Icarians
The Icarians was an American utopian socialist movement, established by the followers of French politician, journalist, and author Étienne Cabet. In an attempt to put his economic and social theories into practice, many of Cabet's followers moved in 1848 to the United States, where they established a series of egalitarian communes in the states of Texas, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and California. The movement split several times due to factional disagreements.
The last community of Icarians, located a few miles outside Corning, Iowa, disbanded voluntarily in 1898. The 46 years of tenure at this location made the Corning Icarian Colony one of the longest-lived non-religious communal living experiments in US history.
History
Cabet as radical French politician
was born in Dijon, France in 1788 to a middle-class family of artisans. Cabet attended a Roman Catholic secondary school and continued his education, ultimately earning a Doctorate of Law degree in 1812. Cabet was not inclined towards jurisprudence, however, preferring the rough and tumble of politics and journalism. Following the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815, Cabet became active in the struggle against conservative theocratic monarchism, participating in political groups which espoused a constitutional and republican form of government under monarchical leadership.In 1820 Cabet moved to Paris, the political center of the French nation. There he continued to participate in secret revolutionary societies, at considerable personal risk. It ultimately took a decade for this underground political effort to bear fruit when in July 1830 revolution erupted seeking the fundamental change of the conservative regime which had gained power in the Bourbon Restoration following the fall of Napoleon.
This Revolution of 1830 in a matter of a few frenzied days forced the abdication of the conservative monarch Charles X and returned constitutional government to France. Cabet played a leading role in the revolution as a leading member of the so-called "Insurrection Committee," activity for which he was recognized with appointment as Attorney-General for Corsica following the coronation of Louis Philippe as king.
Historian Morris Hillquit has argued that the posting of Cabet to Corsica was a calculated "shrewd move on the part of the government" to remove a prominent radical critic from the political hothouse of Paris "under the guise of a reward for his services during the revolution." Be that as it may, despite his employment as a government functionary in Corsica, Cabet moved into criticism of the new Orléanist regime for its conservatism and half-measures with respect to constitutional rule and the democratic rights of the people. This brought about Cabet's prompt removal from office by the new regime in Paris, at whose pleasure Cabet served.
Following his dismissal as Corsican Attorney-General, Cabet turned his hand to writing, authoring a four-volume history of the French Revolution. He also remained active in politics and was elected as a deputy to the lower chamber of the National Assembly in 1834. Cabet emerged as a fierce opponent of the new conservative regime and a potential revolutionary leader, drawing the attention of the regime and its repressive mechanism. In an effort to eliminate the dangerous democratic agitator, Cabet was given the choice of two years' imprisonment or five years in foreign exile. He decided upon the latter punishment and immediately went into exile in England.
During his five years of English exile, Cabet dedicated himself to philosophical and economic study, carefully considering the relationship between political structures and economic welfare throughout history. He read and was inspired by Thomas More's Utopia. Cabet's findings were later summarized thus by one of his acolytes:
Cabet turned to the idea of reorganization of society on a communal basis — known as "Communism" in the terminology of the day. His ideas for the modification of society closely paralleled those of a man he met in English exile, Robert Owen.
''Voyage en Icarie''
In 1839, his five years' exile in England complete, Cabet returned to France. He soon began writing a book to expound his economic and social ideas. Following the example of Thomas More in using the form of an allegorical novel allowed not only the exposition of his ideal form of administration but an opportunity for cloaked criticism of the existing regime.The result of Cabet's writing was Voyage et aventures de Lord William Carisdall en Icarie, published in a special edition for friends in 1839, and a general public edition in 1840. A new edition in 1842 shortened the title to Voyage en Icarie.
Cabet serialized a rough English translation in Icarian periodicals of the 1850s. Academic specialist Robert P. Sutton, professor of history at Western Illinois University, made a translation into English that has been deposited with the Library of Congress, although it remains unpublished. In 2003, Syracuse University Press published a translation by, Travels in Icaria.
A basic plot outline was published by Morris Hillquit in 1903:
Although regarded today as a "plodding melodrama" in which the reader was inundated with "tedious details of incidental aspects of Icarian life," Cabet's book was well received by readers of his day, with the principles it outlined viewed by many as a blueprint for advancement from a disappointing present to a glorious future. Multiple editions of the book followed in quick succession and with public interest awakened Cabet quickly made the transition from author to builder of a practical movement to advance the communal ideas which he had expounded. In March 1841 Cabet launched a monthly magazine, Le Populaire, as well as an annual Icarian Almanac to help propagandize and organize the new political movement's supporters.
So-called "Icarianism" attracted numerous supporters in such French cities as Reims, Leon, Nantes, Toulouse, and Toulon, with Cabet claiming the existence of 50,000 adherents of his ideas by the end of 1843. These supporters began to see Cabet as a political messiah and sought to implement the leader's ideas in a practical setting. It was gradually decided in this period that France did not present a favorable economic, political, or social environment for the implementation of the Icarian ideas; instead, the United States of America was chosen as a more fitting site for colonization – a nation with vast expanses of relatively inexpensive land and a democratic political tradition.
In May 1847, Cabet's organ Le Populaire carried a lengthy article entitled "Allons en Icarie", detailing the proposal to establish an American colony based upon the Icarian political and economic ideals and calling for those committed to building an artisanal and agrarian community to volunteer. The wheels were thus set in motion for the formation of what was intended to be a prosperous and enviable collective entity.
Colonization begins
Cabet believed that at least 10,000 or 20,000 working men would immediately enlist in the American colonization scheme, with the number soon swelling to a million skilled workers and artisans. Towns and huge cities bursting with industry would shortly follow, with accompanying schools and cultural facilities assuring the good life for a happy and fulfilled community. Announcement of the plan was met with enthusiasm, and offers of participation along with gifts of money, seeds, farm implements, clothing, books, and other valuable and useful items began to flow in.Cabet gave himself the task of choosing a precise location for colonization. Cabet turned to his friend Robert Owen for advice, traveling to London in September 1847 to consult with his British co-thinker. Owen recommended colonization in the new American state of Texas, where vast tracts of unoccupied land would be both inexpensive and plentiful. Cabet made contact with a Texas land agent business, The Peters Company, which agreed to present to Owen title for one million acres of land so long as it was colonized by July 1, 1848.
Icarian settlements
Denton County, Texas
On February 3, 1848 a so-called "advance guard" of 69 Icarians departed from Le Havre, France for a new life in Texas, leaving aboard the sailing ship Rome. These were to proceed to the port of New Orleans and to make their way from there to the designated area in Texas, which was represented as being in close proximity to the Red River. The advance guard arrived in America on March 27, 1848.They were quick to discover that they had been deceived and that the actual lands designated for colonization were fully 25 miles away from the Red River; moreover, colony lands were not contiguous, but rather were separated into a checkerboard fashion, alternating state and private lands, making integrated communal life not possible. Moreover, instead of the promised 1 million acres, actual contractual terms of the land distribution provided for the distribution of 320 acres of land to 3,125 individuals or families who each had to construct a log cabin and occupy their allotment by the deadline date of July 1, 1848. With only 69 hands available for the construction, there was little hope for construction of more than about 30 cabins by the deadline. The promised 1 million acres was thereby transformed into perhaps 10,000. More Icarian enthusiasts arrived, but Texas was not working out. By 1849, only 281 Icarians stayed loyal to Cabet and followed him when he decided to build a new settlement at Nauvoo, Illinois, and the rest went back to France.
In the original arrival in 1848, the party travelled by boat to Shreveport. A wagon was obtained and loaded with provisions for a difficult overland trek via the Bonham Trail to a resting place halfway to the final destination. The first group of 25 men departed on April 8, followed shortly thereafter by a second wagon carrying 14 others. Both wagons broke down en route and the 39 Icarians then proceed in small groups, packing what they could on their backs. On April 21 they arrived at their resting place, still more than a hundred difficult miles from their goal in Illinois.
Only 27 intrepid French settlers made the final leg of the trip from the farm designated as a resting place to their new Texan utopia, a site located in today's Denton County in Texas. The small group arrived June 2, 1848, and immediately began a frenzied effort to construct dwellings in order to stake their land claims, attempting at the same time to plow and farm the prairie. Virtually no time remained to meet the terms of the land concession. The hot summer sun began to bake the ground. Poorly fed, poorly housed, overworked and exhausted, the Icarian colonists next fell victim to an outbreaks of cholera and malaria, illnesses which killed four and sickened the rest. Making a bad situation still worse, the one medical doctor in the company broke down into a state of insanity and deserted his fellows.
Back home in France, the Revolution of 1848 had long been in full swing and King Louis Philippe overthrown. The necessity of emigration to achieve democratic reforms seemed less compelling, and volunteers for Icarian colonization in America changed their minds. Some 1500 settlers had planned to participate in the next wave of settlers; only 19 made the trip, of whom barely more than half made it to Texas to join the beleaguered "advance guard" in their Sisyphean task.
The grim reality of their situation now clear, the Texas colonization venture was written off as a total loss by the participants. The survivors divided into small groups to make their way back to Shreveport and from there to New Orleans. Four died en route. Finally arriving in New Orleans late in 1848, the Texas pioneers were met by several hundred colonization enthusiasts from France, who had been slowly congregating in that city. Their mood was grim.
News of the Texas catastrophe reached Cabet in France and on December 13, 1848, he set out from Liverpool for America in an attempt to shore up the project. After landing in New York, he shipped out again for New Orleans, disembarking there on January 19, 1849. Cabet found his supporters in disarray, "in the deplorable spirit of a defeated army," to borrow words from an official history by the group. A portion of the prospective colonists sought to abandon the project and to return to France; others sought to continue the colonization project in a more suitable locale.
On January 21 the colonists held a general meeting to decide their fate. Cabet declared that if a majority sought to return home to France, he would support the decision — although with all the costs absorbed in the previous year such a move would have meant financial disaster for all. A small majority of 280 decided to continue with the colonization project if a more suitable locale was found; 200 decided to return to France. A formal split of the Icarians along these lines immediately followed, the first of three great factional rifts which would split the movement.
An amount of money was pared from the treasury to send the 200 disaffected Icarians home to Le Havre. Once back in France, many of the former Icarian colonists initiated legal proceedings against Cabet for fraud – charges which he was ultimately forced home to answer.
The majority, consisting of about 280 people, joined Cabet in setting out for the Mississippi River town of Nauvoo, located in Hancock County, Illinois, where the Icarian experiment was begun in earnest.