How did Brook Farm reflect the beliefs of transcendentalists?
1 Answer
George Ripley founded the Brook Farm community in belief that simplicity, proximity to nature, and deep philosophical discussion could lead to religious epiphany and a connection with God.
At Brook Farm, everyone lived very simply and did labor. Most of the people were well educated, so labor and living at Brook Farm was an active choice. Brook farm was a religious community, as Ripley was formerly part of the Unitarian church.
Our objects, as you know, are to ensure a more natural union between intellectual and manual labor than now exists; to combine the thinker and the worker, as far as possible, in the same individual; to guarantee the highest mental freedom, by providing all with labor, adapted to their tastes and talents, and securing to them the fruits of their industry; to do away with the necessity of menial services, by opening the benefits of education and the profits of labor to all; and thus to prepare a society of liberal, intelligent, and cultivated person, whose relations with each other would permit a more simple and wholesome life, than can now be led amidst the pressures of our competitive institutions. (From a letter written by George Ripley)
http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu.edu/ideas/letter.html#ripley2
