God's Government Begun

Book excerpt: Growing out of the most radical fringes of the abolitionist movement, the Society for Universal Inquiry and Reform set out to inaugurate a new social order based on the principles of nonresistance. The Society founded eight utopian communities which, though short-lived, were the setting for the most radical questioning of antebellum American society. The members of the Society renounced all forms of coercive relationships. They attempted to live without government or private property and to model new visions of work, education, religion, economics, women's rights and roles, and community. This book tells the story of their impassioned attempt to transform the world and begin the "Government of God."