BROOK FARM
The founder of Brook Farm, George Ripley (1802-1880), was one of Unitarianism’s most promising ministers, and the farm at West Roxbury, Massachusetts began as a product of the transcendentalist movement and a showplace for Christian socialism. The commune had more than 120 members at its highest point and was widely regarded as an intellectual center. After four years of existence, however, the members changed its purpose to that of a Fourierist phalanx.

Constitution of the Brook Farm Phalanx. West Roxbury, Massachusetts, 1845.

Brook Farm Constitution
Community president George Ripley writes in his preface to the Constitution that, although difficulties remain, Brook Farm has had four years’ experience and is ripe for investment as a corporation in the State of Massachusetts. Article V notes that labor will be undertaken “as far as practicable, according to the system of Charles Fourier.”

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