Robert Owen

Activist

Birthday May 14, 1771

Birth Sign Taurus

Birthplace Wales

DEATH DATE Nov 17, 1858 (87)

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About

Remembered as an architect of cooperativism and the utopian socialist movement, he established an experimental Indiana community known as New Harmony.

Before Fame

Before beginning his utopian ventures in America, he operated Scotland's New Lanark mill and instituted significant social reforms in relation to worker compensation, work hours, and childcare.

Trivia

In his eighties, Owen interacted with a medium named Maria B. Hayden and began his personal involvement in the nineteenth-century spiritualist movement.

Family Life

The youngest of seven children, he grew up in Wales and later lived and worked in Scotland and America. His marriage to Caroline Dale resulted in surviving children named Robert, William, Anne, Jane, David, Richard, and Mary.

Associated With

Though Owen's early reforms were influenced by the work of utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham, he more closely aligned himself with socialist ideals in the latter half of his career as a social activist.