Harriet Hayes Skinner
Harriet Hayes Skinner was an American writer, editor, and religious communalist. Born into the prominent Noyes and Hayes families, she supported the religious views of her brother, John Humphrey Noyes, founder of the Oneida Community. Skinner joined the Putney Association and later the Oneida Community, where she was active in both intellectual and domestic roles. She contributed to Perfectionist publications, served as editor of the Oneida Circular, and taught composition and spelling within the community. Skinner authored the vegetarian cookbook Oneida Community Cooking, which documented the community's food practices and promoted the use of fresh, local ingredients. She advocated for the community's principle of free love, which she viewed as a means of promoting moral growth and social cohesion.
Biography
Early life and family
Harriet Hayes Noyes was born July 5, 1817, in Dummerston, Vermont, the seventh of nine children in the Noyes family, a lineage descending from Nicholas Noyes, who emigrated from England and settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, in 1634.Her father, John Noyes, graduated from Dartmouth College and served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Vermont. Her mother, Polly, was the daughter of Rutherford Hayes and the sister of the father of future U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes.
Skinner grew up in Putney, Vermont, in a religious household. In 1831, during a revival movement, her brother John Humphrey Noyes experienced a religious conversion that significantly altered his life path and beliefs. Skinner, along with other members of the Noyes family, was influenced by his evolving theology, including his belief in the possibility of achieving salvation from sin in the present life. By 1837, she had publicly expressed her support for these views. Her brother later founded the utopian Oneida Community.
On March 3, 1841, she married John Langdon Skinner, a native of Westmoreland, New Hampshire. He was a fellow convert and editorial assistant to her brother. The couple had one child, Joseph John Skinner, who later became a professor at Yale University and held advanced degrees in civil engineering and philosophy.
Career
Skinner participated in religious activities with her family and contributed regularly to publications associated with the perfectionist movement. She joined the Putney Association at its inception and later joined the Oneida Community on June 16, 1848, alongside her husband and son.Within the community, she was active in both intellectual and domestic roles, later taking part in the community's culinary operations. She authored Oneida Community Cooking, first published in 1873, which documented the community's food practices. Skinner promoted the use of fresh, local ingredients and is credited with the phrase, "freshness is the sauce and seasoning for everything".
Skinner made substantial contributions to Community publications, serving for a time as editor of the Oneida Circular and frequently writing for other periodicals. She also taught composition and spelling and acted as housekeeper for her brother during his vacations at Joppa from 1874 onward.
Free love
Skinner expressed support for the principle of free love, describing it as a foundation for a more dynamic and cohesive community. She contrasted it with conventional marriage, which she viewed as promoting selfishness and social limitation. In her writings, she stated that free love encouraged generosity, moral development, and a sense of organic unity within the community, and credited it with having a positive impact on her own character.Later life and death
In 1881, the Oneida Community dissolved and reorganized as a joint-stock company, which later developed into the silverware manufacturer Oneida Limited. Skinner died in Kenwood, New York, on September 8, 1893, and was buried at the Oneida Community Cemetery.Publications
New Haven Perfectionism versus Methodist Sanctification The Theodores of the Bible: A Lecture- ''History of the Fever and Ague War in Wallingford, in Two Letters, reprinted from the Correspondence of the American Socialist''