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AlcottWeb: Official LMA: Scrap-Baggers: Fruitlands |
| AlcottWeb: Home | The following article is from Volume 2, Issue 2, of The
Scrap-Baggers' newsletter. It's by Elizabeth Ostberg. I'm very grateful to The
Scrapbaggers for allowing me to put some of their articles online. Fruitlands The few months between June of 1843 and January of 1844 were some of the most important of Bronson Alcott's life. These were the months he and his family spent living in an utopian community he had co-founded to enable himself and his followers to create an example of perfect Transcendental living. The example for this "new Eden" came while Bronson was in England during this summer of 1842. After the Temple school failed, Ralph Waldo Emerson gave Bronson the money he needed to travel to England. There he could see the work of a group of teachers and philosophers who were running a school based on many of his ideas and, in fact, named after him, the Alcott house. While Bronson was there he met several men, most notably Charles Lane, who were interested in experimenting with communal living. This idea was not original to their group. There were several utopian communities in America at the time which the group could have joined. Brook Farm was the most obvious one; it was located near Boston and involved many of the Alcott's friends (including Nathaniel Hawthorne for a time). But Bronson and Lane felt that Brook farm was not pure enough. They would have to start their own community in order to carry out all of their philosophies. Bringing with him a library of important books, Bronson returned to his family in Concord accompanied by Lane, his ten year old son William Lane, and several others who soon became known as the "English mystics." After much searching, an appropriate site for the community was found. Charles Lane put up the money ($1,800) to buy a farm of nearly 100 acres and to lease an old red farmhouse in Harvard, a town about 15 miles west of Concord. The Con-Sociate family who moved to Fruitlands, as they named the farm, consisted of the Lanes, the Alcotts (Anna was 12, Louisa was 10 and turned 11, Lizzie turned 7, and May was a baby), and Joseph Palmer (a very interesting character, who prior to coming to Fruitlands had spent time in prison for insisting upon wearing a beard, something totally out of fashion at the moment). Several other men joined the community for varying lengths of time. This individualistic group included an Adamist (a nudist), a man named Abram Woods who asserted his difference from others by reversing his name to be known as Woods Abram, Anna Page (the only woman other than Mrs. Alcott) who was soon dispelled for eating a piece of fish, and a man who lived one year only on apples and the next only on crackers!! If Bronson felt Brook Farm was not "austere enough", he certainly made up for it at Fruitlands. Absolutely no meat or other animal products were eaten (hence the name Fruitlands). In fact nothing from animals (including wool, honey, wax and manure) nor even animal labor were used by the community. The founders felt men should not take anything from animals for they should be as free as humans. Unfortunately, wonderful as these ideas were, they were not at all practical. Any farmer could have told this group of dreamers that it was impossible to raise enough food and other supplies by using only spades and bare hands. Also, not everyone was willing to work as hard as was necessary. Many saw the community as an opportunity to be housed and fed while sitting in apple trees writing poetry or thinking great thoughts. After all, it is much easier to dream of utopias than to plant seeds on your hands and knees. Often, too, the philosophers would all travel off to lecture and spread the news of the utopia leaving Mrs. Alcott, the children and the only practical man, Palmer, to do all of the work. Emerson had great foresight when, after visiting Fruitlands, he wrote: "They look well in July. We shall see them in December." Even after Bronson sacrificed a bit of his idealism and allowed Palmer to use his oxen (one of which turned out to be a cow) to do the plowing, not enough food could be raised to keep the community through the winter. As it became clear that Fruitlands was destined to fall apart, or as their views conflicted with the founders, members began to leave the community. By winter only the Lanes and the Alcotts remained. Lane urged Bronson to join the Harvard Shaker community. This time, though, patient Mrs. Alcott put her foot down. The Shakers were a religious society which believed in total separation of the sexes. Joining them would mean the break up of her family, something she "selfishly," according to Lane, refused to allow. Lane and his son left for the Shakers in mid-January and Mrs. Alcott moved her family to Still River (in Harvard) for a time before moving back to Concord. Louisa was only a child at the time, but she stored the memories of Fruitlands and later wrote a story about her father's experiment, Transcendental Wild Oats. To many, that book may seem like the only thing that came out of the whole experience. But although Fruitlands failed, Bronson never gave up the ideas upon which it had been based. He simply molded them into more practical forms after learning that man was no longer meant to live in Eden. by Elizabeth Ostberg, courtesy of The Scrap-Baggers |
| This site is unaffiliated with Orchard House or any other official LMA organization. It's just a fan site. The official site is http://www.louisamayalcott.org . |
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