 713 00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:05,839 Speaker 1: dormitories existed, that had commonary areas where people could cook 714 00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:09,000 Speaker 1: and socialize, and children would stay with their parents the 715 00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:11,360 Speaker 1: first three years, but then be raised by the collective 716 00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:14,120 Speaker 1: and then everyone would work as they were able to 717 00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:18,360 Speaker 1: keep the whole thing going, including agricultural work to provide food. 718 00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:22,040 Speaker 1: So Owen had actually made contact with New Harmony four 719 00:40:22,120 --> 00:40:25,160 Speaker 1: years before he took possession of it. He had written 720 00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:27,759 Speaker 1: to George Rapp with this series of questions about how 721 00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:30,080 Speaker 1: the rapbite utopia was functioning. He had done that in 722 00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:34,799 Speaker 1: eighteen as his ideas of these communities to prevent poperism 723 00:40:34,840 --> 00:40:38,600 Speaker 1: were forming in his head. So when George Raps Harmonists 724 00:40:38,640 --> 00:40:41,160 Speaker 1: were ready to sell, Owen was ready to buy. And 725 00:40:41,200 --> 00:40:44,400 Speaker 1: he already knew that the Harmonist village had been profitable. 726 00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:47,760 Speaker 1: After writing a number of essays about how communal society 727 00:40:47,800 --> 00:40:50,000 Speaker 1: could succeed. He was ready to take possession of this 728 00:40:50,040 --> 00:40:53,360 Speaker 1: whole town and prove it. And additionally, he had his 729 00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:56,399 Speaker 1: own problems that were making it pretty appealing to leave 730 00:40:56,440 --> 00:41:00,919 Speaker 1: home and strike out in a new place. UH. Outspoken 731 00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:05,200 Speaker 1: anti religion stance had really strained relationships with his business partners, 732 00:41:05,440 --> 00:41:09,600 Speaker 1: as well as his wife, who was very religiously devout. Uh. 733 00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:13,200 Speaker 1: I can't imagine that marriage. UM. And his work in 734 00:41:13,280 --> 00:41:16,480 Speaker 1: New Landard was actually hitting some problems as well. There 735 00:41:16,520 --> 00:41:19,080 Speaker 1: had been a typhoid outbreak, which was really kind of 736 00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:23,560 Speaker 1: scandalous for a town that was touted as having impeccable cleanliness. Uh. 737 00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:26,200 Speaker 1: And there was a dispute over pay rates that was brewing. 738 00:41:26,920 --> 00:41:29,319 Speaker 1: And part of the problem was that as Owen had 739 00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:31,920 Speaker 1: gotten more and more obsessed with creating a new utopia, 740 00:41:32,400 --> 00:41:34,600 Speaker 1: he had grown more and more distant from that company 741 00:41:34,640 --> 00:41:38,880 Speaker 1: town that was his first experiment in socialized society. Owen 742 00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:41,880 Speaker 1: paid a hundred and thirty five thousand dollars for New Harmony, 743 00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:45,960 Speaker 1: and that purchase was final in early January of Robert 744 00:41:45,960 --> 00:41:48,600 Speaker 1: Owen was really eager to get to work. Five of 745 00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:51,560 Speaker 1: his children, which included four sons and a daughter, traveled 746 00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:55,160 Speaker 1: to Indiana to help their father, and as spring arrived, 747 00:41:55,160 --> 00:41:58,239 Speaker 1: Owen offered a life in the community to anyone who 748 00:41:58,320 --> 00:42:02,759 Speaker 1: cared to join and then embrace its ideals of equality 749 00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:08,680 Speaker 1: and communal living. Yep, open invitation. That sounds smart. What 750 00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:12,200 Speaker 1: could go wrong? Also, we're going to return to the 751 00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:15,560 Speaker 1: ideas of equality in a village. Yeah, not so much so. 752 00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:18,440 Speaker 1: His new town had come with a hundred and eighty buildings, 753 00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:20,640 Speaker 1: but they were pretty quickly kind of packed to the 754 00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:23,359 Speaker 1: guilds because a lot of people wanted in on this opportunity. 755 00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:26,879 Speaker 1: But almost from the beginning things went wrong. For one, 756 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:30,640 Speaker 1: Owen continually bad mouthed established religion, which made a lot 757 00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:34,200 Speaker 1: of the newcomers really uneasy. He was a dedicated follower 758 00:42:34,239 --> 00:42:37,200 Speaker 1: of Enlightenment thinking, and he wanted to essue tradition in 759 00:42:37,239 --> 00:42:40,400 Speaker 1: favor of forging all new paths, which was another unpopular 760 00:42:40,440 --> 00:42:43,359 Speaker 1: position that made people a little nervous. Uh. And he 761 00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:47,200 Speaker 1: tended to appeal to the upper class for financing and support, 762 00:42:47,760 --> 00:42:50,320 Speaker 1: and he misjudged the willingness of the u S upper 763 00:42:50,320 --> 00:42:54,280 Speaker 1: classes to participate in such an experiment, particularly an experiment 764 00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:57,680 Speaker 1: like this that had no ties whatsoever to religion. Spoke 765 00:42:57,760 --> 00:43:01,279 Speaker 1: openly against it. In fact, he did find some help 766 00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:03,920 Speaker 1: in the form of William McClure, who was a Scottish 767 00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:07,680 Speaker 1: born merchant who also believed in social reform and ultimately 768 00:43:07,719 --> 00:43:11,319 Speaker 1: did invest heavily in New Harmony. McClure offered his own 769 00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:14,840 Speaker 1: funds to the development of New Harmonies schools and engaged 770 00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:17,319 Speaker 1: some of the most respected educators of the day to 771 00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:18,960 Speaker 1: teach there. I mean, the school has had a really 772 00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:23,440 Speaker 1: amazing reputation. McClure also paid for the school's labs to 773 00:43:23,520 --> 00:43:26,600 Speaker 1: have scientific equipment and other necessities. Yeah. I feel like 774 00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:28,480 Speaker 1: there could be a whole side show just about the 775 00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:31,000 Speaker 1: people that he brought. UM. We don't talk about it 776 00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:33,280 Speaker 1: nearly enough in this one because it's about the whole 777 00:43:33,640 --> 00:43:37,759 Speaker 1: whole story, but there were some great people doing cool things. UM. 778 00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:41,000 Speaker 1: Owen had created a foundation document called Rules for a 779 00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:45,239 Speaker 1: Good Community in that outlined what he thought was necessary 780 00:43:45,320 --> 00:43:50,640 Speaker 1: to create inequality based society. UM. Incidentally, our lovely hosts 781 00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:54,120 Speaker 1: have this digitized online UM, as well as many many 782 00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:58,319 Speaker 1: other fabulous documents that are really really UM we're really 783 00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:00,160 Speaker 1: helpful to me in doing research for this, but also 784 00:44:00,239 --> 00:44:03,600 Speaker 1: just are fascinating to look through. UH. So Owen's Owen's 785 00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:05,319 Speaker 1: I keep wanting to put an s on his name. 786 00:44:05,320 --> 00:44:08,520 Speaker 1: He's just Owen um. Owen's rules were pretty lengthy, but 787 00:44:08,560 --> 00:44:11,040 Speaker 1: they set up some very important ideas, including the fact 788 00:44:11,080 --> 00:44:14,120 Speaker 1: that the financial accounts of the community should be maintained 789 00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:16,840 Speaker 1: by a chosen treasurer who reported to a committee on 790 00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:20,719 Speaker 1: all transactions, and that all of those financial records needed 791 00:44:20,760 --> 00:44:23,080 Speaker 1: to be open for anyone in the community to go 792 00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:26,200 Speaker 1: and review if they wanted to. Robert Owen's rules also 793 00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:30,640 Speaker 1: set up different departments to manage things like manufacture, policing, health, 794 00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:34,040 Speaker 1: and education. Things like that these divisions would be run 795 00:44:34,040 --> 00:44:38,719 Speaker 1: by subcommittees. Skillful practical men from the community with expertise 796 00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:41,200 Speaker 1: in any of these areas could be engaged by the 797 00:44:41,239 --> 00:44:46,320 Speaker 1: appropriate subcommittee for assistance. But really, despite all these plans, 798 00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:49,880 Speaker 1: Owen's utopia was a lot harder he found to execute 799 00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:52,839 Speaker 1: in reality than it had been on paper. For one, 800 00:44:53,000 --> 00:44:55,280 Speaker 1: even though it was going to be a society of equals, 801 00:44:55,320 --> 00:44:59,160 Speaker 1: there were some pretty clear class distinctions. Wealthy people had 802 00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:02,400 Speaker 1: moved there to the draw of this life among the intelligentsia, 803 00:45:03,160 --> 00:45:05,400 Speaker 1: and working people had moved there for a chance to 804 00:45:05,440 --> 00:45:07,960 Speaker 1: have a better life and everybody thought it was going 805 00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:10,040 Speaker 1: to be equal, but the reality was that those two 806 00:45:10,040 --> 00:45:13,560 Speaker 1: groups rarely mixed. They kind of chose instead to self 807 00:45:13,560 --> 00:45:18,680 Speaker 1: segregate along wealth lines. There wasn't a relinquishing of personal 808 00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:21,120 Speaker 1: wealth in Owen's group like there had been in Wraps, 809 00:45:21,160 --> 00:45:25,720 Speaker 1: So this class structure had just followed everyone into New Harmony. 810 00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:29,920 Speaker 1: The working class was resentful of wealthier inhabitants and ability 811 00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:32,400 Speaker 1: to contribute to the labor that was needed to sustain 812 00:45:32,480 --> 00:45:36,400 Speaker 1: such a place. No structure was ever fully implemented that 813 00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:40,160 Speaker 1: the community couldn't really become self sufficient, so the group 814 00:45:40,239 --> 00:45:43,320 Speaker 1: was floundering while Owen was continuing to put his own 815 00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:46,960 Speaker 1: money into trying to keep it afloat even on uneven footing. 816 00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:48,960 Speaker 1: I feel like we should mention that there were some 817 00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:52,600 Speaker 1: efforts really to make New Harmony into a community um. 818 00:45:52,600 --> 00:45:55,480 Speaker 1: Owen's children in particular, did a lot of things. His 819 00:45:55,560 --> 00:45:59,239 Speaker 1: son William started a Thespian society so that they could 820 00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:02,320 Speaker 1: have arts and and people could go see plays whenever 821 00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:05,520 Speaker 1: they wished. Uh. The school system is really what flourished though. 822 00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:10,319 Speaker 1: Children had both academic curriculum and training and trades, but ultimately, 823 00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:12,719 Speaker 1: when it came down to it and things really were 824 00:46:12,760 --> 00:46:16,080 Speaker 1: obviously not going to work out. Owen blamed McClure and 825 00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:20,080 Speaker 1: the educational set up for tanking the community. Owen gave 826 00:46:20,160 --> 00:46:22,719 Speaker 1: one last address to the community on May six of 827 00:46:22,760 --> 00:46:25,640 Speaker 1: eighty seven, and in it he said that McClure system 828 00:46:25,719 --> 00:46:29,560 Speaker 1: only reinforced class distinctions instead of erasing him. There had 829 00:46:29,600 --> 00:46:32,279 Speaker 1: been some debate over whether he was favoring children that 830 00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:37,359 Speaker 1: were from wealthier families with better opportunities um. Owen also 831 00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:40,400 Speaker 1: thought there was too much creativity in the curriculum and 832 00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:44,399 Speaker 1: not enough morality education, and he basically told everyone his 833 00:46:44,520 --> 00:46:47,759 Speaker 1: school ideas had been superior to McClure's and if they 834 00:46:47,760 --> 00:46:50,920 Speaker 1: had just done it his way, they could have sustained 835 00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:57,799 Speaker 1: the town class his heart. Long story short, this did 836 00:46:57,800 --> 00:47:00,520 Speaker 1: not go all that well. By the time Robert Owen 837 00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:03,759 Speaker 1: decided to end his involvement in this utopian dream, he 838 00:47:03,840 --> 00:47:07,160 Speaker 1: had lost eight of his personal fortune. He went on 839 00:47:07,200 --> 00:47:10,600 Speaker 1: to participate, but in a much less central way and 840 00:47:10,800 --> 00:47:13,960 Speaker 1: other utopian experiments, but he eventually focused a lot more 841 00:47:14,000 --> 00:47:17,080 Speaker 1: on activism and the establishment of trade unions. Yeah, he 842 00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:19,800 Speaker 1: really became like a labor activist, which kind of seemed 843 00:47:19,840 --> 00:47:21,600 Speaker 1: like it should have been his thing from the get go, 844 00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:26,560 Speaker 1: but he he learned a lot in the process. Um, 845 00:47:26,600 --> 00:47:29,360 Speaker 1: if you are wondering what happened to the Rabbits and 846 00:47:29,360 --> 00:47:32,560 Speaker 1: their leader after they left Indiana, they moved as planned 847 00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:35,920 Speaker 1: and started a new settlement, returning to Pennsylvania to do it. 848 00:47:36,200 --> 00:47:38,840 Speaker 1: That new home was called Economy, uh, and it was 849 00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:40,960 Speaker 1: where George Rapp lived out the rest of his life. 850 00:47:41,200 --> 00:47:43,359 Speaker 1: And just as they had grown New Harmony into a 851 00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:48,120 Speaker 1: massive and profitable enterprise, Economy had investments in railroads and 852 00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:51,960 Speaker 1: the oil industry, and their export business reached dozens of 853 00:47:52,040 --> 00:47:54,960 Speaker 1: states and ten countries. So they just kept on going 854 00:47:55,000 --> 00:47:58,840 Speaker 1: with that money thing. Fascinates me because so often the 855 00:47:58,880 --> 00:48:00,719 Speaker 1: story is and then they ran out of money and 856 00:48:00,760 --> 00:48:06,239 Speaker 1: everyone got sick and moved away. Even though they were 857 00:48:06,320 --> 00:48:10,000 Speaker 1: very financially successful, it was not entirely smooth. Rap and 858 00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:12,760 Speaker 1: his adopted son, Frederick, who he had relied on so 859 00:48:12,880 --> 00:48:15,279 Speaker 1: heavily since the beginning of the Harmonist time in the 860 00:48:15,320 --> 00:48:18,360 Speaker 1: United States, started to have disagreements about planning for the 861 00:48:18,400 --> 00:48:21,680 Speaker 1: financial future of the community. That caused a lot of 862 00:48:21,719 --> 00:48:26,920 Speaker 1: fracturing within the group and a lot of tension. Yeah, 863 00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:29,680 Speaker 1: when they started to think about like there was also 864 00:48:29,760 --> 00:48:34,480 Speaker 1: this problem where people were realizing, like, um, what a 865 00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:40,960 Speaker 1: christ is, Um, we're not having kids and we're getting 866 00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:44,320 Speaker 1: older and there's some problems. Like they started to realize 867 00:48:44,360 --> 00:48:47,919 Speaker 1: this was not working out. Rap died in eighteen forty 868 00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:50,440 Speaker 1: seven at the age of eighty nine. And remember that 869 00:48:50,480 --> 00:48:54,160 Speaker 1: collection fund that he started the early years of his 870 00:48:54,239 --> 00:48:56,560 Speaker 1: community because they wanted to have funds so they could 871 00:48:56,600 --> 00:49:00,239 Speaker 1: deal with travel needs to Jerusalem and any k us 872 00:49:00,239 --> 00:49:03,480 Speaker 1: that ensued. When he died, he had amassed half a 873 00:49:03,520 --> 00:49:09,400 Speaker 1: million dollars that he kept in a vault under his bedroom. Um. 874 00:49:09,480 --> 00:49:12,720 Speaker 1: He had withdrawn all of the harmonists money from banks 875 00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:15,360 Speaker 1: because he feared a banking collapse, So he was just 876 00:49:15,480 --> 00:49:19,319 Speaker 1: literally sitting on top of a pile of money. I 877 00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:23,440 Speaker 1: feel like that that wasn't an unjustified fear, But at 878 00:49:23,480 --> 00:49:25,360 Speaker 1: the same time, that's a lot of money to have 879 00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:28,920 Speaker 1: in a vault under your bedroom. I would dig it. 880 00:49:31,560 --> 00:49:34,960 Speaker 1: The Rabbike community continued, but without its charismatic leader, it 881 00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:38,360 Speaker 1: couldn't really sustain things long term. Soon members of the 882 00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:41,040 Speaker 1: group were questioning some of those things they had agreed to, 883 00:49:41,160 --> 00:49:46,040 Speaker 1: in particular that celibacy situation that also meant that they 884 00:49:46,080 --> 00:49:49,959 Speaker 1: hadn't expanded their community by starting families, and without Rap 885 00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:54,120 Speaker 1: driving that whole ideology, they also weren't bringing in new members, 886 00:49:54,160 --> 00:49:57,680 Speaker 1: so just the math was not in their favor long term. 887 00:49:57,719 --> 00:50:00,200 Speaker 1: In the twenty years after Rap died, the group rank 888 00:50:00,239 --> 00:50:02,640 Speaker 1: down to about two hundred and fifty members, and from 889 00:50:02,680 --> 00:50:05,439 Speaker 1: there it continued to diminish right up until the dawn 890 00:50:05,440 --> 00:50:08,480 Speaker 1: of the twentieth century. In nineteen o three, the town 891 00:50:08,520 --> 00:50:11,360 Speaker 1: of Economy was sold by a representative of the remaining 892 00:50:11,440 --> 00:50:15,200 Speaker 1: Rabbites for several million dollars UH. In nineteen o five, 893 00:50:15,320 --> 00:50:17,760 Speaker 1: the U. S. Supreme Court issued judgments on the last 894 00:50:17,760 --> 00:50:21,480 Speaker 1: of the disputed Rabbite assets at Economy, and within a 895 00:50:21,560 --> 00:50:25,120 Speaker 1: year the Harmonist movement was completely a matter of history. 896 00:50:25,320 --> 00:50:27,840 Speaker 1: As for the people who had landed in the failed 897 00:50:27,920 --> 00:50:31,320 Speaker 1: utopia of Robert Owen, one particular aspect of their efforts 898 00:50:31,400 --> 00:50:34,840 Speaker 1: really did take hold and survived. The educators that McClure 899 00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:38,479 Speaker 1: had brought in called the Boatloaders because the ship most 900 00:50:38,520 --> 00:50:40,720 Speaker 1: of them traveled onto the United States had been nicknamed 901 00:50:40,719 --> 00:50:45,040 Speaker 1: the Boatload of Knowledge, which I love, uh they have. 902 00:50:45,760 --> 00:50:48,040 Speaker 1: I think that's a good T shirt. We should do 903 00:50:48,120 --> 00:50:52,120 Speaker 1: boatload of knowledge. Shirt is a good one. Uh, they stayed. 904 00:50:52,239 --> 00:50:56,239 Speaker 1: They created this enclave of science and education that persisted, 905 00:50:56,400 --> 00:51:00,200 Speaker 1: persisted for long after Owen was gone. Yeah. McClure, as 906 00:51:00,239 --> 00:51:02,839 Speaker 1: as you guys probably know because you're you live near here, 907 00:51:03,400 --> 00:51:06,279 Speaker 1: was really known for his knowledge of geology, and he 908 00:51:06,880 --> 00:51:10,759 Speaker 1: really started some interesting stuff in New Harmony in terms 909 00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:15,719 Speaker 1: of like teaching geology and establishing labs there and uh, 910 00:51:16,480 --> 00:51:21,080 Speaker 1: pretty long tale for him of his legacy. As a consequence, UM, 911 00:51:21,160 --> 00:51:24,640 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty five, New Harmony became a National Historic District. 912 00:51:25,080 --> 00:51:27,319 Speaker 1: Many sections of the town have been restored to their 913 00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:31,400 Speaker 1: Rabbite era versions, and the village's famous hedge labyrinth was 914 00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:34,080 Speaker 1: restored in nineteen forty, much to the to the delight 915 00:51:34,200 --> 00:51:38,520 Speaker 1: and sometimes confusion of tourists who choose to enter. Um As, 916 00:51:38,520 --> 00:51:40,480 Speaker 1: So those people who go visit, that's I have not 917 00:51:40,560 --> 00:51:42,560 Speaker 1: gotten to go to New Harmony. That's the one thing 918 00:51:42,560 --> 00:51:44,759 Speaker 1: I want to see. Um. I will get lost in 919 00:51:44,760 --> 00:51:47,880 Speaker 1: that labyrinth and maybe never come out. But that is 920 00:51:47,920 --> 00:51:55,120 Speaker 1: our New Harmony tale for the days. Our very deepest 921 00:51:55,160 --> 00:51:58,120 Speaker 1: thanks to Lauren Picktele and Mary Angeline and everybody at 922 00:51:58,160 --> 00:52:00,520 Speaker 1: the Indiana Historical Society who made this of it so 923 00:52:00,680 --> 00:52:04,440 Speaker 1: much fun for us. Yeah, they were all just absolutely delightful, 924 00:52:04,560 --> 00:52:08,800 Speaker 1: and it's a place that is so turned on by history. 925 00:52:08,880 --> 00:52:12,320 Speaker 1: Everyone that works there is really excited to share history 926 00:52:12,480 --> 00:52:15,360 Speaker 1: with the people that come and visit. And we absolutely 927 00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:17,800 Speaker 1: had so much fun just getting to run around there 928 00:52:17,840 --> 00:52:20,840 Speaker 1: for just a few minutes before our show really happened, 929 00:52:20,880 --> 00:52:23,440 Speaker 1: and and it was very invigorating, Like it's one of 930 00:52:23,440 --> 00:52:25,799 Speaker 1: those things that makes me go like, histories in good 931 00:52:25,840 --> 00:52:30,120 Speaker 1: hands were good if you are in that area or 932 00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:33,040 Speaker 1: near that area, I mean, I recommend paying a visit. 933 00:52:33,160 --> 00:52:37,600 Speaker 1: In addition to their Indiana History exhibits that they have 934 00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:39,879 Speaker 1: for various things, they also have just done a whole 935 00:52:39,920 --> 00:52:44,200 Speaker 1: lot of work collecting oral histories and making exhibits about 936 00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:46,800 Speaker 1: those oral histories and making sure that those oral histories 937 00:52:47,120 --> 00:52:51,799 Speaker 1: reflect all the people in Indiana. Yeah, there was an 938 00:52:51,880 --> 00:52:55,520 Speaker 1: Asian Experience in Indiana exhibit that was there when we 939 00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:57,040 Speaker 1: were there, and they were talking about ones in the 940 00:52:57,080 --> 00:53:00,359 Speaker 1: past once coming up. Really cool. Yeah, there, you are 941 00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:04,720 Speaker 1: definitely driven by inclusivity and and a really like broad 942 00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:08,560 Speaker 1: approach to history and including everyone in it. We also 943 00:53:08,600 --> 00:53:11,160 Speaker 1: want to give us special thanks to the listeners who 944 00:53:11,200 --> 00:53:13,080 Speaker 1: came to the event early as part of a meet 945 00:53:13,120 --> 00:53:15,359 Speaker 1: and greet option that we had. We had so much 946 00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:18,759 Speaker 1: fun talking to them and everyone was so lovely. So 947 00:53:18,880 --> 00:53:21,279 Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, thank you Indianapolis for having us, 948 00:53:21,400 --> 00:53:23,560 Speaker 1: and for everyone that we interacted with for being just 949 00:53:23,600 --> 00:53:26,000 Speaker 1: an utter delight. Do you have a little listener mail 950 00:53:26,080 --> 00:53:28,399 Speaker 1: to takes out from all this? I do, and it's 951 00:53:28,400 --> 00:53:32,560 Speaker 1: actually live show themed A little bit um. It is 952 00:53:32,920 --> 00:53:36,640 Speaker 1: from our listener, Anna, who sent this incredibly cool card 953 00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:41,239 Speaker 1: on a map note which is a map of the 954 00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:43,480 Speaker 1: Seattle area, and then on the back she wrote us 955 00:53:43,480 --> 00:53:46,360 Speaker 1: a little note sure, Dear Holly and Tracy, greetings from Seattle. 956 00:53:46,440 --> 00:53:47,919 Speaker 1: I have been a fan of the show for five 957 00:53:47,960 --> 00:53:49,959 Speaker 1: plus years now, and my husband and I were lucky 958 00:53:50,040 --> 00:53:53,360 Speaker 1: enough to attend your Halloween themed live show on Safety 959 00:53:53,360 --> 00:53:56,719 Speaker 1: Coffins in Seattle last year, which was super fun. It 960 00:53:56,840 --> 00:53:59,120 Speaker 1: was a great crowd, she said. My macab sense of 961 00:53:59,200 --> 00:54:01,680 Speaker 1: humor was delight did and I was so glad to 962 00:54:01,760 --> 00:54:04,919 Speaker 1: hear you answer my question on what historical figure would 963 00:54:04,920 --> 00:54:07,200 Speaker 1: you take with you to Disney World. I don't know 964 00:54:07,239 --> 00:54:08,759 Speaker 1: that that made it into the live show, but in 965 00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:12,080 Speaker 1: case anyone's curious, it's the easiest prediction for me, ever, 966 00:54:12,480 --> 00:54:15,920 Speaker 1: I wanted to sit between Marie and Twinette and Queen 967 00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:18,640 Speaker 1: Victoria in a doom buggy and go through Haunted Mansion 968 00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:23,400 Speaker 1: because I thought their reactions would be really funny. Uh. 969 00:54:23,480 --> 00:54:25,120 Speaker 1: And I goes on to say, I came across an 970 00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:28,200 Speaker 1: interesting article in Bust magazine this month about stage coach 971 00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:31,440 Speaker 1: Mary Fields, the first African American woman to become a 972 00:54:31,480 --> 00:54:33,600 Speaker 1: mail carrier in the United States, and I thought you 973 00:54:33,640 --> 00:54:36,239 Speaker 1: might enjoy, so she included that for us. She says, 974 00:54:36,280 --> 00:54:39,000 Speaker 1: as always love your podcast and stay curious. Thank you 975 00:54:39,040 --> 00:54:41,960 Speaker 1: so much, Anna. That was so sweet, um, and what 976 00:54:42,040 --> 00:54:44,799 Speaker 1: a lovely follow up to a show we did months 977 00:54:44,840 --> 00:54:48,640 Speaker 1: and months ago, but was super fun. I love doing 978 00:54:48,680 --> 00:54:52,520 Speaker 1: live shows through the funnest for sure. If you would 979 00:54:52,560 --> 00:54:54,080 Speaker 1: like to write do as, you can do so at 980 00:54:54,160 --> 00:54:56,279 Speaker 1: History Podcast at how Stone works dot com. You can 981 00:54:56,320 --> 00:54:59,240 Speaker 1: also find us everywhere on social media as Missed in History, 982 00:54:59,520 --> 00:55:01,799 Speaker 1: and you can visit missed in History dot com for 983 00:55:01,880 --> 00:55:04,600 Speaker 1: our website, which has an archive of every show. Ever. 984 00:55:05,040 --> 00:55:06,680 Speaker 1: If you would like to subscribe to the show and 985 00:55:06,719 --> 00:55:09,160 Speaker 1: you haven't yet, what go ahead and do that. You 986 00:55:09,200 --> 00:55:11,960 Speaker 1: can do it on Apple podcast The I Heart Radio app, 987 00:55:12,040 --> 00:55:18,960 Speaker 1: or wherever it is that you listen. Stuff you Missed 988 00:55:18,960 --> 00:55:21,320 Speaker 1: in History Class is a production of I heart Radios 989 00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:24,280 Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, 990 00:55:24,440 --> 00:55:27,360 Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 991 00:55:27,520 --> 00:55:28,880 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.