John Humphrey Noyes was an American preacher in the Antebellum movement . During the revivals in the 1830s, he was converted; switching from his career in law, he began studying theology. He became fixated on perfection, which he believed was only obtained by having a “converting experience”. By creating the idea he was perfect, he believed he did not have sin, that any and every action of his was sinless. With this belief and free love, he founded the Oneida community. Due the fact of Oneida being a utopia, many of the beliefs did not diffuse across the United States. However, following Noyes’ death, Oneida became a famous silverware company that can still be found in stores today. The beliefs of Noyes and his followers were considered radical in origin. The complex marriage system they followed centered around having a committee of people who chose who could have children, …show more content…
His parents were both religious, believing in Evangelistic agnosticism. In his teens, he attended Dartmouth College in his teens, where he had his first conversion, which lead him to his second conversion, after he started attending Yale Divinity School. His experiences with his conversions were primarily his driving motivation. He wanted to spread the word to allow for other people to reach purity and perfection through salvation. He began to believe this when studying the bible, specifically the writings written by Paul. Noyes believed that because God was both man and woman, to be close to God, men and women should have relationships where they are one. Not believe in formal marriage, he practiced a form of polygamy. When he first practiced polygamy, the community arrested him on charges of adultery. He escaped charges of adultery and formed safe haven for him and his followers, Oneida. This caused him to seclude himself and his followers from receiving any more charges, but also stunted the spreading of their