Robert Owen

Robert Owen spent his life trying to prove one idea: if you give people better living conditions, schools, and work, they will become better people. He tested that idea in a Scottish mill town and in a small town on the Wabash River. Both experiments drew attention from around the world.

​

Early Life

Owen was born in Newtown, Wales, in 1771. His father was a saddler and ironmonger. Owen left school at about age ten to work for a cloth merchant. He worked hard and learned quickly. By age twenty, he was managing a large cotton mill in Manchester, England, with hundreds of workers. 

​

New Lanark

In 1799 Owen married Caroline Dale. With a group of partners, he bought the cotton mills owned by her father at New Lanark, Scotland. Owen ran the mills for the next twenty-five years. He improved the workers' housing, opened a store that sold goods at fair prices, and stopped hiring young children. In 1816 he opened the Institute for the Formation of Character. It included one of the first schools for very young children in Britain. Visitors came from across Europe to see the mills, which still earned a profit. Owen described his ideas in a series of essays called A New View of Society.

​

Coming to America

Owen wanted to build entire communities based on his ideas. In 1825 he bought the town of Harmony, Indiana, from George Rapp's Harmony Society, a religious group that was moving back to Pennsylvania. He renamed the town New Harmony and invited anyone who shared his goals to join him. That same year, he spoke twice in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives. President James Monroe attended one of the talks.

​

Owen formed a partnership with William Maclure, a wealthy geologist who wanted to improve education. In January 1826, Maclure's group of scientists, artists, reformers, and teachers arrived aboard a keelboat later called the "Boatload of Knowledge."

​

The Community of Equality

In February 1826, the residents formed the Community of Equality. Members were supposed to share property and work for the common good. On July 4, 1826, Owen gave a speech called the "Declaration of Mental Independence." In it, he attacked private property, organized religion, and traditional marriage.

​

The community did not last. Too few members had the skills needed to farm and run the town's shops. Members disagreed about how the town should be governed. Owen and Maclure also argued about schools and money. Owen left New Harmony in 1827. He had lost much of his fortune on the experiment.

​

Final Years and Legacy

Back in Britain, Owen became a leader in the cooperative movement and the early labor union movement. He continued to write and speak about social reform for the rest of his life. He died in his hometown of Newtown in 1858.

​

Owen's children stayed in America. His sons Robert Dale, William, David Dale, and Richard Owen and his daughter Jane Dale Owen all made their homes in New Harmony. They became writers, scientists, and public leaders, and they helped shape the town for generations. Owen's experiment failed, but the ideas he brought to New Harmony about education, equality, and community continue to inspire people today.