The Pilgrims' failed experiment with communism

When the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower, they set up a society in which no one could own property and everyone shared equally, no matter how much work they did. The result was misery and hunger. But when the governor allowed each man to plant and raise crops for his own household, something amazing happened.

William Bradford recorded the experiences of the Separatists who came to the New World on the Mayflower and later voyages some years after the events actually occurred. His memory was evidently aided by personal letters that had been retained as well as his own contemporary writings. The following occurred around 1622 and 1623, three years after the establishment of Plymouth colony. It involved not more than probably two-dozen families. For some time, the “Pilgrims” had raised meager crops, running short of food stores every winter. Infusions of new mouths to feed on ships from England did not help, but that, it turns out, was not the source of their problem. Mr. Bradford can speak for himself:

The commune was started in 1826. After a two or three years people realized what it was about and most left. For some reason Robert Owen thought he could alleviate poverty with collectivism. Sounds like a number of them were similar to the OWS crowd of today!

In 1825, such an experiment was attempted under the direction of his disciple, Abram Combe, at Orbiston near Glasgow; and in the next year Owen himself began another at New Harmony, Indiana, U.S., sold to him by George Rapp. After a trial of about two years both failed completely, due to Owen’s lack of presence to govern either of the communities.[citation needed] Neither of them was a pauper experiment; but it must be said that the members were of the most motley description, many worthy people of the highest aims being mixed with vagrants, adventurers, and crotchety, wrongheaded enthusiasts, or in the words of Owen’s son “a heterogeneous collection of radicals... honest latitudinarians, and lazy theorists, with a sprinkling of unprincipled sharpers thrown in.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Owen

My ancestors were Huguenots.
My Dad’s side was British, one was given a share in the Virginia Company.
http://www.learner.org/workshops/primarysources/virginia/docs/svc2.html
Talk about split personalities. It is fascinating tracing the paths of the two lines.

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