Progressive Era Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary John Humphrey Noyes (September 3, 1811 – April 13, 1886) was an American preacher, radical religious philosopher, and utopian socialist.

[4] He graduated from Dartmouth College shortly thereafter and dropped plans to study law, instead enrolling at Andover Theological Seminary with a view to entering the Christian ministry.

[5] In the fall of 1832, Noyes left Andover to enter the Yale Theological Seminary so that he could devote more time to Bible study.

[6] In addition to attending daily lectures, practicing his preaching technique, and engaging in Biblical study, Noyes began to dip his toe into political activism, helping to organize in New Haven one of the first Anti-Slavery Societies in the United States.

He persuaded the Cragins and Mrs. Noyes to merge their unions into a "complex marriage," in which both men were married to both women, such that they could have sex together.

Noyes proclaimed that "it was impossible for the Church to compel man to obey the law of God, and to send him to eternal damnation for his failure to do so.

"[12] Noyes claimed that "his new relationship to God canceled out his obligation to obey traditional moral standards or the normal laws of society.

It started in 1836 as the Putney Bible School and became a formal communal organization in 1844, practicing complex marriage, male continence, and striving for perfection.

[14] Upon receiving word that arrest warrants had been issued for several of his loyal followers, the group left Vermont for Oneida, New York, where Noyes knew some friendly Perfectionists with land.

The exhaustion which follows naturally breeds self-reproach and shame, and this leads to dislike and concealment of the sexual organs, which contract disagreeable associations from the fact that they are the instruments of pernicious excess.

Adam and Eve first sunk the spiritual in the sensual, in eating the forbidden fruit; and then, having lost the true balance of their natures, they sunk the spiritual in the sensual in their intercourse with each other, by pushing prematurely beyond the amative to the propagative, and so became ashamed, and began to look with an evil eye on the instruments of their folly.

Noyes' theory of male continence consisted of analyzing sexual intercourse, recognizing in it two distinct acts, the social and the propagative.

Noyes did believe that women had the right to choose if and when to bear a child, which was not a common belief at the time.

[16] Noyes also addressed the medical arguments in response to his practices:in regard to the injurious effects of Male Continence, which have been anticipated and often predicted, the Community has to report, in general, that they have not been realized.

Even if this were true, it would be no argument against Male Continence, but rather an argument in favor of masturbation; for it is obvious that before marriage men have no lawful method of discharge but masturbation; and after marriage it is as foolish and cruel to expend one's seed on a wife merely for the sake of getting rid of it, as it would be to fire a gun at one's best friend merely for the sake of unloading it.All the members of the community lived in their communal home, which made keeping track of sexual intercourse much easier.

In August, he wrote back to the Community, stating that it was time to abandon the practice of complex marriage and live in a more traditional manner.

Jessie Catherine Kinsley, entertaining marriage proposals from two young men, wrote to Noyes for his advice.

[17] In the early decades of the 20th century, Noyes' son Pierrepont consolidated the Community's industries and focused solely on silverware production.