Publications
John Humphrey Noyes on Sexual Relations in the Oneida Community: Four Essential Texts
By Anthony Wonderley
January 1, 2012
Tags American Communal Societies Series
American Communal Societies Series, no. 8. 165 pages, illustrations, 2012.
ISBN: 978-1-937370-04-6 ($20)
At the height of the prudish Victorian age, the utopian Oneida Community (1848-1880) openly practiced group marriage which, it was said, freed women from unwanted pregnancy, marital bondage, and household drudgery. This radically successful social experiment was based on the teachings of the commune's leader, John Humphrey Noyes, whose key writings on gender relations are assembled here for the first time.
About the author:
Anthony Wonderley is curator of collections and interpretation at the Oneida Community Mansion House, the museum of the famous nineteenth-century utopia in upstate New York.