Oneida Community

“ New members sign a paper containing the creed, and also an agreement to claim no wages or other reward for their labor while in the community.
IV.—SUNDAY AT THE ONEIDA COMMUNITY, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF "CRITICISM." I was permitted to spend several days at the Oneida Community, among which was a Sunday.
The people are kind, polite to each other and to strangers, cheerful, and industrious. There is no confusion, and for so large a number very little noise. Where two hundred people live together in one house, order, system, and punctuality are necessary ”

“ III.—DAILY LIFE AND BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION. The farm, or domain, as they prefer to call it, of the Oneida Community forms a part of the old Reservation of the Oneida Indians. It is a plain, the land naturally good and well watered; and it has been industriously improved by the communists. It lies four miles from Oneida on the New York Central Railroad, and the Midland Railroad passes through it.
The dwelling-house, a large brick building with some architectural pretensions, but no artistic merit, stands on the middle of a pleasant lawn, near the main road. ”

“ This way lies the path of liberty and life and joy, and they who have once trodden it in the perfect fulness of magnetic union with a dearly loved spouse will never care to stumble along the old paths. The Oneida Community, despite its social mistake of promiscuity has made the human race its everlasting debtor, in that it has left a thirty years' scientific experiment on record detailing the methods and attesting the value of this second degree. ”

“ The Oneida Communists claim that their control over amativeness and philoprogenitiveness, the two elements of familism, is carried much farther than that of the Shakers; inasmuch as they make those passions serve Communism, instead of opposing it, as they do under suppression. They dissolve the old dual unit of society, [143] but take the constituent elements of it all back into Communism. The only reason why we do not name the Oneida Community among the examples of the connection between anti-marriage and success, is that we do not consider it old enough to be pronounced successful. ”

“ However, all Utopias, like all monasteries and penitentiaries, are made up of picked people. The Oneida Community was not composed of average individuals, but of people who were selected with great care, and only admitted after severe tests. ”

“ Like the original Oneida community, they believe in free criticism of one another in open meetings. They admit no one to the society unless he or she promises to make a full confession before others of every evil that can be recalled,—women confess to women, men to men ”

“ The founder, John Humphrey Noyes, a graduate of Dartmouth and a Yale divinity student, conceived a system of communal life which should make it possible for the individual to live without sin. This perfectionism, he believed, necessitated the abolition of private property through communism, the abolition of sickness through complete coöperation of the individual with God, and the abolition of the family through a "scientific" coöperation of the sexes. The Oneida Community was financially very prosperous. ”

“ The Wallingford Community in Connecticut, and the Oneida Community in New York State, practised free love among themselves without persecution, until their organizations died from natural causes. The leaders in these and other independent sects were clean men within their own rules, honest in their dealings with their neighbors, never seeking political power, and never pressing their opinions upon outsiders. ”

“ Noyes is himself founder of the Oneida community, and bases his descriptions of the rest on information supplied by men who were members of the communities he describes, or on the materials collected by Mr. ”

“ The community at Oneida, in Madison county, New York, was formed in 1848, and had a struggling existence for many years; but gradually several branches of industry, such as the making of traps, travelling bags, and the like, were successfully established, and the community became prosperous. Everything is owned in common, and they extend the community system" beyond property to persons." That is to say, there is no marriage among them, and "exclusiveness in regard to women and children" is displaced by what they claim to be a scientific regulation of the intercourse of the sexes. ”

“ Now, sir, as our allies the Oneidas dare not answer to a belt summons for federal council, there is no one who can discover for you the location of the trysting-spot, Thendara. I, however, am an Oneida councilor, having conformed to the law of descent by adoption; and having been raised up to ensign by the Wolf-Clan of the Oneida Nation, beg leave to place my poor services at your Excellency's disposal. There may be a chance that I return alive ”

“ I could not help smiling at his national pride;—yet this is man: in every country and condition he is proud of his descent, and loves the race to which he belongs. This Oneida was a widow's son. He had sixteen acres of cleared land, which, with occasional assistance, he cultivated himself. When the produce was sold, he divided the proceeds with his mother, and then set out, and travelled until his funds were exhausted. He had just then returned from a tour to New York and Philadelphia, and had visited almost every city in the Union. ”

“ Between Manchester and Vernon day dawned, and we found ourselves in a rather wild country, in the midst of a wilderness. Oneida is an Indian settlement, and was built by the remnant of the once mighty Oneida tribe, who, unlike their countrymen, unwilling to fly before the white settlers to the west, are at present a wretched people, despised and oppressed by their neighbours like a gang of gypsies. They have been obliged to learn trades, and to labour on farms ”

“ True, I am first of all a Wolf—but next am I an Oneida. And, as I may not sit in national council with my clan to raise my voice against this punishment, and, as the Long House is rent asunder forever, why, sir, I am an Oneida first of all—after my allegiance to my own country—and I shall so conduct that Walter Butler and the Delaware dogs of a cleft and yellow clan will remember that when an Oneida speaks, they remain silent, they obey! ”

“ An addition ought to be built to this church and also a school house constructed, at least, in course of time. The Government does not help in the least; on the contrary, these (Oneidas) Indians having been Protestants before, made all difficulties possible. The Rector of Freedom Congregation, heretofore attending to the Oneida Mission, is hardly able to do so any longer, as his congregation claims all his time, and he is certainly unable to do full justice to the enterprise of converting many more Oneidas. ”

“ He is our chief and Captain. He has spoken as an Oneida to Oneidas. We understand. We thank him for his love offered. We thank him for his kinship offered. We accept; and, in our turn, we offer to our elder brother and Captain our love and our kinship. We take him among us as an Oneida.
"At this our fire—for alas! no fire shall burn again at Onondaga, nor at Oneida Lake, nor at The Wood's Edge, nor at Thendara—I, Thiohero, Sorceress of Askalege, and Oyaneh, salute an Oneida chief and Sachem. ”

“ Proceeding towards the West, at a distance of forty-five leagues, is found the second Nation, called Oneida, which has no more, at most, than one hundred and forty warriors, and has never wished to listen to any negotiations for peace ”

“ They now meet every year at Oneida Castle, on the 6th of June, form a circle in Council Grove, every family by itself, and the agents of the government pay seven dollars to each of them, because they sold their land to the United States. The counties of Oneida and Madison comprise the former abode of the Oneidas, but they now live in this part of the country, having sold a portion of their land to the United States. Of all the tribes of the six nations, they were the only one who remained faithful to the Americans in the early wars. ”

“ Occasionally, the children in the village gaze, with a mixture of fear and wonder, upon a wandering Oneida, as he loiters in the streets, idle and drunken—a vagabond where his fathers were lords and rulers. ”

“ At New Lebanon I was told that a farm-hand was thought fortunate who was engaged by the Mount Lebanon Shakers. At Amana and at Economy the hired people value their situations so highly that they willingly conform to the peculiarities of the commune, so far as it is demanded. At Oneida, where a large number of men and women are employed in the factories, they speak very highly of their employers, though these are the objects of prejudice on account of their social system. So, too, the animals of a commune are always better lodged and more carefully attended than is usual among its neighbors. ”

“ About 1845, when I began to be an observing boy, it was understood throughout Oneida County that Beriah Green was an intellectual giant, and that he would sell his life, if need be, to befriend the colored man. Oneida Institute was a refuge for the oppressed, quite as much as a place where the students were magnetized and taught to weed onions. Fifteen years before John Brown paused in his march to the gallows to kiss a negro baby I saw Beriah Green walk hand in hand along the sidewalk with a black man and fondle the hand he held conspicuously. ”

“ Moreover, the members of these two Perfectionist communes are almost all overseers of hired laborers; and Oneida is in reality more a large and prosperous manufacturing corporation, with a great number of partners all actively engaged in the work, than a commune in the common sense of the word. ”

“ The labor of the students defrays a considerable part of the expense of their support, but as the severe pressure of the times has limited the means of many liberal benefactors of Oneida, the establishment, which usually comprises one hundred young men, is now limited to about one-third of the number. Several of these are colored. The Oberlin Institute in Ohio is on a much larger scale than this, and is on an equally liberal footing with regard to color. ”

“ The Oneidas, so far, have been friendly. For God's sake, be careful what you do."
"Best parley quick then," returned Nick, "for I trust no Iroquois. You know his lingo. Speak to him."
I called across the stream to the Indian: "Who are you, brother? What is your nation and what is your clan, and what are you doing on the Sacandaga, with your face painted in black and yellow bars, and fresh oil on your limbs and lock?"
He said, in his quiet but distinct voice: "My nation is Oneida; my clan is the Tortoise; I am Tahioni. I am a young and inexperienced warrior. No scalp yet hangs from my girdle. ”

“ I demanded passionately. "When the council sits at Thendara I shall send a belt to every clan in the Oneida nation, and I care not who knows it!"
He rose, pale and menacing. "Mr. Renault," he said, "do you understand that a word from you would be a treason to the King? You can be a clansman of the Wolf and at the same time be loyal to the King and to the Iroquois Confederacy; but you can not send a single string of wampum to the Oneidas and be either loyal to the Six Nations or to your King. The Oneidas are marked for punishment ”

“ He believed that people should live together in communities in which the farms, the houses, the cattle, the products of the soil, should be owned not by individual men, but by the whole community. He held that there should be absolute social equality, and that no matter what sort of work a man did, whether skilled or unskilled, it should be considered just as valuable as the work of any other man.
All this was very alluring, and in a little while Owenite communities were started in Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and New York, only to end in failure. ”

“ Abraham Le Fort says, that Ondiaka was the great chronicler of his tribe. He had often heard him speak of the traditions of his father. On his last journey to Oneida he accompanied him. As they passed south by Jamesville and Pompey, Ondiaka told him that in ancient times, and before they fixed down at Onondaga, they lived at these spots. That it was before the Five Nations had confederated; but while they kept up a separate existence, and fought with each other. They kept fighting and moving their villages often. This reduced their numbers, and kept them poor and in fear. ”

“ We must have one fire, one pipe and one war club. This will give us strength. If our warriors are united they can defeat the enemy and drive them from our land; if we do this, we are safe.
"Onondaga, you are the people sitting under the shadow of the Great Tree, whose branches spread far and wide, and whose roots sink deep into the earth. You shall be the first nation, because you are warlike and mighty.
"Oneida, and you, the people who recline your bodies against the Everlasting Stone, that cannot be moved, shall be the second nation, because you always give good counsel. ”

“ Oneida was incorporated in 1848, and had (1900) a population of 6,364.
The site of Canastote (signifying "Cluster of pines") was purchased (1810) by Reuben Perkins; the settlement was, however, due to the canal, and was incorporated in 1835. It has attained a population of about three thousand.—Ed.
[203] The Oneida Indians, one of the "five nations" of the Iroquois confederacy, lived east of the Onondaga, in the present Madison and Oneida counties. In 1788 they ceded their land to New York state, retaining a large reservation, which has been gradually disposed of for successive annuities. ”

“ And so high did the enthusiasm run that one man said, "As soon as we get able, we will put one on every house in Oneida." After Brother Requa left Oneida, he served one year as Agent of Lawrence University, and was specially engaged in raising an Indian Scholarship Fund. His appointments subsequently were: Janesville, Fond du Lac District, Oshkosh, Sheboygan Falls, Sheboygan, Brandon and Ripon. In March, 1865, his second year at Ripon, he went as a Delegate of the Christian Commission to the army. ”