Robert Owen

Robert Owen

Personal Statement: Hello everyone, my name is Robert Owen. I was born on May 14, 1771 in Montgomeryshire, Wales in England. Although some may say that my intelligence was above average, the reality is that I did not go to school past the age of 10, when I began to work at the new textile mills. I was very fortunate because at the age of 21 I was able to climb the ranks and become the manager of a mill in England. At a very early age, I was concerned with the conditions of factory workers and with the conditions at the mill I was working in in New Lanark, England. This drove me farther and farther into what some may now call utopian socialism. The mill in New Lanark ended up being a great success because of the praise from others. I would say that my mill was one of the great mills in the nation in terms of my relationship with the workers. After this success, I decided that I wanted to create something better for the society. In the early 19th century, I began a community that I believed would be the best for the world. Unfortunately, my experiments in America and England did not work as well as I intended. In fact, none of my experiments lasted as long as I wish they could have. Nevertheless, I can say that I am an important part of England, America, and the rest of the world. I fought for many rights that weren't available to people at the time including, but not limited to, free education, better working conditions, and women’s rights. I contributed to American history because what I am fighting for was and is showing signs of improvement.

        

       Issue: The issues that I believe should be mended are important to me because I believe that, as a society, we should be more civil and have more rights. More specifically, the problems I have with society include the problem with the mills that are spreading around the world, our well being in general, and the rights of everyone in the nation. For example, should we be putting children to work so early and so long without them having enough education? Should we allow our wives and daughters to be slaves to their husbands? And should we be allowing our sons and other men to be tied to alcohol to the point where it is a danger to keep them at work? I don’t think that our society is as good as it should be. We should strive to make it exemplary so everyone can live a great life.

       Solutions: I believe that our society should follow a community of socialism where the distribution of goods can be more evenly spread throughout the nation. This is to prevent the problems facing the lower class of society. Next, the issue of education should be fixed by allowing as many children as possible have free education. The reason for this is so our children can grow up and continue to make our society better for generations to come. As for women’s rights, I don’t believe that how we are treating women should be allowed. Instead of confining the women to be “chained” to their husbands, I believe that they should be free to do more of what they wish. Similarly, I believe that all slaves should be released. We do not need slaves to further the world. As a worker of the mills in England, I have concluded that the conditions presented to the workers are unacceptable. Working for 10-12 hours is not a job, it’s suppression of the people. Finally, alcoholism is a problem that should be solved as fast as possible. Temperance should be enforced in order to make things more peaceful and productive.

       

       Relationship to Others: I would feel comfortable talking to many people at this dinner party because most of the people here are fighting for the same things I am fighting for. The person that I have met and bought land for one of the communities is here, Joann Georg Rapp and I would sit next to him for giving me the opportunity to create my experiment. I would also sit next to one of the co-founders to the American Temperance Movement, Lyman Beecher. Finally, I would probably feel comfortable sitting next to Susan B. Anthony because of her belief in the women’s movement. I would not feel comfortable sitting next to Charles Finney, Joseph Smith, and Brigham Young because I do not believe in their religions and I believe in religious toleration.