John Humphrey Noyes

John Humphrey Noyes was an American religious thinker and social reformer in the 19th century. He founded the Oneida Community, a utopian society that practiced communal living, shared property, and complex marriage—where members believed all were spiritually married to each other. Noyes promoted ideas of perfectionism, aiming to create a society without sin or conflict. His views challenged traditional morality, leading to both admiration and controversy. Although the community eventually disbanded, Noyes’s experiments influenced social and religious thought, and he remains a significant figure in American reform history.