Albert Brisbane

Albert Brisbane
Albert Brisbane in 1840
Born	August 22, 1809 Batavia, New York
Died	May 1, 1890(1890-05-01) (aged 80) Richmond, Virginia
Resting place	Batavia Cemetery
Nationality	American
Spouse(s)	Sarah White (m. 1853; her death 1866) Redelia Bates (m. 1877)
Children	8, including Arthur Brisbane
Parent(s)	James Brisbane Mary Stevens

Albert Brisbane (August 22, 1809– May 1, 1890) was an American utopian socialist and is remembered as the chief popularizer of the theories of Charles Fourier in the United States. Brisbane was the author of several books, notably Social Destiny of Man (1840), as well as the Fourierist periodical The Phalanx. He also founded the Fourierist Society in New York in 1839 and backed several other phalanx communes in the 1840s and 1850s.

Albert Brisbane was born on August 22, 1809 in Batavia, New York. He was one of two sons born to Mary Stevens (died 1889) and James Brisbane (1776-1851), a wealthy landowner. In 1798, James Brisbane, along with Joseph Ellicott (1760–1826) and three others, had traveled to Western New York to survey the 4,000,000 acres (1,600,000 ha) that had been purchased by the Holland Land Company from Robert Morris (1734–1806), one of the first Senators from Pennsylvania. They opened an office in Batavia to sell the land in parcels and establish settlements, which included the city that became Buffalo, New York.

Brisbane's mother, Mary, was of English descent and his father James, a Scot, had abandoned the Scottish Presbyterian Church in protest over its regimented rituals.

Brisbane developed an affection for knowledge at an early age and as an inquisitive youth he learned various mechanical skills in the small carpentry, blacksmith, and saddle shops of Batavia. Unsatisfied with the quality of education in Batavia and with visions of an illustrious future for his son, Brisbane's father sent him to a boarding school in Long Island, New York at the age of fifteen. He briefly stayed at the school before moving to New York City and studying with tutors, including John Monesca. His New York schooling would ultimately be followed by six years of education abroad, with Brisbane studying philosophy in Paris and Berlin. making the acquaintance of a number of prominent European intellectuals and political figures during the course of his studies.