Raritan Bay Union
Encyclopedia
Perth Amboy, New Jersey
Perth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The City of Perth Amboy is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 50,814. Perth Amboy is known as the "City by the Bay", referring to Raritan Bay.-Name:The Lenape...
from 1853 to 1860.
History
It was started by Marcus SpringMarcus Spring
Marcus Spring was the creator of the Raritan Bay Union, a utopian community in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.-Early life:...
and Rebecca Buffum (1812-1911). Maud Honeyman Green writes: "The Union established a progressive boarding school that was a pioneer in co-education. Girl students were encouraged to speak in public, engage in sports, and act in plays, activities that were frowned upon in other schools. Abolitionists Angelina Grimké
Angelina Grimké
Angelina Emily Grimké Weld was an American political activist, abolitionist and supporter of the women's suffrage movement.- Family background :...
and Sarah Grimké
Sarah Grimké
Sarah Moore Grimké was an American abolitionist, writer, and suffragist.-Early life:Sarah Grimké was born in South Carolina. She was sixth of fourteen children and the second daughter of Mary and John Faucheraud Grimké, a rich plantation owner who was also an attorney and a judge in South Carolina...
were teachers in the school which was run by Angelina’s husband, Theodore Weld. Several other noted reformers came to teach and lecture at the school. The Welds’ school operated until about 1861, but it isn’t known how long the Union itself endured." Others who lived at Raritan Bay Union included Charles Kingsley
Charles Kingsley
Charles Kingsley was an English priest of the Church of England, university professor, historian and novelist, particularly associated with the West Country and northeast Hampshire.-Life and character:...
, Caroline Kirkland
Caroline Kirkland
Caroline Kirkland was an American writer.She was born into a middle class family in New York City, the oldest of eleven children. Her mother was a writer of fiction and poetry. Her father died when she was 21 and the family followed her to upstate New York where she taught and had met her future...
and James G. Birney
James G. Birney
James Gillespie Birney was an abolitionist, politician and jurist born in Danville, Kentucky. From 1816 to 1818, he served in the Kentucky House of Representatives...
Archive
Further reading
- New York Times; August 22, 1874; Obituary; Marcus Spring
- Richard C. S. Trahair; Utopias and Utopians: An Historical Dictionary ISBN 0313294658
- Maud Honeyman Green, "Raritan Bay Union, Eagleswood, New Jersey," Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, Vol. 68, No. 1 ( January, 1950)