• Dye, Nancy Schrom, and Smith, Daniel Blake. "Mother Love and Infant Death, 1750-1920." The Journal of American History 329-53. 73.2 (1986), http://www.jstor.org/stable/190822

• Bible Communism. Brooklyn: Office of The Circular, 1853. http://library.syr.edu/digital/collections/b/BibleCommunism/. 

This primary document is a compilation of reports and publications of the Oneida Community which summarize the religious views of the Community.  Starting with Chapter 2, "Social Theory," Noyes begins to argue that death can be defeated, and no one needs to die.  Chapter 3 goes into more depth on this subject, attempting to prove that Death can be abolished, and that this is a sign of the coming Millennium.

• Carden, Maren Lockwood. Oneida: Utopian Community to Modern Corporation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1969.

     
This book offers a basic but comprehensive history of the Oneida Community from its conception to its breakup and dissolution into a joint-stock company. Carden divides the community’s existence into two distinct parts, the ‘utopian Oneida’ and the later ‘ideological Oneida’ in order to analyze the relationship between the individual members and the organizational interests that they successfully upheld for such a long period of time. Over half of the book is dedicated to the shift between the two periods of idealism and the reorganization of the corporation under Pierrepont Noyes’ leadership and beyond. Carden interviewed forty-four Kenwood residents and lived in the Mansion House for long periods of time for this study.

• Carlson, Elof Axel. The Unfit: A History of a Bad Idea. Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2001.

Carlson wrote this book to explain the consequences that eugenics had during modern times, especially during the Holocaust in World War II. Carlson calls the consequences "negative eugenics" and writes about the degenerative effects it has on human beings, but also gives hope in that there are means by which humans can overcome this.

• Cooper, Matthew. “Relations of Modes of Production in Nineteenth Century America: The Shakers and Oneida.” Ethnology 26, no. 1 (Jan., 1987): pp. 1-16, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3773412.

    
The curious economic relationship between isolated utopian communities and the outside world is explored within this article by comparing and contrasting the modes of production of Oneidans and Shakers. Cooper aims to prove that small communal societies can thrive when working in conjunction with and within a much larger capitalistic society although, in many cases, they often eventually become capitalistic themselves. He suggests that the interaction between communities that were trying to create distance between their own lives and the outside world would be affected both negatively and positively by this need and desire for a connection to it, and that, ultimately, the Shakers were able to hold out longer because of their more limited association with the influences of capitalistic America.

• "FATHER, NOYES' FANATICS: THE COMMUNISTS OF ONEIDA COUNTY. THEIR VILLAGE AND ITS BUILDINGS--WHY THE SOCIALISTS ARE FAVORITES IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD--RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE COMMUNITY--ARE ITS LAST DAYS AT HAND?" New York Times (1857), August 9, 1878. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=88162202&Fmt=10&clientId=22329&RQT=309&VName=HNP  (accessed November 14, 2008).

This article begins with a description of the grounds of the Oneida Community, as well as a mild account of life at the community. It describes Noyes doctrine of Perfectionism, and bizarrely draws a connection insinuating Noyes into a Muslim chant. It offers a brief overview of the history of the community, and ends by predicting its imminent end, citing increased railway access, the introduction of scientific notions, the lack of devotion among the younger generation, and Theodore Noyes' departure from the community.

• First Annual Report of Oneida Association: Exhibiting Its History, Principles, and Transactions to Jan. 1, 1849. Oneida: Leonard & Company, Printers, 1849. http://library.syr.edu/digital/collections/f/FirstAnnualReportOfTheOneidaAssociation.

The Community published this report in order to provide general information and settle errors for anxious or curious outsiders after its first year of existence. It opens with a brief history of its locations and membership, then gives a “true history” of its foundation, then a report on the building of the Mansion House, the division of labor, the printing office, the domestic arrangements, and explanations of its changes in women’s fashion. Finally, it offers a brief explanation of the Oneida Community’s religious and social practices, starting with their spiritual beliefs, then the system of criticism, and lastly their theory of government.

• Hand-Book of the Oneida Community with a Sketch of Its Founder and an Outline of Its Constitution and Doctrines. Wallingford: Office of the Circular, 1867. http://library.syr.edu/digital/collections/h/Hand-bookOfTheOneidaCommunity/.

 

This “hand-book” was put together and published by the office of The Circular for public consumption. It provides much detailed general information about the set-up of the community and the background of its creator, John Humphrey Noyes. It systematically gives a brief outline of the Oneida Community’s means of government, business organization, social organization, and gender relations. It also lays out and explains its religious doctrines, such as its ideas about the “primitive church” and the second coming of Christ, and its social platform, including its Bible-based yet radical views on marriage, communism, free love, and male continence.

• Isaac, James, and Irwin Altman. “Interpersonal Processes In Nineteenth Century Utopian Communities: Shakers and Oneida Perfectionists.” Utopian Studies 9, no. 1 (1998): 26-49. America: History & Life, EBSCOhost (accessed November 15, 2008). http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=4788649&site=ehost-live.

Isaac and Irwin write about the interpersonal relationships of the individuals in both the Shaker and Oneida communities. Regulations on sexual relationship, the “internal and external pressures”, and the results of both on the members' reactions are also exemplified in this article.

• Kephart, William M. “Experimental Family Organization: An Historico-Cultural Report on the Oneida Community.” Marriage and Family Living 25, no. 3 (Aug., 1963): pp. 261-271, http://www.jstor.org/stable/349069.
  

This author had the unique opportunity to visit the Mansion House and interview thirteen surviving members of the Oneida Community, including one daughter of J.H. Noyes, and explore its library. Kephart’s goal in writing this article was to shed some light on the basic social system of the community at a time when there was very little academic interest in the topic. He concludes that the communal design of the Mansion House, the social system of Mutual Criticism, secular differentiation, economic success, and a high level of religious devoutness allowed the community to prosper as cohesive form of family organization. Kephart also includes sections on Oneida’s sexual practices and on the leadership of J.H. Noyes.

• Klaw, Spencer. Without Sin: The Life and Death of the Oneida Community.  New York: Penguin Books USA Inc, 1993.
  

 Taking a historical look at the Oneida Community, Klaw provides a comprehensive, accessible addition to any research done on Oneida. He moves from the foundation of the community to the break up, and devotes individual chapters to specific aspects of daily life and religious views, such as children, mutual criticism, and sickness.

• Noyes, George Wallingford, compiler. Free Love in Utopia: John Humphrey Noyes and the Origin of the Oneida Community. Lawrence Foster, ed. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2001.
  

 

Until the publication of this book, this collection of documents compiled by George Wallingford Noyes--all that survives from a much larger cache of documents mostly destroyed in the 1940s--was very difficult to access. Foster's introduction provides information about the origin of the collection and the context necessary to make sense of it. The collection itself contains letters, journals, and other documents pertaining to many important events in the history of the Oneida community.

• Noyes, John Humphrey.  "Part 1: Confession of Religious Experience: Including a History of Modern Perfectionism."  Confessions of John Humphrey Noyes.  Oneida: Leonard & Company Printers, 1849. http://library.syr.edu/digital/collections/c/ConfessionsOfJohnHNoyesPartI/.

Noyes describes his experiences with Perfectionism and his internal battles with demons.  Moving through a series of metaphysical/religious questions, he eventually asks why, if his resurrection is to parallel Christ's, should he not overcome death in the same way?  Through faith, Noyes writes, he overcame death and the fear of death.

 

• Noyes, John Humphrey.  Salvation From Sin, the End of Christian Faith.  Wallingford, Connecticut: Office of The Circular, 1866.  http://library.syr.edu/digital/collections/s/SalvationFromSin/.
  

Noyes argues that Christ came to save humanity not from Hell (a consequence of sin), but from Sin itself, allowing people to stop sinning altogether.  He says that the Old Testament saints sinned because Christ hadn't come to save them yet, and the Disciples of Christ sinned prior to Pentecost, because they hadn't fully converted.  Paul, however, may have been saved from sin, and modern Christians can also attain perfection through faith.

• Noyes, Pierrepont B. “Cooperation Through Stock Ownership.” Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York 11, no. 3 (Apr., 1925): pp. 103-108, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1180310.

 

This brief article was written by Pierrepont Noyes, one of J.H. Noyes’s sons and, at the time of this publication, the president of the Oneida, Ltd. joint-stock company. Although Oneida had been disbanded and legally transformed into a business operation, P. Noyes made it his goal to continue its socialist community feel by improving the worker’s conditions greatly and by making sure that all stock holders—mostly former Oneida members and current employees—had a say in the running of the company. His point in writing this was to explain, from his own experience, why it is important for workers to share in the results of successful operation even though he also concedes that no completely satisfactory answer can ever be found to the “labor question.”

• Sandeen, Ernest R. “John Humphrey Noyes as the New Adam.” Church History, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Mar., 1971): pp. 82-90. Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society of Church History.

Sandeen begins his essay with an extremely pro-Noyes quote and a quick summary on how many people consider him the pioneer of the future but quickly turns to his own argument that Noyes' religious arguments quickly lose precedence over time and that the fate of the Oneida Community was sealed due to “fatal ambiguities”.

• Special Dispatch to the New-York Times. "ONEIDA'S QUEER PEOPLE :TROUBLE IN THE COMMUNITY OF SOCIALISTS. WITHDRAWAL OF MEMBERS AND ABANDONMENT OF THE SUB-COMMUNITY IN CONNECTICUT--WHY BRETHREN SECEDE WITHOUT CAUSING COMMOTION--DISSENTERS FROM THE VIEWS OF NOYES THE FOUNDER." New York Times (1857-Current file), August 8, 1878, http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=81728045&Fmt=10&clientId=22329&RQT=309&VName=HNP (accessed November 14, 2008).

 

This article catalogs a number of members who defected from the Oneida Community, and speaks of the community's discontent. It references the failing of the community under Theodore Noyes, in the decline of John Humphrey Noyes' authority.

• White, Janet R. “Designed for Perfection: Intersections Between Architecture and Social Program at the Oneida Community.” Utopian Studies 7, no. 2 (1996): 113-138. America: History & Life, EBSCOhost (accessed November 15, 2008).http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=4113216&site=ehost-live.

White writes about the unique physical and social structures of the Oneida Community. White believes that the architectural designs are the outward expression of their religious and social beliefs, and that “specially designed structures would make it possible to live according to those social principles.”

Primary Memoirs/Journals

• Fogarty, Robert S. Desire & Duty at Oneida: Tirzah Miller’s Intimate Memoir. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
  

• Kinsley, Jessie Catherine. A Lasting Spring. Edited by Jane Kinsley Rich. New York: Syracuse University Press, 1983.

These are the stories of Jessie Catherine Kinsley, a member of the Oneida community. She tells about life in the community through sketches, journals, and finally letters to her family and friends.  Included in this book are passages written from her daughter and granddaughter as they remember her to be, as well as a historian’s reference.  This provides a telling account to this woman’s life as well as the life and impact that the Oneida community had on Kinsley, as well as her family.  

• Noyes, Corinna Ackley.  Days of My Youth. Utica, New York: Widtman Press, Inc., 1960. http://library.syr.edu/digital/collections/d/DaysOfMyYouth/.

 

Written by the granddaughter of the founder of the Oneida community, Constance Noyes Robertson tells of the problems within the utopian community.  Her focus within this book is to provide a clear frame of reference for communal living and what living in a communist society truly entailed. She uses first-hand accounts such as private diaries, letters and books all belonging to John Humphrey Noyes.  Included are stories of Mary Cragin, stories of converts, Noyes’ sexual philosophy, the building of the community, social and financial problems within the community, etc. 

Eugenics/Stripiculture/Children

• Black, Edwin. “We Must Keep Eugenics Away From Genetics” Newsday October 15, 2003.

http://www.waragainsttheweak.com/offSiteArchive/www.newsday.com/index.htm

Black gives an overview of the eugenics movement during the 20^th century and proceeds to explain that eugenics must be taken out of genetics because “genetic information was twisted and distorted into an official crusade to create a master, white, blond-haired and blue-eyed Nordic race.” The evolution of eugenics in the 20^th century is then explained with a nice addition of statistics to pad the argument.

• Black, Edwin. “The Power to Classify” Reform Judaism Online Vol. 32, no. 2 (Winter 2003).

           http://www.waragainsttheweak.com/offSiteArchive/www.uahc.org/index.htm

Black writes on a more modern eugenics movement during the 20^th century, from World War II up until 2003. Black argues that for decades eugenics was used as a form of racial and geographic discrimination but that it is not illegal in the United States. However, laws discriminating against specific genes has not been outlawed and is rarely addressed.

• “Darwin's Principles of Breeding” The Circular Vol. II, March 27, 1865.

This article explains an interpretation of Darwin, taken by Noyes, that explains the production of species either by themselves or of “other allied species”. This article pushes that humans are not only able to adapt to their environment but to shape it to fit man's needs. Also, it is argued that “we cannot suppose that all the breeds were suddenly produced as perfect and as useful as we now see them”, which translates into the community possibly feeling that some unnatural interjection was made for each individual species on earth.

• Ellis, John B. Free Love and Its Votaries (American Socialism Unmasked). (Chapter 15- “The Juvenile Saints” pgs. 221-237). A.L. Bancroft & Co; San Francisco, California (1870).

This chapter of the book explains the rearing timeline for young children in the community, as well as going into some detail about specific daily practices such as “the Children’s Hour” and “The Evening Talk.” Includes testimonies as to the physical and mental health of the children in the community as it is defended to outside critics. This Chapter also possesses statements from articles of the Circular as well as from a shoolmaster, and schoolmistress pertaining to the quality of life of children within the community.

• Ellis, John B. Free Love and Its Votaries (American Socialism Unmasked). (Chapter 16- “The Community Schools” pgs. 238-243.). A.L. Bancroft & Co; San Francisco, California (1870).

This chapter provides a fairly critical view of the education system in Oneida. The beginning does a good job of outlining the timeline and existence of certain schools within the community, however the quality of both the education and the student it fosters fall under heavy critique (and of course it is interesting how the only students he praises are always men). The last half ends up being more of a rant that can be attributed to an outsider mixing up the values of the Oneidas with the value systems of his own upper class American society.

• Gutek, Gerald Lee & Patricia. “John Humphrey Noyes's Perfectionists.” Visiting Utopian Communities: A Guide to the Shakers, Moravians, and Others (1998): p.134. University of South Carolina Press.

These authors delve into the history of the Oneida Community and its ideal for a perfect community of human beings living in harmony. The authors provide information on the community's origins, its leaders, eugenics, and any current events taking place today. This book not only touches on the Oneida Community but the Shakers, who had an ideal for a perfect society as well.

• Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement.  http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics
  

This is an interactive website where one can browse photos taken during the Eugenics Movement that took place in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. Alongside photos, information on the social and scientific origins of, as well as research methods, traits studied, research flaws, the popularization of, sterilization and marriage laws regarding the Eugenics Movement are compiled in this website with due respect to many contributing archives of well known libraries and universities.

• Lockwood, Maren. “The Experimental Utopia in America.” Daedalus, Vol. 94, No. 2, Utopia (Spring, 1965): pp. 401-418. MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Lockwood relates stirpiculture and complex marriage together and compares the Oneidans to the Mormons' practice of polygamy. Lockwood writes about how it was Noyes' belief that women should be freed from the burden to bear children and to be monogamous for he believed it to be a form of slavery. Lockwood says in regards to the Oneidans and their practice of eugenics, “with a superior inheritance, the hope of perfection would be even brighter” (409).

• Mandelker, Ira L. “The Theology of John Humphrey Noyes.” Religion, Society, and Utopia in Nineteenth Century America (1984): p.130. University of Massachusetts Press.

 In this particular section of Mandelker's book, he writes on Noyes' idea of a perfect community. In the sub-section, Mandelker writes on the science and education within the Oneida Community. It was Noyes' belief that “science also offered the possibility of effecting humanity's biological perfection through selective breeding” (130).

• McGee, Anita Newcomb. “An Experiment in Human Stirpiculture.” American Anthropologist, Vol. 4, No. 4 (October 1891). p.319-326.http://www.jstor.org/stable/658471.

This article discusses the evolution of the Oneida community and the eventual stirpiculture experiment. The author describes the evolution of Noyes’ specific thought process as he crafted stirpiculture from the principles of better breeding and raising of stock, to the idea of how to create a more superiorly spiritual human being.

• Noyes, Pierrepont B. "Stirpiculture.” TIME Magazine, May 22, 1937. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,757475,00.html.

This article was written in 1937, after the Oneida Community had already broken apart. Pierrepont B. writes about Bible Communism and the new affects of stirpiculture laws upon individuals during this time.

• Richards, M. “Perfecting People: Selective Breeding at the Oneida Community (1869-1879) and the Eugenics Movement.” New Genetics & Society, Volume 23, Number 1, April 2004 , pp. 47-71(25).

The stirpiculture experiment of the Oneida Community had little effect on the later eugenics movements in America and the United Kingdom. Although the Oneida experiment shared the ideas influenced by Plato and Galton, the incorporation of complex marriage may have been even too radical for later movements. This paper explores the influences, implementation, and residual effects of the Oneida Stirpiculture experiment.

• Roach, Monique Patenaude. "The Loss of Religious Allegiance among the Youth of the Oneida Community." Historian 63, no. 4 (Summer2001 2001): 787-806. Religion and Philosophy Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed November 14, 2008). http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rlh&AN=13644547&site=ehost-live.
  

This article looks at the breakup of the Oneida Community as the result of the younger generation's inability to inherit the religious system of their parents. This article is organized historically, tracking the development of the community with an eye towards explaining the supports that would later fail. Loss of religious intensity, coupled with increased contact with the outside world, brought Bible Communism to a halt.

• Roper, Allen G. “Ancient Eugenics.” Originally Published by B.H. Blackwell, Broad Street, Oxford (1913). (accessed October 26, 2008) http://www.prometheism.net/articles/ancient.htm
  

Roper wrote this article on the ancient history of eugenics and its relation to barbarism. Roper claims that the newborns who were born weak and deformed were considered burdens to their clans and therefore were sought to be eliminated at birth. This, Roper claims, is the true origin of eugenics.

• Tudge, Colin. “The New Statesman Essay: The future of humanity.” Newstatesman Online. April 8, 2002. http://www.newstatesman.com/200204080014.htm.

Tudge speaks of eugenics in a way that is supposed to coincide with Darwin's theory of evolution. It is Tudge's view that the eugenics movement should be seen not as a way to “breed a super people” but that eugenicists wanted to remove the “feeble-minded” in order to prevent the decline of the human species. Tudge appears to support genetics and its journey in cloning and other types of genetic engineering.

• Youcha, Geraldine. “The Oneida Community.” Minding the Children: Child Care in America from Colonial Times to the Present (2005): p.110. Da Capo Press.

Geraldine Youcha writes on how Noyes was influenced by Darwinism when planning his experiment with stirpiculture. Youcha also writes about how even the best scientific experiments can go awry for there was at least one stillborn and a couple of the children had learning disabilities. Youcha focuses much more strongly on the children who were the product of the stirpiculture experiment.

• “Stirpiculture.” The Circular Vol. II, No. 3, April 3, 1865.

This is the first article in The Circular that writes on considering experimenting with stirpiculture. This article mostly ventures into asking the people what they think they should embody as an ideal to achieve, but that they mostly wish to accomplish the qualities that God bestowed in the prophets.

• “Stirpiculture II.” The Circular Vol. II, No. 4, April 10, 1865.

This article, the second in the stirpiculture series, tries to ease the rising tension of those in the community who feel very much against eugenics. The article tries to ease the minds of the community members by assuring them that committees have been arranged “to bear on the production and preservation of improved varieties of the race”.

• Whitledge, Rachel. “Saving Race: Sex, Marriage, and Family in the Early Mormon Faith and Oneida Community”.

This paper outlines reproduction as a major theme in the ideals of the Oneida community. Between male continence and the stirpiculture experiment, their were two distinct roles for sex in the community. This paper claims that those roles are social and propogative. There is an explanation for the inspiration of the movement, as well as how each man and woman were scrutinized before being allowed to procreate.

 

John Humphrey Noyes

• Bernstein, Leonard. “The Ideas of John Humphrey Noyes, Perfectionist.” American Quarterly 5, no. 2 (Summer, 1953): pp. 157-165, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3031316.  

 

 Bernstein suggests that J. H. Noyes was equal parts Yankee and Puritan; although profoundly religious and idealistic, he was also a rational businessman who possessed the skills needed to run one of the most successful utopian communities in America. He argues that the combination of theological prowess, common sense, and self-assurance made him a particularly qualified candidate for the role he took within his revolutionary Oneida Community. He summarizes the basic tenets of Noyes’ complex religious beliefs and finds in them the influences of the Puritans, Calvinists, and Lutherans along with a parallel between the Perfectionist ‘spiritual revolution’ and the success of Unitarianism and Transcendentalism within New England.

 

• Brumann, Christoph. “The Dominance of One and Its Perils: Charismatic Leadership and Branch Structures in Utopian Communities.” Journal of Anthropological Research 56, no. 4 (Winter, 2000): pp. 425-451, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3630926.

Through the use anthropological data tables and case studies, this article examines a large number of experimental utopian communities around the world. Brumann comes to the conclusion that communal systems in which a charismatic leader governs absolutely over all members are far more likely to fail than systems in which a moderately dominant leader holds power over a number of smaller, relatively equal branch communities. In this way, charismatic leadership can either help or hinder a fledgling utopian community. One section is devoted to John Humphrey Noyes of the Oneida Community; the author gives a succinct but somewhat negative summary of Noyes’ actions as divinely authorized leader of the community.

 

• Olin, Spencer C., Jr. “The Oneida Community and the Instability of Charismatic Authority.” The Journal of American History 67, no. 2 (Sep., 1980): pp. 285-300, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1890409. 

 

This article seeks a solution to the complex question surrounding the gradual downfall of the Oneida Community. Olin combines several arguments in forming his own conclusion: a mix of internal and, to a lesser extent, external factors contributed to the decline, but the leading cause was the void of legitimate authority and the schism it caused within the community between Townerites and those still loyal to Noyes. He suggests that Noyes had, through his natural charisma and subsequent failure to implement any system for choosing a legitimate leader or dealing with political disagreements, elevated himself to the position of irreplaceable leader and that his removal to Canada is what ultimately broke Oneida

• Sandeen, Ernest R. "John Humphrey Noyes at the New Adam." Church History 40, no 1 (Mar., 1971): 82-90. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3163109.

This article, written as it was in the 1970s, deals with the idea of Noyes as a counter-culture figure. Sandeen wishes to avoid simply characterizing Noyes as an early rebel, and argues that the success of Noyes' rebellion was qualified and truncated. The article focuses on the disturbed and unstable nature of Noyes' early adulthood, and how it led him to seek paradise. Sandeen draws a connection between Noyes' coitus reservatus and the idea of regaining Adam's sexual innocence by means of a similar practice, and draws the conclusion that when Mary Cragin became pregnant after the establishment of complex marriage, it constituted Noyes' 'fall'.

 

Women at Oneida

• Fischer, Gayle V(eronica). “’Pantalets’ and ‘Turkish Trowsers’: Designing Freedom in the Mid-Nineteenth-Century United States.” Feminist Studies 23, no. 1 (Spring, 1997): pp.111-140, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3178301.
  

This article explores the widespread, but typically unrelated, dress reform movement that seemingly appealed to many diverse groups of women in 19^th century America. The groups Fischer uses as examples in wearing shortened dresses with trousers underneath include the Oneida Community, women’s rights activists, Strangite Mormons, the NDRA, and others. She argues that since there was immediate backlash from men because women dared to wear masculine trousers many of the women adopted western interpretations of “Oriental” costumes and children’s wear as an alternate fashion so as not to threaten the social norm.

 

• Fischer, Gayle Veronica. “She Ought To Be a Female-man”: Dress Reform in the Oneida Community, 1848-1879.” MID-AMERICA: An Historical Review 77, no. 3 (Fall, 1995): pp. 237-265.
  

This article focuses entirely on dress reform only within the Oneida Community, arguing that while other reform movements may have desired to influence the rest of society by acting as models for positive change, the goal of Oneida was simply internal reform. Fischer, however, does not see the trousers and shortened dresses donned by the women to be a sign of progression; in fact, she argues that the design actually reinforced gender inequality within the community in accordance with Noyes’ view that women were “female-men” and should wear “the dress of children—frock and pantalettes.” She also looks at the practicality of the fashion in terms of the work women did at Oneida and the ‘dress spirit’ that seized women during Oneida’s decline. 

 

• Foster, Lawrence. “Free Love and Feminism: John Humphrey Noyes and the Oneida Community.” Journal of the Early Republic 1, no. 2 (Summer, 1981): pp. 165-183, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3123007.
  

Was J.H. Noyes a feminist or a chauvinist? Foster examines the spectrum of arguments both for and against these contradictory views while attempting to explain why the relations between the sexes at Oneida worked so well for so long. He looks to discover the large-scale philosophy supporting Noyes’s theory of sexual relations and gender roles and comes to the conclusion that feminists are asking the wrong questions, that although Noyes unabashedly viewed females as inferior to males he did include their concerns as a part of his larger quest for social change and understood the limitations that prevented a full realization of his ideal community.

 

• Gordon, Linda. “Voluntary Motherhood; the Beginnings of Feminist Birth Control Ideas in the United States.” Feminist Studies 1, no. 3/4 (Winter-Spring, 1973): pp. 5-22, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1566477.
  

 

This is a fairly broad survey of the fledgling feminist movement’s views on birth control in nineteenth century America. She splits the pro-‘voluntary motherhood’ (but not pro-contraceptive) feminists into three groups: suffragists, moral reformers, and Free Lovers; the Oneida Community is included as one example of the last group. The discussion of Oneida naturally turns to the system of male continence as a form of birth control and sexual self-control. Gordon emphasizes that the idea of controlling birth certainly did not mean childlessness, but a rather conservative desire among women for a more spiritual motherhood connection and a tool to elevate their positions within conventional families.

• S.B.C., “A Mother’s Confession.” The Circular, 28 March 1870, p. 10.

This is a statement on behalf of an Oneida mother in support of communal child rearing. She speaks of the importance of raising and teaching children to serve God’s needs instead of the needs of their mothers and fathers. She confesses to being too attached to her children at first, but now claims that she is able to love them more as they are being raised communally.