The Northampton Association of Education and Industry was founded in 1841 near Northampton, Mass., as a utopian socialist community, by such men as Hall Judd (1817-1850), William Adam ( - ), David Mack (1804-1878), George William Benson (1808- ), who served as president, and Samuel Lapham Hill (1806-1882). A contemporary of Brook Farm, the Association was a middle-class experiment in transcendentalism and Fourierism that attracted world-wide attention. It stressed the importance of productive labor as a duty, enjoyment of the fruits of labor, self-improvement, racial equality and equality of the sexes, freedom of worship, individual dignity, and strong family relations. It decried the war-like atmosphere in the world and the evils of poverty and ignorance. The Association was short-lived (it dissolved in 1846), but resulted in the development of Florence, Mass., a thriving industrial town.
The Association, which grew out of the Northampton Silk Company, was comprised of a Stock Company and an Industrial Community. Children were required to devote a specific portion of each day to assigned labor when they were not attending the Association's highly-regarded school. Membership in the Association was based on the purchase of stock. Among notables active in the community were William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth.
From the description of Records, 1836-1853. (American Antiquarian Society). WorldCat record id: 214087560
