Owen

ROBERT OWEN (1771 - 1858)

It was in the reading rooms in Nelson Street, Newcastle, that Robert Owen gave a lecture on 31 January 1843 on 'The Reconstruction of Society upon Rational Principles.' Owen, industrialist and Co-operative pioneer, had written A New View of Society in 1813, and his work in founding a model community at his New Lanark Mills was well known. Feeling against Owen and the new doctrines of socialism, however, especially as regards religion and the family, had been stirred up by apprehensive clergymen since his previous uneventful visit of April 1839. The Reverend Joseph Barker in particular saw his role as destroyer of the socialist dragon. A vigorous lecturer and pamphleteer in the North East, his 'The Abominations of Socialism Exposed' pulled no punches. Socialists intended, he wrote:

'... to do away with marriage, to destroy all single family arrangements, to have property, women and children thrown into common stock, and to live and herd together like the beasts of the field.'

The pamphlet goes on to name prominent socialists who had abandoned their wives, made love to young girls, and thrown pregnant women off precipices.

It was in this highly-charged atmosphere that Owen's lecture was broken up by a mob of Irishmen wielding shillelaghs, chair-legs and the like, and the lecturer himself was lucky to escape serious injury. Owen fared better in Sunderland where he was particularly impressed by the infants' school at Pann Lane. In time, Joseph Barker came to revise his views and wrote an apology to Owen on 2 July 1854.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
ROBERT OWEN (1771 - 1858) It was in the reading rooms in Nelson Street, Newcastle, that Robert Owen gave a lecture on 31 January 1843 on 'The Reconstruction of Society upon Rational Principles.' Owen, industrialist and Co-operative pioneer, had written A New View of Society in 1813, and his work in founding a model community at his New Lanark Mills was well known. Feeling against Owen and the new doctrines of socialism, however, especially as regards religion and the family, had been stirred up by apprehensive clergymen since his previous uneventful visit of April 1839. The Reverend Joseph Barker in particular saw his role as destroyer of the socialist dragon. A vigorous lecturer and pamphleteer in the North East, his 'The Abominations of Socialism Exposed' pulled no punches. Socialists intended, he wrote: '... to do away with marriage, to destroy all single family arrangements, to have property, women and children thrown into common stock, and to live and herd together like the beasts of the field.' The pamphlet goes on to name prominent socialists who had abandoned their wives, made love to young girls, and thrown pregnant women off precipices. It was in this highly-charged atmosphere that Owen's lecture was broken up by a mob of Irishmen wielding shillelaghs, chair-legs and the like, and the lecturer himself was lucky to escape serious injury. Owen fared better in Sunderland where he was particularly impressed by the infants' school at Pann Lane. In time, Joseph Barker came to revise his views and wrote an apology to Owen on 2 July 1854.
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