Damon Miller
MPhil/PhD research student
School of Economic and Social Studies
University of East Anglia
e-mail:[email protected]
Workshop No 20.
"The Politics of Utopia: Intentional Communities as Social Science Microcosms"
ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops
13-18 April 2004 Uppsala, Sweden
Accidentally Ideal – the concept of unintentionality in ideal societal practice
This paper introduces the concept of non-traditional, unintentional, ideal societal practice as
part of a wider research project which aims to provide a comparative study of such societies
in order to reach a deeper understanding of the forces which shape them. While much
research has been conducted into deliberately conceived intentional ‘utopian’ communities,
utopian thought and literature, and into utopias of ‘unreal’ space (such as cyber-communities),
there has been a paucity of literature upon those communities and societies which have not
been deliberately conceived with the intention of producing an ideal or utopian society, yet
which have nevertheless developed along lines which, if they had been so, would be
described as ideal or utopian.
This concept stems partly from a further examination of the critique of ‘utopia’ by J.C. Davis
which distinguished ‘utopia’ from other forms of ideal society, and introduced the concept of
the ‘collective problem’ which all ideal societies must over-come in order to succeed.
Comparative research, exploring the concept of non-traditional, unintentional, ideal societal
practice through the investigation of concepts which traverse national and disciplinary
boundaries, into the political and civil structures, and social mechanisms, of such
communities across time and generation, predominant political system, ethnie and nation,
economic system, culture, and geography, aims to determine and understand the forces
which shape, strengthen, or divide, these societies, and the means by which social stability,
or otherwise, is achieved. Initial research indicates that communities which are born in times
of great changes, such as emancipation or revolution, begin with a tabula rasa where
previous, similar, communities are concerned, and thus stand outside of any practical
tradition. Such communities established by those previously excluded from the main social
framework, recently freed from oppression, or successfully fled from it – a ‘not this’ rather than
a ‘for this’ impetus – may not be aware of their precedents or contemporaries, yet develop
along lines which may be described as ‘ideal;’ or ‘utopia’ (ie, are unintentional). This paper
introduces some of the issues which have been address by such communities.
1
“When I landed on the soil, I looked on the ground and I says this is free ground. Then I looked on
the heavens, and I says them is free and beaytiful heavens. Then I looked within my heart, and I says
to myself I wonder why I was not free before.”1
This comment by an Exoduster, a free black frontiersman, originally from the southern states
of the USA, expressing his sentiments in 1879 about his exodus west to the High Plains of
Kansas from the Reconstructed South, encapsulates something of the essence of the
unintentionality of ideal society. This unintentionality forms the basis of the current research
of which this paper is an initial stage. Through the comparative analysis of political, civil, and
social structure and activity, with particular concentration of the early years, in a series of
case studies, a deeper understanding may be reached concerning the forces which shape
societies which were not intentionally designed or created as a manifestation that could be
described as an ideal society, but which nevertheless develop along lines which, if that
intention had originally existed, would be described as an intentional ideal society or
community. This paper seeks to introduce the concept of non-traditional unintentional ideal
societal practice, and outline some of the issues addressed by such communities. Such
communities are stablished by those previously deliberately excluded from the main social
framework, recently freed from oppression, or successfully fled from it – a “not this” rather
than a “for this” impetus, and include pirate communities of Madagascar in the seventeenth
century, freed-helot communities of Ancient Laconia, and freed-slave communities in the
Northern America.
The study of utopia and ideal society is rooted in ambiguity. As investigated thoroughly by
Ruth Levitas, amongst others, the concept of utopia itself has been "an ideological
battleground"2 with no single agreed definition of 'utopia' or 'utopian'. "When a word as
contentious as 'utopia' appears in a book's title the first chapter is usually bristling with
definitions and refutations of counter-definitions."3 The difficulty lies in the use of 'utopia' and
'utopian' as catch-all labels for all forms of ideal society,4 with the subjectivism of approach
enabling utopia to become plastic, allowing it to be moulded to suit one's area of interest at
the exclusion of others. This has enabled contradictory statements to be made about utopia
which are actually aimed at different forms of society, resulting in confusion and talking at
cross-purposes.5 Negatively, "utopia… is a bad word"6, derogatory in nature, a position
exemplified either in a hostile manner by anti-utopians such as Karl Popper or colloquially as
inherently impractical and therefore dismissively,7 and hindering the acceptance of utopian
study within wider 'serious' social science.
1
John Solomon Lewis, Leavenworth, Kansas, in Boston Traveller, 10 June, 1879, and New Orleans
Southwestern Advocate, 3 July, 1879, cited in N. I. Painter, Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas
after Reconstruction (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977), p.4.
2
Ruth Levitas, The Concept of Utopia (Hemel Hempstead: Philip Allan, 1990), p.3.
3
Barbara Goodwin and Keith Taylor, The Politics of Utopia (London: Hutchinson, 1982), p.15.
4
J.C. Davis, Utopia and the Ideal Society (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), p.17.
5
Ruth Levitas, The Concept of Utopia (Hemel Hempstead: Philip Allan, 1990), p.4; J.C. Davis,
Utopia and the Ideal Society, p.17.
6
Robert Elliott, The Shape of Utopia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), p.86.
7
Ruth Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, p.3.
2
Definitions of utopia therefore vary in breadth and depth; Thomas More's 'good place' which
exists 'no-place' is deliberately ambiguous.8 "Man's dream of a better world"9 is so wide as a
definition as not to be practical as a workable benchmark, although does imply the notions of
a dream having an unreal or impractical quality, and that anyone can have one. 'Better' is
inherently subjective, but encapsulates the idea of perfection, or, at least, improvement, and
implicitly rejects the status quo of existing society. As such, current society is implied to be in
need of, and being capable of, improvement and utopia becomes a critique of the existing
society.10 A utopia is formed at least in part of plans for improving society, and usually
contains proposals in some form for doing so, although they may be impractical at the time of
their proposal. Here, time and space become elements, with utopia located in some future
period or distant land where such impracticalities are removed, although the question remains
of an appropriate definition of impractical and of whose criteria are to be applied by whom.
The utopian constructs a model of an ideal society located in the past (mythical or real),
present (but situated elsewhere) or future for critical and didactic purposes. He may intend
and promote the realisation of his scheme, or may rely on its persuasive powers, but "he has
a serious preference for this alternative society."11 This alternative society is intended to be
'better'; however subjective this may be, perfectibility is a key characteristic of utopia,
although this may be of two kinds; that of the arrangement of society and its institutions in
order to produce a mechanistic perfectibility; and that of human perfectibility, whereby human
nature and behaviour may be perfectible in wider society, and not just within the individual
sphere.12 "The truly constructive utopia transcends criticism and mere negation and
proclaims its own institutions to be ideal in every respect, a harmonious whole, and does not
merely invent piecemeal 'better' institutions to show up the deficiencies of those which
exist."13
Utopian can therefore be said to be either one or a combination of any of three things; a
passive indulgence or an escapist dream; a satirical reflection of what exists; or a blueprint for
action, providing a model of what should replace the existing status quo. Despite the
temptation to reject other people's projects as utopian or unrealistic, and the temptation to
limit the definition of utopia to suit one's own area of interest,14 "most contemporary scholars
of utopian thought accept that the field is broader than is often colloquially assumed, and
include forms other than the novel in their research."15
Utopias are therefore expressed in a multitude of forms, and utopian study is a process which
enables an inter-disciplinary approach. Such recent research has tended to focus upon
deliberately conceived intentional communities, utopian thought and literature, utopias of
'unreal space' such as cyber communities, or the utopian aspects of community projects and
8
Barbara Goodwin and Keith Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, p.15;
Nell Eurich, Science in Utopia: A Mighty Design (Cambridge, Massachusetts: 1967), p.vii, cited in
J.C. Davis, Utopia and the Ideal Society, p.12.
10
J.C. Davis, Utopia and the Ideal Society, p.14.
11
Barbara Goodwin, Social Science and Utopia (Sussex: The Harvester Press, 1978), p.4.
12
ibid.
13
Barbara Goodwin, The Politics of Utopia, p.31.
14
Ruth Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, p.4.
15
Lucy Sargisson, Utopian Bodies and the Politics of Transgression (London: Routledge, 2000), p.7.
9
3
public spaces.16 This paper seeks to introduce the concept of unintentional ideal society; as
with previous research into ideal society, the problem of definition arises. While intentional
communities may be described as "deliberate attempts to create the world anew"17,
unintentional communities may be described as those which create the world anew without
that deliberate, positive, intention to do so. Unlike the definitions of ideal society and utopia
which proclaim perfectibility, intentional communities do not make claims to perfection, and
are often self-critical. They do, however, provide an alternative, critical, function, attempting
to overcome dissatisfaction with the dominant political and social order of wider society.18
Here, there is a convergence between intentional and unintentional communities; the
experience of Nicodemus and Township Summit19 provided working examples for the later
Exodus in the early 1880s of the freedpeople from the Southern States of the USA, in the first
instance to Liberia and Monrovia, and then to the states of the Great American Desert,20
bringing 40,000 to Kansas, and highlighting the contradictions of the social and political
system of the Reconstructed State concerning the freedpeople.
As an alternative expression of ideal society to intentional communities or societies, the
concept of non-traditional unintentional communities or societies is grounded in part upon J.C.
Davis's Utopia and the Ideal Society. In common with the recognition of the various forms
which utopia may take, for Davis utopia is only one type of a form, that form being the ideal
society. It is a programme distinct from other types of ideal society. All visualisers of ideal
societies are concerned with maximising harmony and contentment, and with minimising
conflict and misery; their aim is to produce a perfected society where social cohesion and the
common good are not threatened by individual appetites. By studying the means by which
they deal with conflict and misery, it is possible to distinguish between utopias and other
forms of ideal society.21
Davis terms the problem of relating the existing and changing supply of satisfactions to the
wants or desires of the social group the collective problem.22 An ideal society will be, at the
most basic level, based on an attitude towards the addressing of the collective problem. As to
the collective problem itself, Davis presents it as a fourfold problem; given a certain supply,
with levels of material and sociological scarcity, problems will be seen to arise in four ways:
wants can outstrip quantitative supply of satisfactions - people want more; there can be a
presumed qualitative lack or deficiency - people want better or different; there may be
dissatisfaction with the social distribution of material scarcity - people resent those who have
16
c.f. Lucy Sargisson, Ruth Levitas, Tom Moylan, Cliff Ashcroft, Dan MacQuillan, and Jill Fenton.
Nicholas Deakin and Nir Tsuk, 'Introduction' to The Politics of Utopia: Intentional Communities as
Social Science Microcosms, Workshop 20, ECPR's Joint Sessions, Uppsala, Sweden, 13-18th April
2004, p.1.
18
Lucy Sargisson, Utopian Bodies and the Politics of Transgression, pp.29-30.
19
Nicodemus, Graham County, Kansas, founded 1877 and Township Summit, Saline County, Kansas,
founded 1878 (by settlers on their way to Nicodemus) by freedpeople, before the Exodus of 1879
organised by Pap Singleton.
20
Daniel Chu and Bill Shaw, Going Home to Nicodemus: The story of an African American Frontier
Town and the Pioneers who settled it (New Jersey: Julian Messner/Silver Burdett Press, 1994), p.16.
21
J.C. Davis, Utopia and the Ideal Society, pp.18-19.
22
ibid., p.19.
17
4
more or better; there may be dissatisfaction of socially derived satisfactions - people may
want greater power or prestige, or resent those who have it.23
This collective problem is a fundamental cause of conflict and social tension, and the way in
which it is addressed enabled Davis to distinguish between types of ideal society, of which
utopia is one, the others being: the Land of Cockayne - there are satisfactions enough to
satisfy even the grossest appetite; Arcadia - nature is generously benevolent and man's
appetites are moderate; the Perfect Moral Commonwealth - which accepts existing social
arrangements and institutions, but society is made harmonic by the moral reformation of
every individual in society; and the Millennium - the second coming, ie an outside
supernatural agency, concerned with a time rather than a form of society.24
For Davis, the form of utopia is the more realistic in that it sees the problem as what it is:
limited satisfactions confronted with unlimited wants. The problem is never resolved
completely on an individual level, and utopia is concerned with control of the problems to
which the collective problem gives rise, such as crime, poverty, war and exploitation. Utopia
is a holding operation that addresses the collective problem collectively, by the reorganisation
of society and its institutions, by education, laws and sanctions, in a cohesive whole,
stemming from the urge to perfect. Man is imperfectible, but society is not. Here, it is the
trinity of totality, order and perfection which are characteristic of the utopian form of society.25
Utopia has been said to have no historical basis, and is "nowhere, not only geographically,
but historically as well. It exists neither in the past nor in the future",26 designed for
contemplation which transcends time and place, a purely mental exercise where the search
for absolute truth takes place independent of time, space and the historical development of
man.27 With this interpretation, when utopia as a political programme becomes identified in
time, or when a utopian become activist, or when an attempt is made to translate a fiction into
a reality, they cease to be utopian.28 However, utopia may take many forms, including
practical experimentation. While the classical utopia is unconcerned with actualisation in
time, offering an unchanging structure by which individuals might be changed, the modern
utopia seeks to change social arrangements, thereby changing man, and seeks to incorporate
a capacity for change into the structure of the model society.29
23
J.C. Davis, Utopia and the Ideal Society, p.19.
ibid., pp.19-36.
25
ibid., pp.37-38.
26
Judith Shklar, 'The Political Theory of Utopia: From Melancholy to Nostalgia', in Frank E. Manuel
(ed.), Utopia and Utopian Thought (Boston,1966), p.104, cited ibid., p.14.
27
J.C. Davis, Utopia and the Ideal Society, p.14-15.
28
Judith Shklar, 'The Political Theory of Utopia: From Melancholy to Nostalgia', in Frank E. Manuel
(ed.), Utopia and Utopian Thought (Boston,1966), p.106-7, cited ibid., p.15.
29
Elizabeth Hansot distinguished between classical utopias such as Plato's and More's and the modern
utopias of Bellamy and H.G. Wells, with the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries seeing the change
from one form to the other. Elizabeth Hansot, Perfection and Progress: Two Modes of Utopian
Thought (Cambridge, Massachusetts: 1974), Chapter 1, cited in J.C. Davis, Utopia and the Ideal
Society, p.15.
24
5
Davis also determined that utopia as a form is ahistorical in the sense that it stands outside of
time as a flow of paradigmatic inheritance in terms of tradition, being handed down from
generation to generation of self-aware thinkers. The argued that the traditional theoretical
methodology, derived from Thomas S. Kuhn's paradigmatic analysis of scientific revolutions,
through which the sphere of ideal societal thought has been viewed, is inappropriate to the
study of ideal society thought and practice, not because of flaws in the methodology per se,
but in its inappropriate application to a sphere of thought which lies outside the parameters of
such a methodology. 30 Kuhn's methodology relates the material to its contemporary context,
seen in terms of paradigms - the structures of theory and the maintenance of such structures
through particular traditions of intellectual activity - and how these paradigms are expressed,
modified, and passed down the evolutionary line to the next generation of thinkers.31 This
methodology has been instructive in creating and defining a self-conscious scientific
community, and has allowed a benchmark against which authority within that community can
be measured. Schools of thought and traditions can be distinguished which transmit across
time particular suppositions about man, his society and history, meaning and morality,
amongst others.
These suppositions are clarified, amended, and superseded by a process
of evolution within that tradition in a self-conscious process, as thinkers are aware of their
predecessors within their tradition, aware of the nature of that tradition, and of the implications
which this has for themselves, their contemporaries, and for the tradition itself.
Any
modifications which are made to the tradition of thought are conscious processes of critical
significance, as such alterations will have consequences for their particular tradition.32
However, the practitioners of utopian thought are not always aware of those who have come
before.
Such awareness is “very rare indeed" with utopian thinkers not seeing “themselves
as transmitting, extending, or transforming a tradition of thought.”33
As such, they have
been unaware of their predecessors, contemporaries, or even possible antecedents
concerning their sphere of intellectual activity, despite similarities of, or parallels between,
structures of ideal societies designed by different thinkers. "The attempt to negate perceived
social evil has lead a remarkable number of utopians to hit on similar solutions to major
problems… Although the will to negate major social evils leads in practice to the choice of a
relatively small set of options,"34 utopian thinkers differ in the details in which these solutions
are presented, as well as the addressing of minor social problems. Utopia is static in that the
social evils which it seeks to address remain the same, while the means of addressing those
evils may change in terms of technological achievement. The evils to be addressed
necessarily frame, and hence limit, the form of society which can be developed or
engineered, and it is this which sets ideal societies into different modes. If history in the realm
of thought is meant to convey the development of paradigms, and their supercession for
another through time, then there can be no history of utopian thought. “Utopia would be
ironically out of time, not only in the sense that it represents an escape from history as the
flow of contingency, but also in that it escapes history as a discipline, as the study of patterns
30
J.C. Davis, Utopia and the Ideal Society, p.1.
ibid., pp.1-2.
32
ibid., p.2.
33
ibid., p.3.
31
6
in that (non-existent) flow.”35
Utopia, for Davis, is not a paradigm defined by its capacity to
sustain, direct, and finally to succumb to evolving tradition. Utopia as a structure of thought
is unchanging, and it is principally this which differentiates it from tradition.
Utopia as
defined by Davis has barely changed in four and a half centuries. Though the details (such
as communications, technology, and leisure pursuits) within the mode have changed, the
structure by which the ‘imperfections’ of man and of nature are contained have remained
comprised of the same elements, being “institutional, legal, educational and bureaucratic
devices and their sanctions.
remained relatively constant.”
As a mode of visualising and ideal society utopia has
36
This is an underlying concept in the approach towards non-traditional unintentional ideal
society. The founders of such societies are unlikely to be aware of other similar communities,
although they may develop along similar lines. The inhabitants of Nicodemus, for example,
were not aware of previous freed-slave communities such as the philanthropic Nashoba,
established by Frances Wright in West Tennessee earlier in the nineteenth century or James
Madison's colony of Edwardsville, Illinois established in 1819, or the failed example of the
Samuel Gist settlements in Brown County, Ohio, settled in 1819 but with no real provision or
forethought.37 While there may have been some awareness of the activities of Benjamin 'Pap'
Singleton,38 there is no evidence of such awareness amongst or contact between him and the
inhabitants of Nicodemus.39 However, the political systems and social structures of ontraditional unintentional communities may be similar due to the nature and methods of the
inhabitants in addressing the collective problem.
It is the subjection to common modes of social ideals and their consequences which give rise
to commonality of structure in ideal society, rather than the conscious following of any
tradition.
When the choice of a utopian mode is made, it limits the possibilities being
expounded; by choosing a utopian mode of society, other possible forms of society are
rejected. Once assumptions are made concerning the nature of man, of man in society, and
of the relationship between man, the natural world, and time, then a mode of visualising an
ideal society has been chosen.
follow.
Certain elements of political configuration will necessarily
It is these elements which can be identified, and tie modes of ideal society
together.40
34
Barbara Goodwin, The Politics of Utopia, p.30.
J.C. Davis, Utopia and the Ideal Society, p.5.
36
ibid., p.5.
37
A comprehensive exploration of black communities previous to the Emancipation Proclamation and
the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is provided by William H. Pease and Jane Pease,
Black Utopia: Negro Communal experiments in America (Madison, Wisconsin: The State Historical
Society of Wisconsin, 1963).
38
Singleton, previously an escaped slave, advocated the wholesale exodus of the freedpeople from
Tennessee, in part prompting the activities of the National Convention of Colored Men, in Nashville in
1875, which began the Exodus from the Southern States. N.I. Painter, Exodusters, pp. 108-111.
39
Although is a claim that Singleton was directly responsible for the founding of Nicodemus in Harold
C. Evans (ed.), Kansas: A Guide to the Sunflower State (New York: State of Kansas Department of
Education/Viking Press, 1939), p.329, there is no corroboratory evidence to support this. Daniel Chu
and Bill Shaw, Going Home to Nicodemus: The story of an African American Frontier Town and the
Pioneers who settled it (New Jersey: Julian Messner/Silver Burdett Press, 1994), p.27.
40
J.C. Davis, Utopia and the Ideal Society, p.4.
7
35
Although "few of us sketch out a detailed ideal society blueprint, all of us, in deciding our
political preferences or defining our political prejudices, or simply in conceptualising the kind
of political change we would like to see, make reference, implicitly if not explicitly, to a model
of social perfection."41
Each of us has the ability to conceptualise an ideal society, and such
concepts, according to Davis, must conform to one of his modes of ideal society thought.
Indeed, given the notion that ideal society is not trapped in a flow of tradition, and hence is
outside of time it follows that these ideas can be applied to any era.
So, utopia may be seen as a form of ideal society; ideal society may exist in a number of
forms, from the written fictional word to practical communal experimentation; it may
understand humanity as either perfectible or not, and may seek to address societies problems
either through the perfecting of man or of the institutions of society in order to keep man in
check; it may exist as an intentional attempt to create an ideal society, in the wake and
awareness of previous attempts; it may also exist unintentionally, with no awareness of its
inhabitants of the course of their actions or of previous similar societies of communities,
stemming from the means in which they address the collective problem rather than from any
deliberate intent.
"We may claim that all utopias have something in common without making claims about the
universality of utopia or the existence of a fundamental utopian propensity. Rather, where
such desire is expressed… it will not only vary markedly in content but may be expressed in a
variety of forms, and may perform a variety of functions including compensation, criticism and
the catalysing of change."42 There is no claim being made of a utopian propensity inherent in
the inhabitants of unintentional ideal communities. There are a number of factors which
influence the success or otherwise of ideal society, including as the political and social
structures, the physical manifestation of the community, local geography, which can mean
that the community is isolated from the outside world physically as well as mentally, the
relations within the community, and the relations between the community and its inhabitants
and outsiders. Each influences the manner in which the collective problem is addressed, and
the impact and strength of these factors may make or break a community, particularly in its
formative years. It is the combination of influencing factors and the manner in which the
issues raised by the collective problem are addressed which leads to the development of
ideality. It is also the combination of these influencing factors and the addressing of those
issues which ultimately determines the success or failure of these communities.
"Intentional communities are bodies of people who have chosen to live - and usually work in
some way - together. They have a common aim or commitment. This commitment might be
to such things as a political ideology, a spiritual path, or to co-operative living itself."43 Social
cohesion and stability is crucial to the success of communities, intentional or otherwise. "In an
ideal world, the individual is reconciled with society not merely through the level of action, but
41
J.C. Davis, Utopia and the Ideal Society, p.9.
Ruth Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, p.8.
43
Lucy Sargisson, Utopian Bodies and the Politics of Transgression, p.29.
42
8
at the level of impulse through judicious socialisation; only then can the utopian guarantee
social solidarity and cohesion."44 Barbara Goodwin outlines how, in addition to a faith in
reason, utopians employ - "perhaps unwittingly"45 - supplementary methods and measures in
order to enable a high degree of social cohesion, and comments that, in the case of the
nineteenth century utopians, Fourier organised his society so that possible disruptive
tendencies were unable to arise - passions are social and liberated, and conflict is defused by
multiple allegiances - and Saint-Simon allocated a role to each member of society, thus
averting conflicting claims, uncertainty and disruptive behaviour. In both cases, control and
social cohesion are part of the social structure, and it is possible to distinguish three
conceptual and operationally different devices - organisational, ethical or ideological and
structural.46 These devices are not just seen in intentional communities. For Rosabeth
Kanter, the key element underlying social cohesion in intentional communities is commitment.
In a study of communes in California, she identified nine successful and 21 unsuccessful
groups, the difference "between the success of these 30 groups [lying] in how strongly they
built commitment."47 The members of a community may feel conflicting commitments and
loyalties, particularly if the community is established within the wider society. She outlines
how this is achieved in three ways: the community must "ensure high member involvement
despite external competition" without sacrificing its distinctiveness or ideals; the community
needs to secure obedience to new demands, often in contravention of earlier established
norms; and internal dissension needs to be calmed in order to present a united front to the
world.48 These issues are seen not just in the communes which she investigated, but can also
be seen in the communities under investigation in this current research.
The towns of Western Kansas were in constant flux, growing and shrinking with changing
weather and promotions further east. Many of the towns of the High Plains of Kansas were
transient in nature, with populations having little allegiance or commitment to the town,49
most typical of which was Dodge City, whose name has become synonymous with the
cowboy culture of fluctuating labour demand, problems in crime control and in public safety
and social stability.
Lack of a steady permanent population and dependable tax base meant
that the appearance and healthfulness of such towns were subject to self-interested parties.
Towns which could not afford adequate fire and police protection could do little for public
health.50 Few of these towns had a population of over 1000, although many termed
themselves as cities.51
All were alike in having an even start, a proportionate share of
prairie grass and sunshine, and it was the first settlers who could make or break a town.
Towns on the high plains were dots on the vast prairie, isolated from their neighbours by
44
Barbara Goodwin, Social Science and Utopia, p.117.
ibid.
46
ibid.
47
Rosabeth Kanter, Commitment and Community (Cambridge, Massachussetts: Harvard University
Press), p.64.
48
ibid., p.65.
49
Craig Miner, West of Wichita: Settling the High Plains of Kansas, 1865-1890 (Lawrence, Kansas:
United Press of Kansas, 1986), p.93.
50
Kinsley was often hit by typhoid due to the outhouses draining into the creek; 120 tons of buffalao
bones and refuse lay in the centre of town between June and August 1878; and there was no cemetery
for the town.
51
Craig Miner, West of Wichita, pp.95-96.
45
9
large distances - the nearest town to Nicodemus was Bogue, across the river by six miles,
but this would not even be established until 1888, 12 years after the site of Nicodemus had
first been investigated.
This isolation was a crucial factor in the development of Nicodemus,
particularly in the early years, and nearly finished the community before it got going. Building
these towns was an experiment, and the residents were constantly reminded of the
tentativeness of their situation,52 as the grasshopper plague which decimated Kansas1874
and the later drought of the late 1880s illustrate.
Garden City was mostly destroyed by fire
in 1883, and Kinsley suffered from major fire destruction about once a year in its formative
years.53
There were a number of black townships already being settled before the Exodus, a process
which was beginning to grow in 1876.54 By late 1878, before the Exodus, there were already
several freedpeople townships established on the high plains, though some were more
successful than others; Nicodemus; Morton City, which failed due to overwhelming
difficulties of opening homesteads and building the town; two towns in Hodgeman County David City, and one founded by those who had failed with Morton City; a short lived colony in
Marion County; and an indeterminate number of others in Barton County and Rice County.55
Details on these communities, however, is scarce.
The actual site of Nicodemus was about half a mile from the eastern border of Graham
County at the junction of Spring Creek and the Solomon River, the major geographical
landmark.
It had been chosen for development in 1876.56
Graham County was politically
unorganised, but definite in its boundaries, situated 240 miles west of Topeka (the state
capital), 120 miles from the border with Colorado, and 50 miles from Nebraska.
Until 1876,
the founding of Hill City (a white township founded by W.R. Hill), there were fewer than 80
residents in the whole county.
This intense isolation, a factor in the success or failure of
unintentional ideal communities, exacerbated the problems of the first settlers in their first few
months. The Great Plains of Kansas remain difficult to settle, with only an average of four
people per acre; trees will not grow easily there, the vegetation is that of short-grass prairie,
it is semi-arid, and there is a lack of running water and far less navigable rivers.57
Immigration has therefore generally confined itself to the greener areas of East Kansas,
where much of the population remains centred.58
The pressures from the outside world need to be withstood if the community is to survive and
succeed. Similar to the means in which the nineteenth century utopians aimed to develop
social cohesiveness, and as Davis indicates in his collective problem, Kanter indicates that
commitment links self-interest to social requirements, and that people are tied to a social
52
Craig Miner, West of Wichita, p.95.
ibid., p.98.
54
N. I. Painter, Exodusters, p.148.
55
ibid., p.153.
56
W.H. Smith, one of the directors of the Nicodemus Town Company, and a companion had begun to
scout the area for friends in Tennessee in the mid-1870s. Daniel Chu and Bill Shaw, Going Home to
Nicodemus, p.27.
57
Craig Miner, West of Wichita, pp.7-8.
58
ibid., p.7.
10
53
system "instrumentally, affectively and morally".59 If the community is not fulfilling a member's
needs, then the commitment of that member to the community is effected and may diminish
over time. "To some extent, a person's identity is composed of his commitments"60 and this
can clearly be seen in the overall experience of Nicodemus. The official date for the founding
of Nicodemus was celebrated as 17 September 1877, the date of the arrival of the largest
group of settlers. The colonists arrived in four main groups, starting in July 1877.
The initial
group of 30 from Lexington, Kentucky61 included the Colony officials, including: W. H. Smith,
the president, who had lived in western Kansas for three years; Z. T. Fletcher, the
corresponding secretary, who became the first postmaster and businessman.62
Fletcher's
wife Jenny was the first woman of the colony until September brought a large number of
colonists from Kentucky. She was also Smith's daughter, became postmistress with her
husband, and was the first school teacher.63 The second, and largest single group, of 350
arrived on 17th September again from the vicinity of Lexington. Part of this group had split
away, founding Summit Township in Saline County, further East along the Solomon River,
which ceased to exist in 1947 when it became part of a military range. The third group of 150
arrived in March 1878, after travelling from Scott County, Kentucky. A further group arrived
from Missouri (or Mississippi) numbering between 25 and 50, although there is no date for
their arrival.64
Further groups of families and individuals joined the town periodically.65
Shortly after the planting of the town's standard, the Town Company and Nicodemus Colony,
organised for the means of attracting and moving settlers, merged.66
The town had reached
its maximum population, the total being under debate, but which lay between 260 and 700.
Confusion arises as the official county census of February 1880 numbers the total number of
'negroes' in Graham County as 700,67 about 20 percent of the county population, while the
federal census of June 1880 totals 484 freedpeople, about 11 percent of the population, of
which 260 were living in Nicodemus, 224 in Hill City and Wild Horse.68
While these figures
do not take into account attrition of settlers due to hardship or moving to other areas, the total
of 260 (less than the 580 total of the four main groups) can be taken as a fairly accurate count
of the population of Nicodemus in the year after its initial founding. It was by far the largest
freedpeople township Kansas was to see.
59
Rosabeth Kanter, Commitment and Community, p.68.
ibid., p.70.
61
N. I. Painter, Exodusters, p.150.
62
Glen Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus: Negro Haven on the Solomon', The Kansas Historical Quarterly
Vol XXXIV (Spring 1968), p.13.
63
Daniel Chu and Bill Shaw, Going Home to Nicodemus, p.47.
64
Again, there are discrepancies of numbers, dates, and points of origin, due to the conflicting nature of
the original documentary evidence. N. I. Painter (Exodusters, pp.150-151) and Glen Schwendemann
('Nicodemus', pp.13-15) give further detail.
65
Such as the Garland family, who had lived in Kansas since the early 1870s, and three families from
Wynadotte (now Kansas City), associated with Garland's father-in-law. N. I. Painter, Exodusters,
p.150.
66
ibid.
67
Presumably taken by Painter as the total for Nicodemus. Exodusters, p.150 and her footnote give
details of her sources.
68
United State Bureau of the Census, Statistics of the Population of the United States at the Tenth
Census, 1 June, 1880: Population (Government Printing Office, Washington, 1883), cited in Glen
Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus', p.15.
11
60
Isolation is a factor when addressing the collective problem, and Nicodemus gives a good
illustration of this. The town started life badly. There is very little in terms of natural resources
on the high plains of Kansas, and the town was deliberately situated in an isolated location.
As such, the first settlers had nothing but what they had brought with them, and this did not,
apparently, include building materials (or even farming implements until the arrival of the
second group of settlers). Having arrived in September, they were too late to plant crops, a
situation which was to have dire consequences for the population over the winter months.
As a means of addressing the problem of shelter, the lack of naturally occurring building
materials such as trees or rock meant that the only source of shelter was the ground itself.
When the Williana, wife of Reverend, Hickman arrived at the town, she was sick and tired some of the group had contracted measles, some dying as a result, others had either turned
back or found other opportunities en route, such as Summit Township established further
East.
Mrs Hickman later recalled her first impressions; the families of Nicodemus "lived in
dugouts.
We landed and once again struck tents.
inviting, and I began to cry."
69
The scenery to me was not at all
Such hardship is reminiscent of the undergone by travellers to
the classic ideal societies, such as Hythloday in reaching Utopia or "by living the life of the
most wretched and exploited serf, can a man find his way" to Cockaygne.70
The dugouts, or "burrows", were carved out of the side of a bank or small hill, covered with
poles or brush, and topped with a layer of soil, and remained the standard habitation until
giving way to the "sod-dugout" once the colonists were more settled.
This was built more
deeply into the earth by two or three feet, and finished with blocks of sod from the prairie.
Lumber, brought in by new colonists, later made its appearance in the doors and windows.
Sod-dugouts were simple - a single room with a dirt floor and fire-place at the end, with corn
stalks, sunflowers, dwarf willows, cottonwood and dung providing the fuel, and chickens
housed in coops of cornstalks provided some sustenance.71
Shelter, however, was easier to solve than the shortage of food supply.
Money was non-
existent, having been spent on the journey or by paying an initial five dollar fee.72
The
winter of 1877-78 was particularly harsh on the Great Plains, and it quickly became apparent
that the town could be in trouble if it could not support those in the community who could not
support themselves, or could not be supported by the colony due to lack of supplies in
general.
The colony struggled on into 1878, but by March, they were unable to meet the
needs of the members of the community from within, and had no choice but to solicit aid from
outside.
As well as the isolation of a community, a further factor which impacts upon the fortunes of a
community is the relations with the outside world, and the balance between necessary contact
with the outside world and the need for self-identity. The nature of the contact with outsiders
69
Topeka Daily Capital, 29 August, 1937, cited in Glen Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus', p.14.
A.L. Morton, The English Utopia (London: Lawrence and Wishart,1978), p.25.
71
Glen Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus', p.16, and Harold C. Evans (ed.), Kansas: A Guide, p.229.
70
12
is important, be it hostile or welcoming. A community must deal with conflicting allegiances
and present a united front to the world, as well as providing for the needs of its population.73 If
it fails to do this, the stability and cohesiveness of the community is undermined, and can
ultimately lead to failure.
The nearest town Hill City of white settlers proved to be inhospitable, even hostile, towards
the Nicodemians.
Reasonable success was found with the longer settled areas of Kansas
further East once the situation in Nicodemus, and further afield, had become untenable.
It
was proposed going to Congress with the State's Governor’s endorsement to solicit aid for
the freedpeople in Kansas. However, external politics came into play, with Kansas's
Governor Anthony halted the idea immediately,74 saying “we cannot afford to send beggars
out of Kansas... when ten thousand are seeking homes here expecting it to be the granary of
the West.”75 Nicodemians were seen in Smith County, and even outside the State in
Michigan, soliciting aid, which was transported free by the Kansas Pacific Railroad.
All
supplies arriving in Nicodemus were stored in a commissary building, and were distributed by
the town officers as the need arose, a benefit society being established on a permanent basis
to relieve the distress of any Nicodemians in need of assistance.76
The arrival of the
supplies coincided with the arrival of the group 150 colonists from Scott County, Kentucky, in
March 1878, which came furnished with teams of horse and oxen and farm equipment, and
Nicodemus was quickly over the worst of its troubles. The wider problems of settling on the
Great Plains continued to remain until, with the beginning of the Exodus, the Kansas
Freedman’s Relief Association, whose board constituted thirteen members and Governor St
John as chairman, was incorporated in May 1879 to assist distressed freedpeople entering
the state.77 It is unlikely that such a move would have been made so soon had it not been for
the experience and actions of the Nicodemians earlier.
The problem of isolation, despite the problems of the winter of 1877 did enable a sense of
commitment to develop within the community which has continued to the present day.
Descendants of original settlers including Hickman's, Bates', Scrugg's and Switzer's still live in
the town. Emancipation Day, 4th August, the day on which Nicodemus’ master laid aside his
whip,78 celebrated in R. B. Scrugg’s grove with permanent dance pavilion and tables, and
filled with speeches, dancing, feasting, and a carnival, 79 is still celebrated, although now
known as Homecoming, with descendants returning to Nicodemus by the hundreds to
celebrate their roots.80
72
Two dollars went to the government for filing charges, two to a developer for locating the settler on
the land, and one went into the town's treasury.
73
Rosabeth Kanter, Commitment and Community, p.65.
74
Kansas had already made a nationwide appeal for aid in 1874 with the grasshopper plague.
75
Gov. Anthony to John Edwards, Topeka, Kansas, 13 March 1878, Letters II (1878); 9-11, KSHS
cited in N. I. Painter, Exodusters, p.152.
76
Glen Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus', p.29.
77
Robert G. Athearn, In Search of Canaan: Black Migration to Kansas 1879-1980 (Lawrence, Kansas:
Regents Press of Kansas, 1978), p.57.
78
An alternative date and source for Emancipation Day are cited by Glen Schwendemann,
'Nicodemus', p.28 - 1 August, as the date of the liberation of slaves of the West Indies.
79
Harold C. Evans (ed.), Kansas: A Guide, p.331.
80
Daniel Chu and Bill Shaw, Going Home to Nicodemus, pp.13-14.
13
Hill City viewed the growing colony with alarm, blaming Hill (the local land prospector) for
rushing a lot of freedpeople in so that he could speculate on bonds,81 and resented them so
much that Hill was forced to leave the area.82 Despite this, the people of Nicodemus grew
quickly to be respected, not just in Graham County, but in the surrounding counties also,
being seen as knowing “how to work, and... not afraid to do it”83 and as “an intelligent,
sensible, law-abiding class of citizens,”84 lead by “good, practical, common-sense men.”85
Education was seen as imperative, and continues to be so today. Jenny Fletcher conducted
the first school, for 45 children, in their dugout over the winter of 1877-78.
In June 1879,
School District No. 1 was established, and by 1880, Nicodemus was vying with Hill City for
having the largest school in the county.86
A census in 1880 found that over one-third of the
adults in Nicodemus could read, and one in four could write. About half the men could do
both.87 In 1887, a four room structure was erected ,88 and two teachers employed for a
school term of nine months,89 an increase from the three to four months of the early 1880s.90
Unlike the experience of other non-traditional unintentional ideal societies, such as the pirate
communities of seventeenth century Madagascar,91 communities such as Nicodemus and
Summit Township worked within the political arena of the existing society. Rather than
establish a new system of government, which would have been impractical given the location
of these communities within the U.S.A., the inhabitants of Nicodemus became leading
proponents of political activity within the existing system in the area, acting in a manner which
implied the absurdity of the exclusion and segregation of freedpeople in political and social
activity in the Reconstructed South under 'Jim Crow' legislation.92 Graham County had been
politically unorganised when the colonists arrived.
The Town Company provided the political
structure of Nicodemus until its disbandment in April 1879, and during the summer of 1879, a
petition bearing the signatures of 25 Nicodemians, was presented to the commissioners of
Rook’s County, asking to be granted township status, indicating that the colonists felt well
enough established to move onto a greater stage of political organisation. According to state
law, there were enough signatures for a township to be declared, and the sheriff of Rook’s
County called an election for the area.
81
N. I. Painter, Exodusters, p.152.
Harold C. Evans (ed.), Kansas: A Guide, p3.29.
83
Smith County Kansas Pioneer, 21 March, 1879, cited in Glen Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus', p.19.
84
Millbrook Times, 11 July, 1879, cited ibid.
85
Lawrence Daily Journal, undated 1879, cited ibid.
86
Graham County Lever, 4 September, 1879, cited in Glen Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus', p26
87
Daniel Chu and Bill Shaw, Going Home to Nicodemus, p.46.
88
Western Cyclone, 12 August, 1887 cited in Glen Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus',p.26.
89
Western Cyclone, 9 March, 1888 cited ibid.
90
Glen Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus', p.28.
91
Jan Rogozinski, Honor Among Thieves: Captain Kidd, Henry Every, and the Pirate Democracy in
the Indian Ocean (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 2000), Chapter 4; Robert C.
Ritchie, Captain Kidd and the War Against the Pirates (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard
University Press, 1986), Chapter 3.
92
Daniel Chu and Bill Shaw, Going Home to Nicodemus, p.21.
82
14
This petition caught the other residents of the county by surprise, giving the political life of the
area a huge impetus. While there was great interest in the township election, there was
greater interest in the coming organisation of the county, due in 1880, and in which town
would become the seat of government, with Hill City, Millbrook, and Gettysburg being seen
as the only real contenders, being located within four miles of the county centre. The people
of Hill City had asked the Governor to delay the political organisation of the county until there
were not just 1500 people settled, as stipulated by state law, but by 1500 white people.93
However, with 150 voters (12 percent of the county electorate), Nicodemus found itself in a
position of considerable influence, and when the township election was held on 2 December,
1879, the polling station was located at Hall’s and McCabe’s offices in Nicodemus.
Three
tickets were presented; an Equal Rights Ticket, nominated at Nicodemus; a Peoples
Township Organisation Ticket, nominated by Gettysburg with only whites as candidates; and
a ticket nominated by Roscoe.
The Equal Rights Ticket decisively won, with Granville Lewis
being elected as Justice of the Peace, H. Winn as township clerk, and Louis Welton as road
overseer, all Nicodemians.94
Hall had been appointed by Governor St John, on 10
November, 1879, to conduct the county census, and McCabe was appointed temporary
county clerk on 1 April, 1880, until the election for county officers was held on 1 June, 1880.95
Nicodemus continued to be placed in the elections for the county, and Daniel Hickman served
as chairman of the commissioners during the county seat battle. John De Prad (also from
Nicodemus) was elected county clerk in the 1880 county election, with McCabe being
elected to his old job in November 1881.
and returned in 1884.
He was elected state auditor of Kansas in 1882,
In 1897, he was appointed auditor of Oklahoma territory by Governor
Steel, serving there until statehood was granted in 1907. The freedpeople of Graham County
were never treated to a loss of political rights or suppression as were those of the Southern
States.
Such experience of political activity, and Nicodemus being the drive behind such
political activity, challenged the perceived truth that freedpeople were incapable of conducting
their own affairs. McCabe's experience in itself was instrumental in opening the way for
freedpeople to stand for high office, not just within Kansas, but further afield.
Such political confidence was made possible by the success of the town. All appeals for help
from outside had ended in April 1879, with the inhabitants disbanding the Nicodemus Town
Company.96 Despite the early problems, the town was doing as well as its white neighbours,
despite less equipment and a smaller cash reserve.97 Only three horses had been brought to
Nicodemus in 1877, none of which had survived the winter.
A farmer was not normally
expected to raise a crop from prairie sod until the second year of cultivation; the Nicodemians
had struggled on with spades and hoes well into the second year of residence.
In autumn
93
Letter from Mrs M. L. Stanley to Governor Anthony, 7 April, 1878, CRSF, Anthony, box 1 KSHS,
cited in N.I. Painter, Exodusters, p.152.
94
Graham County Lever, 5 December, 1879, and Millbrook Times 5 December, 1879, cited in Glen
Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus', p.23.
95
The Governor’s proclamations were printed in Millbrook Times, 21 November, 1879, and 6 April,
1880, respectively, cited in Glen Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus', p.23.
96
Daniel Chu and Bill Shaw, Going Home to Nicodemus, p.42.
15
1878, new equipment had been brought in, and by the following spring, an average of 7
acres per homestead was in cultivation; the whole colony held 24 teams. By 1881, The
colony represented 57 percent of freedpeople of Graham County.
By then, the average
homestead was planting 10 to 15 acres, and livestock was being accumulated.
had 31 horses and 10 mules, with one team being shared by 4 or 5 homesteads.
were 43 head of cattle and 75 hogs.
The colony
There
They were also growing 997 acres of corn, 98 acres of
millet, 50 acres of sorghum wheat, and 90 acres of rice corn.98
After 1881, Graham County
received regular rain, meaning good quality and quantity of crops and the beginnings of the
agricultural boom.
There had been problems with ranchers; Roundtree had written to the
Governor in March 1878, asking him to control the rancher’s herds, which were trampling the
colony’s fields, and using the crops for food,99 but the Governor could offer no practical
assistance. The Nicodemians were not alone in this problem, and both they and their white
neighbours waged a long struggle with the cattlemen. However, these problems lessened
with the invention of barbed wire in 1879, and the last cattle drive to Dodge City ran in 1881.
Advantages, such as teams, were shared, the benefit society continued to provide
assistance if needed, and the key leaders of the colony continued to play their part.
Nicodemus is the only colony of freedpeople that was not torn by internal dissension.
Indeed,
100
The actual physical layout of the town is worth noting - since the beginning of large scale
settlements in post-colonial America, the grid has become dominant in the US. The reasons
for this are multiple, but key is the influence of Thomas Jefferson and of William Penn. Penn
had witnessed the fire of London and the Plague, and, when he became owner (but not the
sovereign) of the 120,000 square kilometres in 1681 following the signing of the Charter of
Pennsylvania by Charles I, he was partly inspired by James Harrington's Oceana. As such,
as well as drawing up a Frame of Government which was to influence the US constitution and
the Declaration of Rights, he instructed his Surveyor-General "to settle the figure of the town
[Philadelphia] so that the streets hereafter may be uniform down to the water from the country
bounds; let the place for the storehouse be on the middle of the key, which will yet serve for
markets and statehouses too. This may be ordered when I come, only let the houses be built
in a line, or upon a line."101 He extended the plan across the peninsula, and advised that
"every house be placed, if the person please, in the middle of its plot, as to the breadth way of
it, so that there may be ground on each side for gardens, or orchards, or fields, that it may be
a green country town, which will never be burnt, and always be wholesome."102 [Thomas]
Jefferson was also a keen advocate of the gridiron, as his notes and sketches concerning
97
Interview with R. B. Scruggs, Salina Journal 12 February, 1950, cited in Glen Schwendemann,
'Nicodemus', p.18.
98
Graham County Lever, 22 April, 1881, cited ibid., p.19.
99
Letter from Roundtree to Governor Anthony, 26 March, 1878, CRSF, Anthony, box 1, KSHS
cited in N. I. Painter, Exodusters, p.152.
100
Lawrence Daily Journal, 30 April, 1879, cited in Glen Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus', p.19
101
Hazard, Annals of Pennsylvania (1850), quoted by A.E.J. Morris, History of Urban Form Before the
Industrial Revolutions (Harlow, Essex, and New York, 1994), p.338, cited in Ruth Eaton, Ideal Cities:
Utopianism and the (un)built environment (London: Thames and Hudson, 2002), p.92.
102
ibid., [p.339], p.92.
16
Washington DC reveal.103 The Land Ordinance of 1785, drafted by Jefferson, split territories
into townships, each six miles square and subdivided in turn, and thus created a pre-urban,
isotropic scheme resembling those laid out by Roman land surveyors and that projected by
Thomas More for the island of Utopia, on an unprecedented scale. This policy continued until
the frontiers were closed, and it considerably reinforced the preference for the gridiron in
cities and the pattern thus came to dominate on a national, regional and urban scale across
the United States.104 As such, it might be expected to see Nicodemus to follow a similar
pattern, and the Plat books from the period of its settlement indicate that this is the case.
However, there is no indication by the settlers that they were aware of nothing more than
following proscribed land settlement, and were not aware of the ideal city precedents of the
layout of their permanent structures.
By 1879, in a further indication of the growing confidence of the settlers, solid structures were
beginning to replace the sod-houses in Nicodemus.
Z. T. Fletcher founded the general store
in 1877 combining this with the post office in 1878 on becoming postmaster.
He and his
brother opened the St. Francis Hotel, the most prominent structure in town, in 1887.
buildings began to appear in 1880, with another two general stores being founded.
Stone
A
drugstore opened in 1879, followed by a butcher’s in April 1880. A.T. Hall’s and
E.P.McCabe’s sod-house office acted as the first hotel, giving way to the permanent stone
hotel, the Douglas House (later Boles House), founded by Anderson Boles and his wife.
There was enough business for Jerry M. Myers to open the Myers House, and Hiram Burly
the Union House. Although both these closed by 1885, Eliza Smith opened the Gibson
House in 1886. There were also two livery stables, one run by John Niles, the other by
Fletcher, who also added a line of farming implements.
John Lee’s blacksmiths was over-
run with business in 1879 as the colonists settled down to making something of their
homesteads, indicating the increasing assuredness and prosperity of the colony.105
The
Bank of Nicodemus was founded in 1887, the Western Cyclone was established on 13 May
1886, and the Enterprise on 17 August, 1887.106 By 1887, Nicodemus was well established
as a premier town on the Great Plains; there was a baseball team, a band, a literary society,
and the benefit society.
There were four general stores, a grocery, two druggists, three
land companies, a lawyer, two hotels, two livery stables, a blacksmiths, and a harness and
boot repair store.
The prosperity of the town was a reflection of the boom which was
sweeping through Kansas, and of the sound sense of community which continued to exist.
While intentional communities may be founded upon religious principles or with a religious
inspiration, with the commitment to the community predicated upon a spiritual path,107 this is
not the case with Nicodemus, nor with other non-traditional unintentional ideal societies.
Religion was, however, strong amongst the inhabitants of Nicodemus, and the town, as well
103
In a note of 1790, Jefferson suggested that the land be divided into lots and streets at right angles
along the Philadelphian model and included a sketch to this purpose. He then drew, on the same
document, a simple grid of four by thirteen blocks for a site then occupied by Carollsburg. Ruth Eaton,
Ideal Cities, p.88.
104
ibid., pp.83-84.
105
Glen Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus', p.25.
106
ibid., pp.28-29
17
as having a booming economy, did become the spiritual leader of the county.
Reverend
Roundtree delivered the first sermon in 1877, but it was not until Hickman and Lee arrived in
the spring of 1878 that a church was organised.
Hickman built the first church in the county
(a sod-house) in 1879. By March 1879, Lee’s First Baptist Church had 40 members, moving
into a stone structure in May 1880.
The Free Methodist Church, established late in 1878 by
Reverend Jerry Myers, moved into an old general store in February 1881, converting it into a
church and mission house.108
The African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in
1881, constructing a new frame building in 1887. Religion was not the driving force behind
the foundation of Nicodemus in any fundamental sense although it had enabled the
organisation of the settlers' migration. There was tolerance as to denomination, illustrated by
the number of alternative churches and denominations for such a size of town. Nicodemus
does not fit the profile of communities intentionally founded as part of some religious
expression, such as the Shaker or Mormon colonies, and was not part of any Millennial
experience.
The success of Nicodemus did not last. The success or failure of such communities is
dependant upon a number of influencing factors; the commitment of members of the
community is also predicated upon the success of that community in meeting the needs of
those members. There was an influx of strangers in 1887, with 222 newcomers arriving from
Stockton in one week, filling the hotels to capacity,109 and real estate was appreciating every
day. Some of this activity was in anticipation of the railroad extension from the east.
Nicodemus was usually included in the plans, with the Missouri Pacific looking to extend
through Nicodemus, and Union Pacific surveyors prospecting for a line through the colony.
The Missouri Pacific wanted $132,000 towards the Graham County stretch; eight towns along
the route would give varying amounts, with Nicodemus to pay $16,000.110 However, the
Union Pacific track was laid south of the Solomon river, only crossing the river to
accommodate Hill city, the county seat. The Missouri Pacific was not extended beyond
Stockton.
The development of the town of Bogue on the Union Pacific railroader’s camp
started a business drain from Nicodemus. The agricultural boom of the mid 1880s collapsed,
forcing many to abandon their homesteads for work in the eastern towns or in Colorado and
Missouri.111 Nicodemus was unable to cope with the impact of outside influences, and with
the collapse of the agrarian economy, was again unable to provide for the population as it had
been in the winter of 1877-78. Nicodemus was failing to address the collective problem
sufficiently, and could not maintain the commitment of its inhabitants.
107
Lucy Sargisson, Utopian Bodies, p.29.
Smith County Kansas Pioneer, 21 March, 1879, Graham County Lever 14 May, 1880, and 4
February 1881, cited in Glen Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus', p.26.
109
Glen Schwendemann, 'Nicodemus', p.29.
110
Daniel Chu and Bill Shaw, Going Home to Nicodemus, p.57.
111
Atchison Weekly Champion, 3 July, 1881, in Rook’s County Clippings, Vol. 1, 17, KSHS, Topeka,
cited in Craig Miner, West of Wichita, p.85.
108
18
All authors agree that Nicodemus was in decline after 1910. 112
By the end of 1888, the
Bank of Nicodemus had resettled as the Bank of Bogue. The two newspapers merged into
one, the Nicodemus Cyclone, which itself folded in November 1888. Businesses and settlers
left, some dismantling their buildings and taking them to new locations further afield.113
Following the Second World War, the population fell more rapidly, with only sixteen people
remaining in 1950.
The post office closed in 1953, and all supplies had to be acquired in
Bogue. The site is now under the auspices of the National Parks Service, and the population
has risen to 52.
"Every utopia, by its very existence, constitutes an ad hoc criticism of existing society. The
critical function is pursued in three ways: sometimes… it is reasoned and direct. Sometimes,
criticism is effected by a direct inversion of existing institutions which shows them to be
absurd, arbitrary and evil. [Third, t]he portrayal of institutions and customs differing from our
own which are demonstrably superior."114 The very existence of unintentional ideal
communities stands as a critique of the existing society. Nicodemus challenged the arid land
of the Great Plains which had promised little success, although finally succumbing as many
other agrarian societies on the Plains had done.
115
achievement for the freedpeople of Kansas,
For years, Nicodemus stood as a symbol of
and as defiance for those in the Southern
States, standing as a physical critique of existing society, both in its challenge to the local
white population and to the Reconstructed States of the South, in part inspiring the later Great
Exodus from the Southern States.
Nicodemus stood as testimony to the absurdity of the
manner in which the Reconstructed southern States continued to function; despite
constitutional measures taken between 1866 and 1870, such as the Fourteenth Amendment
(which established the right of all citizens to equal protection of the law and defined a citizen
as one who was born or naturalised in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction of the
US) and a civil rights law stating explicitly what was tacit in the Fourteenth Amendment (rights
of citizenship were to be enjoyed by all persons born in the United States, not subject to any
foreign power, of every race and colour, without reference to any previous condition of
slavery or involuntary servitude), and the Fifteenth Amendment (which stated that the right of
citizens to vote would not be denied or abridged by the US or any State on account of race,
colour, or previous condition of servitude, conditions in the South remained bleak for the
freedpeople.116
In Tennessee, which escaped military jurisdiction by being re-admitted to
the Union in 1866, whites far outnumbered the freedmen.
State politics continued to
address principally intra-white problems, with opposition to the regime being from an
economic and regional base, rather than a standpoint of racial equality.
Louisiana, by
contrast, had been occupied by the US Army for five years before Reconstruction ended in
1870, but repeated intimidation and searching of freedpeople in public by roving bands of
whites, robbery and killings, with bodies being strung up along the roadside, and contact
112
Glen Schwendemann claims the population continued to grow following the end of the railroad
extension plans; Harold C. Evans (ed.), Kansas: A Guide claims Nicodemus began to decline with the
alternative rail route being chosen.
113
Daniel Chu and Bill Shaw, Going Home to Nicodemus, pp.57-59.
114
Barbara Goodwin, The Politics of Utopia, pp.29-30.
115
Robert G. Athearn, In Search of Canaan, p.75.
19
with families upon plantations being actively discouraged, continued both during, and though
to a lesser extent, after the Reconstruction period. As the Weekly Champion stated in 1881,
“if Nicodemus failed, it would darken the whole future of the colored race” in America.117
The Nicodemians were not following any tradition of settlement; they founded the first
freedslave community in the U.S.A.118 The manner in which the inhabitants of Nicodemus
address the collective problem - collectively, and with dedication and commitment which
continues to some extent today - enables an insight into the functioning of non-traditional
unintentional ideal society, particularly during the formative years. The sense of hard work,
co-operation and mutual support instilled in the early years continues amongst the remaining
inhabitants and other descendants. "The solutions to society's problems can be found here in
family, friendships, hard work, and a sense of community - the things that matter in life. It's all
here on the plains of western Kansas."119 The community failed as a major township due to
external influencing factors, such as the dependence upon the extension of the east-west
railroad through the township, and the collapse of the agricultural boom of the 1880s and the
impact of drought during the 1930s. However, it still stands testimony as a critique of the
dominant societal and political structure of the 1870s, particularly of the Southern States, and
paved the way for the inclusion of freedpeople in political life, particularly in providing the
impetus and leadership in the local political arena of Graham County, but also wider afield as
illustrated by the career of E. P. McCabe. Its inhabitants did not claim its institutions to be
ideal in every respect,120 but did create the world anew, becoming instrumental in the Exodus
of the Southern States freedpeople and later communities founded in the wake of Nicodemus.
The township provided an alternative, critical, function stemming from the dissatisfaction of
life in the Southern States, despite there being no positive intention to do so, and incorporated
a capacity for change in society. However, the form of society developed by the Nicodemians
is only one form of non-traditional unintentional ideal society, and a comparative study of this
and other forms will be undertaken during the course of the wider research.
116
Hugh Brogan, The Penguin History of the United States of America, (London: Penguin Books,
1990) p.364.
117
N. I. Painter, Exodusters, p.153.
118
The first all African community in North America was Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose,
established in Spanish Florida in 1738. Jane Landers, Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose: A Free
Black Town in Spanish Colonial Florida, (St. Augustine, Florida: St Augustine Historical Society,
1992), p.15. There is no evidence of awareness of the inhabitants of Nicodemus of this community.
119
Angela Bates, President of the Nicodemus Historical Society, quoted in Daniel Chu and Bill Shaw,
Going Home to Nicodemus, 1994), p.87.
120
Barbara Goodwin, The Politics of Utopia, p.31.
20
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