Ruskin Colony

The Ruskin Colony (or Ruskin Commonwealth Association) was a utopian socialist colony which existed near Tennessee City in Dickson County, Tennessee from 1894 to 1896. The colony moved to a slightly more permanent second settlement on an old farm five miles north from 1896 to 1899, and saw another brief incarnation near Waycross, in southern Georgia, from 1899 until it finally dissolved in 1901. Its regional location within the Southern United States set it apart from many other similar utopian projects of the era. At its high point, the population was around 250. The colony was named after John Ruskin, the English socialist writer. A cave on the colony's second property in Dickson County still carries his name. The site of the colony's second settlement in Dickson County is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Ruskin Colony was founded by Julius Augustus Wayland (1854-1912), a newspaper editor and socialist from Indiana. The roots of the Ruskin project can be found in the movement within American socialism at the time towards the creation of new model colonies which would, in theory, challenge the American industrial system by creating ethical alternatives built in rural settings. The idea that new settlements such as Ruskin would eventually bring forth a revolution referred to as the "co-operative commonwealth" stood in contrast to socialists who believed that it was more important to do political and social organizing within the cities, the centers of industry. According to W. Fitzhugh Brundage in the book A Socialist Utopia in the New South: "The wastefulness and ugliness of competitive individualism, so glaringly apparent in late nineteenth-century cities, would be replaced by the efficient creation and collective control of wealth and technology" in this new settlement.

By requiring that all members of the colony become equal shareholders in the endeavor, Wayland constructed Ruskin so that it operated more as a legally-sanctioned corporation. Every colonist was then, in essence, a stockholder. The colony, with its elected board of directors, was to run much like any other company, except that it would "do all things necessary to make a success, financially and socially, of a co-operative colony." (The Coming Nation, Feb. 3, 1894) Ruskin colonists manufactured and marketed pants, "cereal coffee", a vapor bath cabinet, chewing gum, belts and suspenders. The system of work itself changed little from that of the world outside Ruskin in terms of hours devoted to the various industries, however the hours, schedules and rates of pay, and industries selected were all determined by the workers. Ruskinites eventually abolished cash wages and adopted a system of scrip which was used in exchange for goods within the colony. In securing their economic dependence, members of the settlement also gave ample time to creative crafts, theater, and other intellectual pursuits. At one time late in the history of the colony, there even existed a band which toured southern Georgia.