John Humphrey Noyes Quotes
complex marriage
Notes was the founder of the Utopian Community of Oneida, New York. It was based on a concept of work distribution with an almost communal style of raising children and everyday living. In such a circumstance, the role of the married couple was far more complex that in the typical single family structure which permeated society at the time for the middle and upper classes while the poor had almost no structure that could be maintained. Monogamy rules were discouraged and some critics described the situation as free love. Notes, politically wisely, preferred the term "complex marriage" which did not have all the pejorative baggage that "free love" did. Oneida evolved to a more conventional social structure over time, and the community members developed skills like silver smithing that allowed them to be quite successful economically, and "Oneide Silver" was prized into the 21st century.
Noyes, John Humphrey. Bible Communism: A Compilation from the Annual Reports and Other Publications of the Oneida Association and Its Branches. Office of the Circular, 1853, p. 42.
In a sense, Ebla had the first “shotgun weddings”. But it shows the value to this ancient society to having a family unit for the raising of children.
This technique she describes is consistent with Sharia—Islamic Law. It however is used by very few women who are sophisticated and courageous enough to do so.
At the time polygamy was approved of by the Mormons. However they were pressured to accept monogamy in order to have peace with the rest of the nation. The Mormon church changed its doctrine and Mormons may only have a single wife. However, there are some dissident Mormon groups that still illegally practice polygamy.
Jackson's Secretary of War, John Henry Eaton, 1790-1856, had been having an affair with a married woman with a proclivity toward promiscuity. Her husband committed suicide and Eaton married her causing one of the great scandals of American history. It split Andrew Jackson's cabinet and ended with Jackson, who supported Eaton, replacing the entire cabinet except the Postmaster General. Vice President John C. Calhoun's chances for the Presidency died as he and Jackson broke over this scandal.
Many whites applauded his views when they corresponded to Christian mores of the time.
Young said when Utah was admitted as a state, it would then have this right
This is a classic example of taking a principle and extrapolating it to an absurd degree. The Supreme Court did rule that there was a right to privacy and did rule that the state could not interfere with most consensual sex in the home including adultery. However the court did not permit bigamy or polygamy, sex with minors, and a host of other areas where the common weal is benefitted. Santorum and others with his view believe that the state should have the right to criminalize adultery and homosexual contact in a private home. And they indeed had this prerogative at earlier times. People were jailed for adultery in Virginia, for having intercourse in different positions in Alabama, for using condoms in Connecticut and others. However, most of the support for these sexual control laws came from religious fundamentalists who wanted the state to enforce their religious beliefs on all. That together with the privacy right, no longer allowed these state abuses if individual freedom. Ironically, most of the advocates for the state’s having the right to restrict sexual freedom. Think of themselves as advocates of individuality and the government not telling folks what to do or how to behave.
This was the decision that sanctioned anti-polygamy laws.
At the time, the Mormons allowed and practiced polygamy.
John Humphrey Noyes was an American preacher, radical religious philosopher, and utopian socialist. He founded the Putney, Oneida and Wallingford Communities, and is credited with coining the term "complex marriage".
