Hopedale Community
The Hopedale Community was founded out of Worcester County, Massachusetts in 1842 by Adin Ballou. He and his followers purchased 600 acres (2.4 km2) of land on which they built homes for the community members, chapels and the factories for which the company was initially formed.
Ballou believed that he could create a utopian community blending the features of a factory town with those of a religion-based commune. He called this ”Practical Christianity” but unlike several similar communities, it was important to Ballou that Hopedale would not be isolated from the rest of society. He hoped that it would be able to stand as a beacon of social reform in the time of the Civil War. The community stood for temperance, abolitionism, woman’s rights, spiritualism and education. [1] 14 years after the land was purchased, Hopedale went bankrupt. The intentional community was converted into a textile factory town. The factories were purchased by George and Ebenezer Draper.
Each person, upon joining the community, invested his property into the Community. Each year they were credited according to this amount. If a person was to leave the Community he was given either their initial investment or ninety percent of that which was credited to him.
The Hopedale Community, or Fraternal Community No. 1, made many attempts to create equality among all members. Though Ballou stated that men and women were equal members of the society he commented that male and female roles were set by their creator. This meant that within the community men and women were allowed to take part in democratic processes but women were, for the most part, given domestically oriented jobs and the men were the governmental leaders. There was even a special sector of the “Hopedale Industrial Army” that doubled as a traditional sewing circle for women to socialize while working. But there were several women who took on roles in the government and promotion of the community. According to Edward K. Spann’s book Hopedale: From Commune to Company Town, 1840-1920, Abby H. Price, an elected official of the Hopedale community, acted as a spokeswoman for equal rights and work compensation.
Hopedale Community was founded upon Ballou’s Universalist beliefs about Christianity. He believed that Jesus Christ had made it possible for people to live a good life on Earth and so this community was instituted to be an example of this life. The Christian lifestyle at Hopedale was more concerned with equality, love and sharing than it was about the dogmas of religion. In his book, Practical Christian Socialism, Ballou outlines the principles of theology, righteousness and social order.
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